TATTON. The requisites to a good approach may be thus enumerated:- First. An approach is a road to the house; and to that principally. Secondly. If it is not naturally the nearest road possible, it ought artificially to be made impossible to go a nearer. Thirdly. The artificial obstacles which make this road the nearest, ought to appear natural. Fourthly. Where an approach quits the high road, it ought not to break from it at right angles, or in such a manner as robs the entrance of importance; but rather at some bend of the public road, from whence a lodge, or gate, may be more conspicuous; and where the high road may appear to branch from the approach, rather than the approach from the high road. Fifthly. After the approach enters the park, it should avoid skirting along its boundary, which betrays the want of extent, or unity of property. Sixthly. The house, unless very large and magnificent, should not be seen at so great a distance as to make it appear much less than it really is. Seventhly. The house should be at first presented in a pleasing point of view. Eighthly. As soon as the house is visible from the approach, there should be no temptation to quit it; which will ever be the case, if the road be at all circuitous; unless sufficient obstacles, such as water, or inaccessible ground, appear to justify its course. I shall not here speak of the convenience or inconvenience of a large town situated very near a park; but of the influence that the proximity of a large town has on the character of a park, which is very considerable; because it must either serve to increase or to diminish its importance: the latter is at present the case with respect to Tatton and Knutsford.
[Tatton Park, Cheshire, belonged to William Egerton and now belongs to the UK National Trust - TT]
