CHAPTER IV 

 TREATMENT OF GROUND 



- "Strength may wield the ponderous spade, 



May turn the clod and wheel the compost home; 

 But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, 

 And most attractive, is the fair result 

 Of thought, the creature of a polished mind." 



COWPER. 



GROUND is undoubtedly the most unwieldy and pon- 

 derous material that comes under the care of the 

 Landscape Gardener. It is not only difficult to 

 remove, the operations of the leveller rarely extending below 

 two or three feet of the surface; but the effect produced by 

 a given quantity of labor expended upon it is generally 

 much less than when the same has been bestowed in the 

 formation of plantations, or the erection of buildings. The 

 achievements of art upon ground appear so trifling, too, 

 when we behold the apparent facility with which nature has 

 arranged it in such a variety of forms, that the former sink 

 into insignificance when compared with the latter. 



For these reasons, the operations to be performed upon 

 ground in this country, will generally be limited to the 

 neighborhood of the house, or the scenery directly under 

 the eye. Here, by judicious levelling and smoothing in 

 some cases, or by raising gentle eminences with interposing 

 hollows in others, much may be done at a moderate ex- 

 pense, to improve the beauty of the surrounding landscape. 



Roads and uxilks are so directly connected with opera- 

 tions on the surface of the ground, and with the disposition 

 of plantations, which we have already made familiar to the 

 reader, that we shall introduce in this place a few remarks 

 relative to their direction and formation. 



The Approach is by far the most important of these 



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