86 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



and oftener is placed like an uncouth excrescence upon 

 the bleak and exposed lodging-houses at a watering- 

 place ; but in the large projecting windows of old Gothic 

 mansions, beauty and grandeur may be united to utility. 



The apparent shape of the ground will be altered 

 by the situation of the spectator. This is a subject of 

 much importance to the landscape gardener, although 

 not generally studied. 



In hilly countries, where the banks are bold, a road 

 in a valley is always pleasing, because it seems natural, 

 and carries with it the idea of ease and safety ; but in 

 a country that is not hilly, we ought rather to shew the 

 little *° inequalities of ground to advantage. The differ- 

 ence betwixt viewing ground from the bottom of a val- 

 ley or the side of a hill will be best explained by the 

 following diagram [Fig. lo], where the rules of per- 

 spective again assist the scientific improver. 



The spectator at a, in looking up the hill towards c, 

 will lose all the ground that is foreshortened ; and every 

 object which rises higher than five feet (/. e. the height 

 of his eye), will present itself above his horizon if the 

 slope is exactly an inclined plane or hanging level ; 

 but as the shape of ground here delineated more fre- 

 quently occurs, he will actually see the sky, and conse- 

 quently the utmost pitch of the hill beneath the body 

 of the animal placed at b and part of the thorn at c 

 become invisible. 



This accounts for the highest mountains losing their 

 importance when seen only from the base; while, on 

 the contrary, a plain or level surface (for instance the 

 sea) appears to rise considerably when viewed from an 

 eminence. Let us suppose another spectator to be placed 

 at D ; it is evident that this person will see no ground 



