OROUPIXa OK COMBINATION OF PLANTATIONS. 123 



beauties of accident. The principle of grouping, in 

 parks and pleasure-grounds, though of the utmost im- 

 portance, has, we believe, been sadly neglected, both 

 in the original formation and in the improvement of 

 country residences. Many planters seem to have no 

 conception of the principle. Others seem to have 

 been disposed to cover with trees all surfaces which 

 they could not turn to any other account. Some have 

 been seized with the itch of transplantation ; they have 

 not known when to stop, and have clung with invin- 

 cible pertinacity to the misdeeds which they have ac- 

 comjilished M'ith much expense and labor. Some, 

 again, have been unwilling to cut down old trees — a 

 reluctance with which we cordiallj^ sympathize — and 

 have failed to connect them skillfully with the adjacent 

 masses, which either have been or might have been 

 formed. The only consolation in these cases is, that 

 the labyrinthine effect formerly alluded to not unfre- 

 quently cloaks the deformities, if at the same time it 

 obstructs and precludes the beauties which might have 

 existed. We see little of the confusion, because the 

 dense encumbrances of the landscape do not permit 

 us to see much of any thing. The eye of taste, indeed, 

 can often discern the loss, and suggests regrets that 

 so many natural advantages have been thrown away. 

 There is, however, one specific fault to which the neg- 

 lect of general grouping very commonly leads, and 

 which ought not to be passed over without some ani- 

 madversion — we mean what has been ludicrously but 

 appropriately called the Dotting System. This consists 

 in placing a number of objects in nearly equidistant 

 positions, without reference to their intrinsic or relative 

 importance. Examples of this mode of planting occur 



