Above this natural division the water will assume a bolder character; that of a lake, or a broad river, filling the entire bottom of the valley, between two wooded shores, and dashing the foot of that steep bank on which the mansion is proposed to be erected. This valley is so formed by nature, that an inconsiderable dam will cause a lake, or, rather, broad river, of great apparent extent: for, when I describe water, I never estimate its effects by the number of acres it may cover, but by its form, its continuity, and the facility with which its termination is concealed. Where a place is rather to be formed than improved, that is, where no mansion already exists, the choice of situation for the house will, in some measure, depend on the purpose for which it is intended, and the character it ought to assume: thus a mansion, a villa, and a sporting seat, require very different adaptation of the same principles, if not a variation in the principles themselves. The purpose for which the house at BAYHAM is intended, must decide its character: it is not to be considered as a small villa, liable to change its proprietor, as good or ill success prevails, but as the established mansion of an English nobleman's family. Its character, therefore, should be that of greatness and of durability. The park should be a forest, the estate a domain, the house a palace. Now, since magnificence and compactness are as diametrically opposite to each other as extension and contraction, so neither the extended scale of the country, nor the style, nor the character of the place, will admit of a compact house.
