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THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
for hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleasures. Perigord in France is barren,
yet by reason of the excellency of the air, and such pleasures that it affords, much inhabited by
the nobility; as Nuremberg in Germany, Toledo in Spain. Our countryman Tusser will tell us so
much, that the fieldone is for profit, the woodland for pleasure and health; the one commonly a
deep clay, therefore noisome in winter, and subject to bad highways: the other a dry sand.
Provision may be had elsewhere, and our towns are generally bigger in the woodland than the
fieldone, more frequent and populous, and gentlemen more delight to dwell in such places.
Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire (where I was once a grammar scholar), may be a sufficient
witness, which stands, as Camden notes, loco ingrato et sterili, but in an excellent air, and full of
all manner of pleasures. Wadley in Berkshire is situate in a vale, though not so fertile a soil as
some vales afford, yet a most commodious site, wholesome, in a delicious air, a rich and pleasant
seat. So Segrave in Leicestershire (which town I am now bound to remember) is situated in a
champaign, at the edge of the wolds, and more barren than the villages about it, yet no place
likely yields a better air. And he that built that fair house, Wollerton in Nottinghamshire, is much
to be commended (though the tract be sandy and barren about it) for making choice of such a
place. Constantine, lib. 2. cap. de Agricult. praiseth mountains, hilly, steep places, above the rest
by the seaside, and such as look toward the north upon some great river, as Farmack in
Derbyshire, on the Trent, environed with hills, open only to the north, like Mount Edgecombe in
Cornwall, which Mr. Carew so much admires for an excellent seat: such is the general site of
Bohemia: serenat Boreas, the north wind clarifies, "but near lakes or marshes, in holes, obscure
places, or to the south and west, he utterly disproves," those winds are unwholesome, putrefying,
and make men subject to diseases. The best building for health, according to him, is in "high
places, and in an excellent prospect," like that of Cuddeston in Oxfordshire (which place I must
honoris ergo mention) is lately and fairly built in a good air, good prospect, good soil, both for
profit and pleasure, not so easily to be matched. P. Crescentius, in his lib. 1. de Agric. cap. 5. is
very copious in this subject, how a house should be wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air,
wind, &c., Varro de re rust. lib. 1. cap. 12. forbids lakes and rivers, marshy and manured
grounds, they cause a bad air, gross diseases, hard to be cured: "if it be so that he cannot help it,
better (as he adviseth) sell thy house and land than lose thine health." He that respects not this in
choosing of his seat, or building his house, is mente captus, mad, Cato saith, "and his dwelling
next to hell itself," according to Columella: he commends, in conclusion, the middle of a hill,
upon a descent. Baptista, Porta Villæ, lib. 1. cap. 22. censures Varro, Cato, Columella, and those
ancient rustics, approving many things, disallowing some, and will by all means have the front of
a house stand to the south, which how it may be good in Italy and hotter climes, I know not, in
our northern countries I am sure it is best: Stephanus, a Frenchman, prædio rustic. lib. 1. cap. 4.
subscribes to this, approving especially the descent of a hill south or south-east, with trees to the
north, so that it be well watered; a condition in all sites which must not be omitted, as Herbastein
inculcates, lib. 1. Julius Caesar Claudinus, a physician, consult. 24, for a nobleman in Poland,
melancholy given, adviseth him to dwell in a house inclining to the east, and by all means to
provide the air be clear and sweet; which Montanus, consil. 229, counselleth the earl of Monfort,
his patient, to inhabit a pleasant house, and in a good air. If it be so the natural site may not be
altered of our city, town, village, yet by artificial means it may be helped. In hot countries,
therefore, they make the streets of their cities very narrow, all over Spain, Africa, Italy, Greece,
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