64. 



means of planting, the superiority of this 

 method can hardly be placed in too many 

 points of view. Should then the ground 

 on each side of the water be either flat, 

 or, what perhaps is scarcely less unvaried, 

 uniformly sloping, still a great degree of 

 variety and intricacy may be given to it, 

 by means of the style of planting I have 

 just mentioned. There are, for instance, 

 many parts of forests quite flat, yet full of 

 intricacy and variety: from what cause ? 

 certainly from the mixture of thorns, yews, 

 hollies, hazles, &c. with the larger trees ; 

 these form thickets, which often so va- 

 riously cross behind each other, that the 

 lawns among them are bounded, yet no 

 one can ascertain the lines of the boundary; 

 the eye is limited, yet appears to be free 

 and unconfined, and wanders into the 

 openings of the thickets themselves, and 

 those between them. Contrast all this 

 with a lawn of Mr. Brown's; the uncer- 

 tain and perpetually varying boundary of 

 the one, with the regular line of the planta- 

 tion or b"lt that hems in the other: coiir 



