Port Eliot Red Book: Approaches to the House (continued)

APPROACHES continued

There are distant parts of the ground extending along the banks of the river with which I am unacquainted, and it may be possible to bring an approach from the west thro' very interesting scenery. But if it must pass under the rocky cliff near the Tent, it will be very difficult to justify any other line from thence to the House than that which would certainly not be desirable – viz., the nearest line over the flat ground – for it will appear equally violent and unnatural in an approach, whether we proceed along the dam to join the toad from the boathouse, or whether we leave the flat and ascend the high ground to the right making a considerable circuit, after being in full view of the House without any apparent impediment to our more speedy arrival. In the one instance, we pass the House; in the other, we quit it. It is for this reason that I have ventured to assert that however we may avail ourselves of extensive drives in the Park, we can never with propriety consider them as approaches to the House.

The following sketch, taken from the spot near the tent here mentioned, represents the united effect of the House, the Abbey and the Town, but this union requires not only an agreement in the style and character of the buildings (particularly the School and Court house) but also that the whole should be of one colour. At present, the centre of the house, with a bad pediment, is whiter than the rest, and the red brick chimneys tend very much to destroy the harmony of colouring.

For ease of reading, punctuation and capitalization have been modernized.