Theory and Practice 



the light between the stems of the trees ; this naturally 

 suggests the idea of adding new plantation. But the 

 horizon is already uniformly bounded by wood, and 

 the mind is apt to affix the idea of such boundary 

 being the limit of the park as strongly as if the pale 

 itself were visible; on the contrary, the ground falling 

 beyond this part and a range of wood sweeping over the 

 brow of the hill, it is better to clear away some of the 

 trees, to increase the apparent extent of lawn. Instead 

 of destroying the continuity of wood, this will increase 

 its quantity ; because the tops of the trees being partly 

 seen over the opening, the imagination will extend the 

 lawn beyond its actual boundary, and represent it as 

 surrounded by the same chain of woods. 



I have often heard it asserted, as a general maxim in 

 gardeningjthathillsshould be planted and valleys cleared 

 of wood. This idea perhaps originated and ought only 

 to be implicitly followed in a flat or tame country, where 

 the hills are so low as to require greater height by planting, 

 and the valleys so shallow that trees would hide the neigh- 

 bouring hills : but whenever the hills are sufficiently bold 

 to admit of ground being seen between large trees in 

 the valley and those on the brow of the hill, it marks so 

 decided a degree of elevation that it ought sedulously to 

 be preserved. Instead, therefore, of removing the trees 

 in the valley, at e, I should prefer shewing more of the 

 lawn above them by clearing away some of the wood on 

 the knoll at f, which I have distinguished by the pavilion 

 shewn in Plate xii: such a building would have many 

 uses, besides acting as an ornament to the scenery, which 

 seems to require some artificial objects to appropriate 

 the woods to the magnificence of place ; because wood 

 and lawn may be considered as the natural features of 

 Buckinghamshire. 



