126 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



improve the landscape, and in some instances this work 

 of necessity has produced the most fortunate improve- 

 ments. I do not hesitate to say that some woods might 

 be increased fivefold in apparent quantity, by taking 

 away a prodigious number of trees, which are really lost 

 to view ; but unless such necessity existed, there is more 

 difficulty and temerity in suggesting improvement by 

 cutting down, however profitable, and however suddenly 

 the effect is produced, than by planting, though the latter 

 be tedious and expensive. 



I have seldom found great opposition to my hints for 

 planting, but to cutting down trees innumerable obstacles 

 present themselves ; as if, unmindful of their value and 

 heedless of their slow growth, I should advise a military 

 abatis, or one general sweep, denuding the face of a 

 whole country. What I should advise, both at Burley 

 and at Cashiobury, would be to open some large areas 

 within the woods, to produce a spacious internal lawn of 

 intricate shape and irregular surface, preserving a suffi- 

 cient number of detached trees or groups to continue 

 the general effect of one great mass of wood. 



