Chapter V 



Woods — Intricacy — Variety — A Belt — On 

 thinning Woods — Leaving Groups — Opening a 

 Lawn in Great Woods 



OBSERVATIONS on Modern Gardening," by 

 the late Mr. Whateley, contain some remarks pe- 

 culiarly applicable to the improvement of woods, and so 

 clearly expressive of my own sentiments that I beg to 

 introduce the ample quotation inserted in the note,""* 

 especially as the annexed drawings [Plate xii] convey 

 specimens of these rules, which require but little further 

 elucidation. 



The beech woods in Buckinghamshire derive more 

 beauty from the unequal and varied surface of the ground 

 on which they are planted than from the surface of the 

 woods themselves; because they have generally more 

 the appearance of copses than of woods : and as few 

 of the trees are suffered to arrive to great size, there 

 is a deficiency of that venerable dignity which a grove 

 always ought to possess. 



These woods are evidently considered rather as objects 

 of profit than of picturesque beauty ; and it is a circum- 

 stance to be regretted that pecuniary advantage and 

 ornament are seldom strictly compatible with each other. 

 The underwood cannot be protected from cattle without 

 fences, and if the fence be a live hedge the trees lose half 

 their beauty, while they appear confined within the un- 

 sightly boundary. To remedy this defect, the quick-fence 

 at Shardeloes has, in many places, been removed, and 



