276 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



the parterre is alone. In one we have none but geometrical 

 figures ; in the other we have not a straight line. For even 

 if the boundary be straight, the planting should always con- 

 ceal it. We have no notion, like Alison, that the landscape 

 gardener is " to create a scenery more pure, more harmonious, 

 and more expressive than any that is to be found in nature 

 herself^" for it is impossible. There are rough, and even 

 uncouth scenes in nature ; she has her rugged places, her 

 barren mountains, moss-covered craigs, and ugly, cold, and 

 cheerless spots ; but she has features which are inimitable, 

 and he who can approach them in beauty, and harmony, and 

 expression, must be a master of his art. Let the landscape 

 gardener do his best to copy some of the most lovely spots on 

 this earth, and he will find himself at a very humble distance 

 from his task-mistress. But he has one advantage on his side ; 

 he may bring together features which are rarely combined, 

 and therefore produce an imitation, however it may fall short, 

 of scenes which few have witnessed. The bend, of a river 

 which is grand in one place, and the style of wood which is 

 beautiful in another, a bridge which is picturesque in a third, 

 a summer-house that is unexceptionable in a fourth, rocky 

 broken ground that gives great effect may be copied from a 

 fifth, and then comes the gardener's art into play. He has so 

 to contrive his scene, that the whole shall harmonize, and 

 although at every step we take, new beauties still break in 

 upon our view, they shall all be in good keeping. Let us novv^ 

 treat of the work under the several heads of groundwork, 

 parks, roads, trees, mounds, valleys, rock-work, lakes, rivers, 

 waterfalls, &c. 



THE FIRST STEPS IN FORMING A LANDSCAPE GARDEN. 



We must first contrive to get a complete view of the ground 

 we are to appropriate, and the adjoining lands, and see to the 

 boundary. This may be of various kinds in different parts, 

 and the sufficiency must first be attended to. If there be a 

 large space of ground, so that we need be under no difficulty 

 as to scope for our operations, we need not trouble ourselves 

 much about the timber on the boundary line ; but whether it 

 be marked by banks and ditches, hedges, or palings, these 

 must be all made perfect. 



Our next operation is clearing the ground. Here we may 

 have to grub up hedges so as to break all the internal lines. 



