ADVISORY ARCHITECT.—If a village is being developed by an individual in a private capacity it is not improbable, indeed it is very natural, that he will expect the general operations to be carried out in accordance with his particular taste or fancy, which, however, may happen to be far from practical or artistic, and his scheme is likely to suffer accordingly. So too in the case of an estate developed by a governing body consisting of men who are not qualified for the task, the possibility of failure is equally great. The best course is to employ an advisory architect about whose qualifications there is no doubt, who should work in conjunction with the surveyor from the outset. It may be suggested, now that the movement is making considerable progress, that the Royal Institute of British Architects should be asked to suggest an architect in such cases. A greater variety, however, in the plan and design of the houses might perhaps be secured by employing more than one architect. A man’s ideas are liable to run in a groove; and even if variation is introduced in detail there is likely to be a similarity in general character. Moreover, where two or more architects are engaged, a healthy rivalry might result in the designing of houses which shall fulfil all the conditions of convenience, compactness, and economy. The respective work of the various architects might be confined to particular streets, but a regular system of variation should be avoided. Method should not be too obtrusive or the arrangement too mechanical. The advisory architect must be selected with judgment, for on him will devolve the working out of the general road-scheme, and this will demand more talent than the merely practical man possesses. The caution already urged against doing anything on the estate without mature consideration expressly applies to the cutting of roads and the reservation of spaces. Given a map of our land, the fancy is not usually slow in disposing of it; and it is only with the progress of operations, when a number of unforeseen demands make themselves disagreeably formidable, that it is seen how wanton this ready fancy has been. THE SELECTION OF CENTRES.—The first questions to be decided are the number and positions of the centres, for it is to and from these that the most convenient and accessible connections must be planned, and the centres themselves should be reserved as the sites of parks, principal buildings, shops and the like.