THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



up into their rigid corners and to their dividing 

 lines, are naked in revolt against the earlier fash- 

 ion of spotting them over with shrubs, the easi- 

 est as well as the worst way of making a place 

 look small. But a naked lawn does not make 

 the premises look as large, nor does it look as 

 large itself, as it will if planted in the manner 

 we venture to commend to our Northampton 

 prize-seekers. Between any two points a Une of 

 shrubbery swinging in and out in strong, grace- 

 ful undulations appears much longer than a 

 straight one, because it is longer. But, over 

 and above this, it makes the distance between 

 the two points seem greater. Everybody knows 

 the old boast of the landscape-architects — that 

 they can make one piece of ground look twice as 

 large as another of the same measure, however 

 small, by merely grading and planting the two 

 on contrary schemes. The present writer knows 

 one small street in his town, a street of fair 

 dwellings, on which every lawn is diminished 

 to the eye by faulty grading. 



For this he has no occasion to make himself 

 responsible but there are certain empty lots not 



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