

fan^stnp in Connection toiti] iru llimting, U0. 2. 



OTWITHSTANDING Kent's mistakes, so many 

 country-seats were capable of great improvement 

 by merely clearing away redundant formality, the 

 painter's ideas were not entirely neglected, and, ac- 

 cordingly, " improvement by abstraction," as it has 

 been expressed, became the vogue. A sweeping 

 sentence was soon pronounced against every right 

 ine and right angle. The Dutch and Italian designs 

 quickly disappeared. The venerable avenues were 

 uprooted ; the airy terrace, with its verdant slopes, 

 were levelled with the general surface of the ground ; 

 all the nicely clipped hedges and arcades, the pyra- 

 mids and globes — all were banished from the lawn 

 and gardens; insulated clumps replaced the hedge-row trees. 



The regularity of the old style was recklessly proscribed, to admit the irregu- 

 larity of the new, and thousands of places were sacrificed. Even Sir TJvedale 

 Price was infected with the mania, and ever after regretted his hasty operations ; 

 he admitted that to depart from the old style by introducing the irregularity of 

 the new, was not all that was wanted to give to new scenery a truly natural 

 character. 



Correct grouping, it was soon found, was one of the first principles of landscape- 

 gardening. Massive plantings, dissociated from groups of trees and bushes, would 

 appear stiff", heavy, and unnatural, as well as totally devoid of interest to the 

 painter. In associating groups with masses, the best and most natural eQ"ect, and 

 that which gives the greatest expression, is generally attained by first placing the 

 largest group or cluster in advance, and pretty near to a projection of the mass, 

 and smaller ones about these. Thus the depth of bay in the mass is augmented, 

 and the projection increased. A few small groups of low-growing trees, placed 

 in the bays at intervals, make the depth more intricate, but care must be taken 

 not to lessen the depth, nor to fill the bay too much. A mass of trees of even 

 half an acre in extent, requires several smaller groups to proceed from it by de- 

 grees. A broken, loose appearance, producing effective light and shade, would 

 thus be attained ; the mass itself ought not to appear one dense body, but should 

 have its monotony broken by parts being left unplanted. 



We shall continue some brief remarks on this topic in a future number. At 

 present, let us turn to our illustrations, and continue our examination of groups. 

 As in the case represented in Figs. 4 and 5, so is the wry group (Fig. 7) highly 

 improved in Fig. 8. Again ; the striking transition of character between a spruce 

 or a larch and a round-headed tree (Fig. 10), is improved by making the spiral 

 tree a central object (Fig. 11). An eff'ective and balanced group may be made 

 of seven or eight trees, or more, if two of them be placed only a foot or two 

 apart ; a third, three or four feet further off" ; and the rest at various distances — 

 say from five to thirty feet — the taller ones appearing midway, similar to the two 

 larches represented at Fig. 9 ; but if one or two tall trees appeared on one side, 

 this balance would be no longer maintained. 



A group of Scotch firs, or other pines, spruces, or evergreens, of any kind, 

 having a larch, elm, birch, or some other deciduous tree, on one side, would be 

 objectionable; but place these judiciously inside, and the effect will be good 



* See Frontispiece. 



Vol. VII.— March, 185T. 



