Ridiculous Park Lodges.-In some places it is a triumphal arch, like a large hole in a wall; in another it is a wooden gate between two lofty piers, attached to a rough park pale; but the most common expedient is a pair of small square boxes on each side of the gate, making, together, one comfortless, smoky house of two rooms, separated by a gate into the park. It is the gate, and not the habitation of the man who keeps the key, which requires to be marked with importance; and if distinguished by architectural embellishments, they should partake of the style of the house, and announce its character: where (as at Stonelands) the entrance is the most obvious in point of convenience, and is rather to shew the beauties of situation than the character of the place, a woodman's cottage near the gate is quite sufficient: and if such a cottage is built in the style and date of the old cottages, on the borders of a forest, it will less betray the innovation of modern improvement. It is not by a pointed arch to the door, or a sham Gothic window, that such style is to be imitated, but by a nice observance of the costume, forms, and construction of such buildings as actually existed in the days of Queen Elizabeth, from which the smallest deviation will betray the attempt to deceive: the deception, if complete, is allowable, since it is the "business of art to deceive;" but the spruce or clumsy effort, that is sure to betray, is also sure to be ridiculous-"The attempt, and not the deed, confounds."
