258 ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 



of one species, or the mass is broken, and the long:er the avenue 

 the better the effect. Those who have seen the magnificent 

 avenue of limes at Cotheridge Court, Worcestershire, a quarter 

 of a mile long, in double columns; or the huge luxuriant firs 

 stretching along a broad extent of greensward, at Llanvihangel 

 Court, Monmouthshire, will fully comprehend the effect thus 

 produced. 



" A length of colonnade 



Invites us. Monument of ancient taste 



Now scom'd, but vorthy of a better fate. 



Our fathers knew the value of a screen 



From sultry suns ; and, in their shaded walks 



And long protracted bow'rs, enjoy'd at noon 



The gloom and coolness of declining day." Cowper. 



But in admitting the effect of colonnades, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, we must discard all other regular figures from the 

 picturesque of plantation. Squares, circles, or polygons are all 

 in bad taste, and when as at Bleinheim, the plantations are made 

 to represent the positions of squadrons of horse and foot in battle 

 array, the puerile conception of groves thus "nodding at each 

 other," is too flagrant and apparent to be dwelt upon. 



An estate or wild district of country is often much improved 

 and rendered beautiful and picturesque by judicious planting; 

 but the present practice is often too indiscriminate, and the effect 

 therefore fails. A clump of firs on the summit of a barren bill 

 (if the aspect be not too bleak) has in general a good effect; but 

 if the entire hill be planted in the same way, the uniform same- 

 ness tires the eye, the trees being all nearly of the same growth. 

 A wild pine forest, on the other hand, on rocky and broken 

 ground, with aged veteran trees stretching their roots upon the 

 banks of a brawling stream, hurrying along a deep stony ravine, 

 has a fine picturesque effect. The indiscriminate planting of 

 evergreens and deciduous trees together, though commonly prac- 

 tised, is objectionable, and particularly if they are placed too 

 near each other, and no attention paid to their thinning and 

 pruning. But judiciously grouped together, the effect of ever- 

 greens is often very fine; Lord Bacon has descanted in his 

 Essays upon their effect in a winter garden, and Evelyn speaks 

 with rapture of his magnificent holly hedge, at Say's Court, which 

 the eccentric Czar Peter amused himself by riding through when 

 an artizan in the Woolwich dock-yard. Where the holly grows 

 naturally, its effect as a wild thicket in the wintry season, with 

 its varnished leaves and brilliant ruby berries, is very exhilarating 

 in a season when all appears bleak and denuded, and I have fre- 

 quently met with spots about the Wrekin, the Lickey, or the 

 .Malvern hills, that at such a time had the effect of the most 

 beautiful and brilliant cabinet pictures, seen in unison with the 

 objects around. This is the charm of forest scenery — suddenly 

 to dive into some bosky recess where the world is entirely shut 



