126 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



" Having, therefore, made himself person- 

 " ally acquainted with the localities of the 

 " estate, lie will find no difficulty in adopting 

 " a general principle for lining out his worst 

 " land. To plant the eminences, and thereby 

 " enclose the hollows for cultivation, is what 

 " all parties will agree upon ; the mere farmer, 

 " because in the oeneral case, the rule will 

 " assign to cultivation the best oround, and 

 " to woodland that which is most sterile ; 

 " and also, because a wood placed on an 

 " eminence affords, of course, a more com- 

 " plete protection to the neighbouring fields, 

 " than if it stood upon the same level with 

 " them. The forester will give his ready 

 " consent, because wood nowhere luxuriates 

 " so freely as on the slope of a hill. The 

 " man of taste will be equally desirous that 

 " the boundaries of his plantation should 

 " follow the lines designed by nature, which 

 " are always easy and undulating, or bold, pro- 

 " minent, and elevated, but never either stiff 

 " or formal. In this manner the future woods 

 *' will advance and recede from the eye ac- 

 " cording to, and along with, the sweep of 

 '* the hills and banks which support them, 

 " thus occupying precisely the place in the 



