ii8 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



for these, if shapeless, or, which is the same thing, if their 

 exact shape, however large, be too apparent, only attract 

 our notice by the space they occupy, " to fill that space 

 with objects of beauty, todelightthe eye after it has been 

 struck, to fix the attention where it has been caught, to 

 prolong astonishment into admiration, are purposes not 

 unworthy of the greatest designs." 



This can only be eflfected by intricacy, the due me- 

 dium between uniformity on the one hand and confusion 

 on the other; which is produced by throwing obstacles 

 in the way to amuse the eye and to retard that celerity 

 of vision, so natural where no impediments occur to 

 break the uniformity of objects. Yet while the hasty 

 progress of the eye is checked, it ought not to be ar- 

 rested too abruptly. The mind requires a continuity, 

 though not a sameness ; and while it is pleased with 

 succession and variety, it is offended by sudden contrast, 

 which destroys the unity of composition. 



There is a small clump at b [Plate xii], which is of 

 great use in breaking the outline of the wood beyond 

 it ; and there is a dell or scar in the ground at c that 

 may also be planted for the like purpose. It is a very 

 common expedient to mend an outline by adding new 

 plantation in the front of an old one ; but although the 

 improver may plant large woods with a view to future 

 ages, yet something appears due to the present day. If 

 by cutting down a few trees in the front of a large wood 

 the shape of its outline may immediately be improved 

 in a better manner than can be expected from a solitary 

 clump a century hence, it is surely a more rational sys- 

 tem of improvement than so long to endure a patch, 

 surrounded by an unsightly fence, in the distant hope of 

 effects which the life of man is too short to realise. 



There is a part of the wood at d so narrow as to admit 



