FLAN BEFORE PLANTING. 77 



to be planted. If, however, there are fine trees already growing 

 on any lot, all the arrangements of walks and plantings should be 

 made to avail of their beauty, and to heighten it. 



Kemp's observations on this subject are so pertinent that we 

 shall quote them, premising that garden as here used by him, 

 means the pleasure-ground of a place. 



" Possibly the greatest and most prevalent error of those who 

 lay out gardens for themselves is, attempting too much. A mind 

 unaccustomed to generalize, or to take in a number of leading 

 objects at a glance, finds out the different points embraced in 

 landscape gardening one by one, and, unable to decide which of 

 them can most suitably be applied, determines on trying to com- 

 pass more than can readily be attained. One thing after another 

 is, at different times, observed and liked, in some similar place 

 that is visited, and each is successively wished to be transferred 

 to the observer's own garden, without regard to its fitness for the 

 locality, or its relation to what has previously been done. A 

 neighbor or a friend has a place in which certain features are ex- 

 quisitely developed, and these are at once sought to be copied. 

 The practice of cutting up a ground into mere fragments is the 

 natural result of such a state of things. 



" There are several ways in which a place may be frittered 

 away, so as to be wholly deficient in character and beauty. It 

 may be too much broken up in its general arrangement; and this 

 is the \vorst variety of the fault, because least easily mended and 

 most conspicuous. To aim at comprising the principal features 

 proper to the largest gardens, in those of the most limited size, is 

 surely not a worthy species of imitation, and one which can only 

 excite ridicule and end in disappointment. * # * * 



" A place may likewise, and easily, be too much carved up into 

 detached portions, or overshadowed, or reduced in apparent size, 

 hy planting too largely. Trees and shrubs constitute the greatest 

 ornaments of a garden ; but they soon become disagreeable when 

 a place is overrun with them, by contracting the space, and shut- 

 ting out light, and rendering the grass imperfect and the walks 

 mossy. Nothing could be more damp, and gloomy, and confined, 

 than a small place too much cumbered with plantations. Nor is 



