In his "Observations on Modern Gardening" of 1770, Thomas Whately described the approach to Lord Cadogan's Caversham as examplary, an artful solution to its restrictive setting "confined within a narrow valley, without views, buildings or water", He praises the unequivocal statement of being a road to a grand house: "The approach to Caversham, though a mile in length, and not once in sight of the house, till close upon it, yet can never be mistaken for any other way than it is". "Crossing the whole breadth of a lovely valley; the road is conducted along the bottom, continually winding in natural easy sweeps, and presenting at every bend some new scene to the view ... insensibly ascending, all the way". It finally "rises under a thick wood in the garden up to the house, where it suddenly bursts out upon a rich, and extensive prospect, with the town and the churches of Reading full in sight, and the hills of Windsor forest in the horizon."