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surrounding ground. Some would-be Landscape Gardeners think that, 

 whatever may be the nature and extent of the ground, nature is best 

 imitated by sinking holes and raising mounds. I found a miserable 

 specimen of this kind of error in the neighbourhood of an important city, 

 where I was called in to fix the site for a house, which specimen was 

 afterwards laid out by a gentleman who, it was said, had wrought wonders 

 on a small plot of ground in the metropolis. The extent of space operated 

 upon was about twenty-five yards broad in the principal front, and about 

 tbirty in the two others, from the house to the fence. In this confined spot 

 of level ground, harmonising with smooth level pastures, a deep excavation 

 was formed in one part, at the bottom of which, when the weather happened 

 to be sufficiently wet, an irregular stagnant pool of water might be seen, little 

 better in appearance than a common horse-pond, eight or ten yards long by 

 three to five broad, and crossed by a rustic bridge. Of the material taken 

 from this pond was formed a zigzag ridge, resembling a crooked canal bank, 

 which abruptly destroyed the harmony between a beautiful smooth pasture 

 and kept ground ; the bank was for the most part planted with shrubs, which 

 would eventually confine the eye, ever impatient of restraint, within the dress 

 ground. The lawn between the varied part and the carriage road was laid 

 out as a flat formal parterre, with a fountain in the centre. As the greatest 

 portion of both these scenes, so totally different in character, was commanded 

 from one point of view, the incongruity appeared glaring in the extreme, and 

 completely at variance with all the principles of taste, and was calculated to 

 strike even a common observer as a piece of absurdity. I have been the 

 more particular in this description, for the purpose of showing the folly of 

 attempting both rugged and smooth scenery within a limited space, and 

 especially in one so contracted that the whole could be comprehended by the 

 eye at one view. The foregoing remarks would seem to apply more par- 

 ticularly to new places, but similar operations will occasionally be found 

 necessary in remodelling old places. In the latter work, judgment is required 

 in rejecting what is bad, and retaining what is either really good, or at all 

 events capable of improvement. In remodelling, it is by no means necessary 

 to sweep all old things away indiscriminately ; many things may be retained 

 with considerable advantage. Great regard must be had to ornamental trees 

 and shrubs, as well as architectural appendages. Thinning is one of the 



