282 Xanbscape Hrcbttecture 



A cluster of hornbeams and hemlocks, the trunks of 

 some twisting over a crannied rock, the face of the 

 rock brightened by lichens and half -veiled by tresses of 

 vines growing over it from the rear, and its base lost 

 in a tangle of ground pine, mosses, and ferns, would 

 be of considerable value, partly because of the greater 

 difficulty of reconciling the presence of such an assem- 

 blage of objects with the requirements of convenience 

 in the streets, but mainly because the intricate dis- 

 position of lights and shadows seen in the back parts 

 of it would create a degree of obscurity not absolutely 

 impenetrable, but sufficient to affect the imagination 

 with a sense of mystery. A broad stretch of slightly 

 undulating meadow without defined edge, its turf 

 lost in the haze of the shadows of scattered trees 

 under the branches of which the eye could range, 

 would be of even higher value, and if beyond this 

 meadow occurred a depression of the surface, and the 

 heads of other trees were seen again at an uncertain 

 distance, the conditions would be most of all avail- 

 able for the purpose in view, first because there would 

 be positive assurance of a certain considerable extent 

 of space free of all ordinary urban conditions, and in 

 the soft, smooth, tranquil surface of turf, of immunity 

 from the bustling, violent, and wearing influences 

 which act upon the surface of the streets ; and secondly 

 because the imagination, looking into the soft com- 

 mingling lights and shadows and fading tints of colour 

 of the background, would have encouragement to 

 extend these purely rural conditions indefinitely. 



