At BOWOOD, at WIMPOLE, at BULSTRODE, at ATTINGHAM, at DYRHAM PARK, at CAENWOOD, at THORESBY, and some other large houses of the last century, green-houses were added, to conceal offices behind them, and they either became a wing of the house, or were in the same style of architecture: but these were all built at a period when only orange-trees and myrtles, or a very few other green-house plants were introduced, and no light was required in the roof of such buildings. In many of them, indeed, the piers between each window are as large as the windows. Since that period, the numerous tribe of geraniums, ericas, and other exotic plants, requiring more light, have caused a very material alteration in the construction of the greenhouse; and, perhaps, the more it resembles the shape of a nurseryman's stove, the better it will be adapted to the purposes of a modern green-house. Yet such an appendage, however it may increase its interior comfort, will never add to the external ornament of a house of regular architecture: it is therefore generally more advisable to make the green-house in the flower-garden, as near as possible to, without forming a part of, the mansion; and in these situations great advantage may be taken of treillage ornaments to admit light, whilst it disguises the ugly shape of a slanting roof of glass.
