Theory and Practice 117 



a rail placed at a little distance within the wood ; but the 

 distance is so small that the original outline is nearly as 

 distinct as if the fence were still visible, and the regular 

 undulations of those lines give an artificial appearance to 

 the whole scenery.- 



A painter's landscape depends upon his management 

 of light and shade : if these be too smoothly blended with 

 each other, the picture wants force ; if too violently con- 

 trasted, it is called hard. The light and shade of natural 

 landscape require no less to be studied than that of paint- 

 ing. The shade of a landscape gardener is wood, and his 

 lights proceed either from a lawn, from water, or from 

 buildings. If on the lawn too many single trees be scat- 

 tered, the effect becomes frittered, broken, and diffuse ; 

 on the contrary, if the general surface of the lawn be 

 too naked, and the outline of the woods form a uniform 

 heavy boundary between the lawn and the horizon, 

 the eye of taste will discover an unpleasing harshness 

 in the composition which no degree of beauty, either in 

 the shape of the ground or in the outline of the woods, 

 can entirely counteract. In this state the natural land- 

 scape, like an unfinished picture, will appear to want the 

 last touches of the master ; this would be remedied on 

 the canvas, in proportion as the picture became more 

 highly finished ; but on the ground it can only be ef- 

 fected by taking away many trees in the front of the wood, 

 leaving some few individually and more distinctly sepa- 

 rated from the rest : this will give the finishing touches 

 to the outline, where no other defect is apparent. 



The eye, or rather the mind, is never long delighted 

 with that which it surveys without effort at a single glance, 

 and therefore sees without exciting curiosity or interest. 

 It is not the vast extent of lawn, the great expanse of 

 water, or the long range of wood that yields satisfaction ; 



