Notwithstanding the danger of giving offence, when I am obliged to speak of the works of living artists, I shall venture to point out some objections to the compact form, No. 7 [fig. 103], as applied to a large mansion, which have not an equal weight when applied to a villa or a house near the city, where land is valued by the foot, and not by the acre; for, however ingenious it may be, in such places, to compress a large house within a small compass, or to cover under the same roof a great number of rooms, yet a mansion in a park does not require such management, or warrant such economy of space. Of all the forms which can be adopted, there is none so insignificant as a cube; because, however large it may be, the eye can never be struck with its length, its depth, or its height, these being all equal; and the same quantity of building which is often sunk under ground, raised in the air, or concealed in plantation, might have been extended, to appear four times as large, with less expense and more internal convenience.
