The house at SUFTON COURT having been built long before I had the honour of being consulted, its aspects, situation, and general arrangement, do not properly come under my consideration. Yet, as I shall suggest a hint for altering the windows in the drawing-room, I must consider the different landscapes in each direction. The views towards the south and west are extensive, and, under certain circumstances of light and weather, often wonderfully beautiful; but, as distant prospects depend so much on the state of the atmosphere, I have frequently asserted, that the views from a house, and particularly those from the drawing-room, ought rather to consist of objects which evidently belong to the place. To express this idea, I have used the word appropriation, by which I mean, such a portion of wood and lawn as may be supposed to belong to the proprietor of the mansion, occupied by himself, not so much for the purposes of gain, as of pleasure, and convenience: this, of course, should be grass, whether fed by deer, by sheep, or by other cattle, and its subdivisions, if there be any, ought not to be permanent. I am ready to allow that this part of modern gardening has often been egregiously mistaken and absurdly practised; I find no error so difficult to counteract as the general propensity for extent, without sufficient attention to the size, style, or character of the house, or of the surrounding estate.
[Sufton Court, Herefordshire belonged to James Hereford. It is a small Palladian mansion built in 1788 by James Wyatt for the Hereford family, which has lived in Mordiford since 1140.]
