240 THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES. 



FIG. 44. up old fir trees just high enough 



to give a clear view of the lawn 

 under them, as shown by Fig. 44. 

 The reader will observe that a 

 glimpse of quite an extent of lawn 

 is suggested under the branches 

 of this tree. If, however, the 

 branches rested upon the ground, 

 the landscape vista would be 

 effectually shut out. The advan- 

 tage of this mode of treatment is 

 principally on small grounds, for, 

 were there space enough to secure 



ample lawn-views without it, we would by no means recommend 

 this mode of securing them. 



In choosing which to cut out, and which to retain, let it be 

 observed that a large tree of an inferior sort may be better worth 

 preserving than a small or thin specimen of varieties that are 

 otherwise superior. There is no more disagreeable impertinence 

 to the cultivated eye than the growth of slender starved saplings 

 planted under the branches of large trees, and striving to get to 

 the sun and sky by thrusting themselves between the limbs of their 

 superiors. As between a sugar-maple and a black oak, for in- 

 stance, the former is by far the most beautiful and desirable species 

 in all respects ; but, if you have a well branched large tree of the 

 latter and only young sapling maples, we would sacrifice the sap- 

 lings of the better breed for the mature beauty of the inferior oak. 

 There is a dignity in big trunks, and loftiness, for which the pretti- 

 ness of young trees is an unsatisfactory substitute. 



Everybody has heard of the countryman who went to see a city 

 but " could not see the town, there were so many houses ! " His 

 quaint speech ludicrously suggests the main fault of most old 

 places ; the multiplicity of their trees and shrubs conceal each 

 other, so that they have little beauty either singly or in the mass ; 

 and they are rarely so arranged as to make the home they surround 

 the centre of a sylvan picture. Wherever there are large trees 

 there must be proportional breadths of unbroken lawn open spaces 



