erogeneous
mixture. Lay out your money at home, drain your land, build a downright
good house for yourself; do not forget your poor tenants, set them a
good example, and let us put a proper roof on Hambledown Hall.

Providing, however, that the worthy squire actually consents to pull out
a few more hundreds, for the sake of having walls of proper thickness
and roofs of right pitch, it does not quite follow that his ground-floor
rooms will be dry, unless the mansion is well vaulted underneath, and
well drained, to boot. We have known more than one ancient manor-house,
built in a low dead flat, with a river running by, and the joists of the
ground floor resting on the soil, and, yet the whole habitation as dry
as a bone; but still more numerous are the goodly edifices which we have
witnessed, built on slopes, and even hills, where not a spoonful of
water, you would say, could possibly lodge, and yet their walls outside
all green with damp, and within mildew, and discoloured loose-hanging
paper, telling the tale of the demon of damp. When you are seriously
bent on building a good house, put plenty of money under ground; dig
deep for foundations, lay them better and stronger even than your
super-structure; vault every thing under the lower rooms--ay, vault
them, either in solid stone or brick, and drain and counter drain, and
explore every crick and cranny of your sub-soil; and get rid of your
land springs; and do not let the water from any neighbouring hill
percolate through your garden, nor rise into a pleasing _jet-d'eau_
right under the floor of your principal dining-room. If you can, and if
you do not mind the "old-fashioned" look of the thing, dig a good deep
fosse all round your garden, and line it with masonry; and have a couple
of bridges over it; you may then not only effectually carry off all
intruding visits of the watery sprites, but you may keep off hares from
your flower-beds, two-legged cats from your larder, and sentimental
"cousins" from your maids. You may thus, indeed, make your hall or
mansion into a little fortified place, with fosse and counter-scarp, and
covered way, and glacis; or at any rate, you may put a plain English
haw-haw ditch and fence all round the sacred enclosure; and depend upon
it that you will find the good effects of this extra expense in the
anti-rheumatic tendencies of your habitation.

And now for the plan of your mansion, for the Ground Plan--the main part
of the business, that,