134 THE PLAN OF THE PLACE 



homelikeness which the background gives to Fig. 

 127. Yet how many are the farmhouses which 

 stand as stark and cold against the sky as if they 

 were competing with the moon! We would not 

 believe it possible for a man to live in a house 



128. Well planned but poorly executed. 



twenty- five years and not, by accident, allow some 

 tree to grow, were it not that it is so ! 



It is not- enough that trees and bushes be 

 planted in masses. They must be kept in masses 

 by letting them grow freely in a natural manner. 

 The pruning-knife is the most inveterate enemy 

 of shrubbery. Pictures 128 and 129 illustrate 

 what I mean. The former represents a good 

 group of bushes so far as arrangement is con- 

 cerned, but it has been ruined by the shears. 

 The attention of the observer is instantly arrested 

 by the individual bushes. Instead of one free 

 and expressive object, there are several stiff and 

 expressionless ones. If the observer stops to con- 

 sider his own thoughts when he comes upon such 



