N WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 



and intricacy m the grounds of a residence by various 

 modes of arrangement ; to give a highly elegant or polished 

 air to places by introducing rare and foreign species ; and 

 to conceal all defects of surface, disagreeable views, un- 

 sightly buildings, or other offensive objects. 



As uniformity, and grandeur of single effects, were the 

 aim of the old style of arrangement, so variety and har- 

 mony of the whole are the results for which we labor in 

 the modern landscape. And as the Avenue, or the straight 

 line, is the leading form in the geometric arrangement of 

 plantations, so let us enforce it upon our readers, the Groui' 

 is equally the key-note of the Modern style. The smallest 

 place, having only thi'ee trees, may have these pleasingly 

 connected in a group ; and the largest and finest park — the 

 Blenheim or Chatsworth, of seven miles square, is only 

 composed of a succession of groups, becoming masses, 

 thickets, woods. If a demesne with the most beautiful 

 surface and views has been for some time stiffly and 

 awkwardly planted, it is exceedingly difficult to give it a 

 natural and agreeable air ; while many a tame level, with 

 scarcely a glimpse of distance, has been rendered lovely 

 by its charming groups of trees. How necessary, therefore, 

 is it, in the very outset, that the novice, before he begins 

 to plant, should know how to arrange a tasteful group ! 



Nothing, at first thought, would appear easier than to 

 arrange a few trees in the form of a natural and beautiful 

 group, — and nothing really is easier to the practised hand. 

 Yet experience has taught us that the generality of persons, 

 in commencing their first essays in ornamental planting, 

 almost invariably crowd their trees into a close, regular 

 clump, which has a most formal and unsightly appearance. 



