However paradoxical it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the difficulties of building, planting, and gardening, on a small scale, so as completely to attain the objects in view, are greater than on a large one. This will be found acknowledged by the late eminent landscape-gardener, Mr. Repton, in various parts of his works; and it is also well-known to every architect, and to every gentleman's gardener who has been accustomed to lay out grounds. There is scarcely an architect who does not find it much easier to satisfy himself in devising a design for a mansion, than one for a cottage residence; or a landscape-gardener, who would not have more confidence of success in laying out and planting a park of a thousand acres, than a ground plot of half an acre. The difficulty, in the case of small places, arises from the deep consideration required to produce the greatest possible result from very limited means. In building or planting on a large scale, the means are generally ample; and, if not unlimited, they are, at least, frequently indefinite: the results obtained are, therefore, generally considerable, and such as to afford ample enjoyment to the possessor.

Should they fail of this, however, his wealth and his resources will enable him to alter, amend, and improve, till he has succeeded to his wishes; or, should he ultimately not succeed, will prevent him from being ruined by the attempt. The planner of a small place, on the contrary, whether it is for his own occupation, or for that of another, undertakes a task of great moral responsibility; since the result may either be inadequate to the means employed, and thus time and money which can ill be spared may be thrown away; or the expense may be greater than was desired, or could be afforded by the party, and might thus blight his fortune, and, consequently, mar his prospects of happiness. In short, when an artist undertakes to arrange a country residence on the smallest scale, he may be considered as intrusted with the whole of what his employer can afford to expend in that manner; while, on a large scale, he is only intrusted with a part. Hence the serious consequence of failure in the former case, as compared with the latter; and, hence, the deep consideration required in designing, and the great anxiety felt in executing, a cottage residence, as compared with a mansion or a palace.

Those who have had most experience in matters of this kind will be the most deeply impressed with the truth of what is here stated.

21. In the earlier stages of civilised society, the comforts and the elegances of life were necessarily few; but, as civilisation and refinement proceeded, both must naturally have increased. The first house was, doubtless, a mere hovel; and the first garden a piece of dug ground, surrounded by a rude enclosure; and as mankind advanced in knowledge and taste, the hovel and the enclosure were gradually improved, till they became what they are at present. It is the privilege of every existing generation to take advantage of all that is considered excellent in the practices of those which have preceded it. The first architects could have only one manner of architecture to study, and the first gardeners only one mode of laying out their gardens; but the architects of the present day can have recourse to all the different styles of design, and manners of building, which have been practised by different nations, from the earliest ages of human records to the present time. The modern architect may build a house in the classic or in the Gothic style; or he may adopt the historical and geographical variations of these styles, as exhibited in the Hindoo, Elizabethan, Italian, English, and other manners of building.

In like manner, the landscape-gardener, who would lay out grounds at the present day, may adopt either the oldest, or geometrical, style, in which the forms and lines of the house are reflected in the garden in front of it, and which, as it has been recently shown, was practised by the ancient Egyptians more than 3000 years ago; or he may adopt the modern, or irregular, style, in which the forms of nature are brought into immediate contrast with the forms of art: and he may, farther, combine the two styles in such a manner as to join regularity and irregularity in one design. In a word, both in architecture and in gardening, the artist of the present day has it in his power to adopt the style or manner of any former age, or of any other country, and adapt it to the wants of the present age, in the country in which he lives.

22. There are certain principles common to all the arts of design and taste, whatever style may be adopted by the architect and landscape-gardener, by which both artists must be guided; and certain others, or rather, perhaps, certain rules, deduced from fundamental principles, which are peculiar to each art. Whatever, either in a building or a garden, cannot be justified on fundamental principles, must undoubtedly be wrong; and whatever cannot be referred to pre-established rules must necessarily be new, and may either be right or wrong, according to its consistency or inconsistency with fundamental principles. Hence it is that all the productions of the fine arts, no less than of the mechanical arts, may be subjected to reason; and, consequently, that when any part is produced, either of a building or of a garden, for which no sufficient reason can be given, that part must be either a superfluity or a deformity.

23. The fitness of the means employed to the end to be obtained is the most important principle, applicable both to architecture and gardening as useful arts.

24. The fitness of a building for the end in view ought not only to be real, but apparent. A dwelling-house, for example, ought not to be so constructed as to be mistaken for a chapel, or a barn, or a manufactory; nor a chapel, nor any public building, so designed as to be mistaken for a private house. Supports should not only be, but they should appear to be, adequate to the weight to be supported. Hence, when cast-iron pillars are introduced in a brick or stone building, they ought either to be cased or cast hollow, so as to appear of the usual dimensions of brick or stone pillars: or, if the small dimensions required in an iron column are preferable, in order to admit more light, the metallic character of the material ought to be rendered obvious by painting or bronzing, or by some such means; the material of which they are formed ought always to appear obvious at first sight. Stone lintels over openings, when they are not formed of one piece, ought to have the joints of the pieces in such a direction towards a centre as to give them the appearance of being the joints of an arch, as in fig. 1. even thougb the real source of strength should be an unseen iron plate or beam let into the soffit Every wall should be broadest at its base; openings, such as windows, should be made above one another; solid parts of a wall above solid parts, rather than above openings; wide openings should be arched; lintels should be of one piece of wood or stone; all the stones forming a wall should have horizontal surfaces on their under and upper sides; and the largest stoves of a wall should he nearest the foundation.

Much more might be said on the subject of fitness as applied to architecture and building; and the reader will find it treated at length in our Encyclopedia of Cottage, Form, and Villa Architecture, book iv., ch. i.

25. In gardening, the principles of fitness, or the adjustment of the means to the end, may be applied to the situation of the garden; to the fitness of its soil for the articles to be cultivated; to the fitness of the forms of the compartments for carrying on the processes of cultivation; to the fitness of the culture for the particular plants cultivated; and so on.

26. The rules which, in gardening, art derived from this principle of Fitness are, that in the latitude of Britain, and in the climate of the neighbourhood of London, the best situation for a kitchen-garden or a fruit-garden is on a level plain, open on all sides, and at a distance from hills; that in hilly districts, in the same latitude, the best aspect is on a declivity to the south-east; that the best soil for general purposes is a sandy loam; that the best form of compartments is a square or a parallelogram; and that the best form of culture is in rows, and so forth.