66 The Landscape Gardening Book 



Leaving the intervening space unobstructed and quite free 

 from any planting would seem to be the simplest way of accom- 

 plishing this, but curiously enough it often fails utterly. For 

 a view must be more than there to give us the fullest apprecia- 

 tion of its beauty; it must be there-for-our-benefit. And some- 

 thing must be done to make us feel this, to assure us unmis- 

 takably that this is so, as we look out upon it. It must be 

 incorporated into the place from which we behold it. 



The one thing which surely accomplishes this very much to be 

 desired result — the thing that is the key to success in this phase 

 of tree and shrub planting- — is a thing that is generally over- 

 looked and tmsuspected. Yet it is so important that it cannot 

 be over-estimated nor over-emphasized. Briefly it is this: the 

 dominant line in a view must dominate the planting which 

 carries the eye to that view. 



In other words, the lines along which the planting carries the 

 vision must be made harmonious with the object which ulti- 

 mately meets that vision. They must be what someone has 

 very aptly termed " eye sweet. " At first glance this may seem 

 impossible, in some instances anyway. For example, how is the 

 vision to be carried straight ahead by means of lines that conform 

 to a sea horizon ? Certainly the dominating line of that is hori- 

 zontal ; and a horizontal line is at a direct right angle with the line 

 of vision as one looks out to sea. 



True enough; nevertheless the vision travels straight to the 

 seascape over broad lines of planting which sweep to left or right 

 or both, in lines that are generally horizontal, much more swiftly 

 and directly than it does where an effort is made to actually 

 carry it forward with lines of planting that run against the hori- 

 zon. The rule holds because, as a matter of fact, the planting 

 cannot force the vision through tunnels or along ruts or ridges 



