Few subjects having occurred in which I have so fully discussed the proper situation for a house, and all its appen- dages, as that of MICHEL GROVE,* I shall subjoin the following extract from that Red Book:- "There is no circumstance connected with my profession, in which I find more error of judgment, than in selecting the situation for a house, yet it is a subject every one fancies easy to determine. Not only visitors and men of taste fall into this error, but the carpenter, the land-steward, or the nurseryman, feels himself equally competent to pronounce on this subject. No sooner has he discovered a spot commanding an extensive prospect, than he immediately pronounces that spot the true situation for a house; as if the only use of a mansion, like that of a prospect-tower, was to look out of the windows" **.
*[The plate of MICHEL GROVE HOUSE had been engraved when the death of its late possessor put a stop, for the present, to these extensive plans of improvement, which, from his perfect approbation and decisive rapidity, would, probably, by this time have been completed. Whatever disappointment I may feel from this melancholy interruption in my most favourite plan, I must still more keenly regret the loss of a valuable friend, and a man of true taste; for he had more celerity of conception, more method in decision, and more punctuality and liberality in execution, than any person I ever knew.]
**[The want of comfort, inseparable from a house in an exposed situation, even in the climate of Italy, is well illustrated by Catallus. "Furi! villula nostra, non ad Austri Flatus opposita est, nec ad Favoni, Nec s�vi Bore�, aut Apeliot�; Verum ad millia quindecim et ducentos. Oh ventum horribilem ! atque pestilentem !" CATULLUS, Ode 26. [My cottage, Furius, is not exposed to the blasts of the South, nor to those of the West, nor to the raging North, nor to the South-east; but to fifteen thousand two hundred blasts. Oh, that horrible and pestilent wind!]
[Michel Grove, Sussex, belonged to Richard Walker. It was purchased by the Duke of Norfolk and pulled down]
