78 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



and an admirable expedient it would be, if 

 the theory would hold in practice ; which, 

 I apprehend, it will not. The receipt in 

 the poem is quite enigmatical — not, how- 

 ever, inexplicable as to the materials ; but 

 the proportionable quantities of each are 

 left very much at large, and I never could 

 meet with any mixture of them that per- 

 fectly answered the purpose. The chief 

 use of such colour would, in my idea, be 

 hiding gates between enclosures, where they 

 could not so well be hidden by any other 

 means ; for as it is impossible the fallacy 

 should succeed within a moderate distance 

 from the eye, a length of such fences can 

 never be eligible. The poet very justly 

 observes, in his postscript, that the con- 

 cealment of fences is a matter of si'eat 

 difficulty both to design and to execute : 

 for which reason it may not be amiss to 

 dwell a little longer on the subject. And 

 here I repeat, that harmonising a landscape 

 is always the point to be aimed at. Uniting 

 different enclosures, and givino; an air of 

 unlimited extent to the premises, may be 

 consequential incidents, but should never 

 be considered as a principle to work by. 



