236 Notes 



a view toward the village of Hedgerley, in a valley, surrounded 

 with woody banks. The drive now skirts along the hedge, 

 and passes, at No. 36, a farmhouse, which might be opened 

 to the field, and then enters Wapsey's Wood, in which the 

 first bold feature will present itself at No. 37, where the 

 drive may come so near the edge as to shew the view along 

 the valley and the amphitheatre of wood surrounding these 

 small enclosures : it then passes through the wood to a very 

 large oak, at No. 38, which may be brought into notice by 

 letting the drive go on each side of it, and afterwards, follow- 

 ing the shape of the ground, it sweeps round the knoil at No. 

 39, with a rich view of the opposite bank, across the high- 

 road, seen under large trees ; it then ascends the hill by the 

 side of a deep dell at No. 40, and makes a double at No. 41, 

 to cross the valley, that it may skirt round the knoll on the 

 furze hill at No. 42, from whence it descends into the valley at 

 No. 43, and either returns to the house, by the approach from 

 Oxford, or is continued under the double line of elms at No. 44, 

 to ascend by the valley from whence the drive began. 



To some persons this description may appear tedious ; to 

 others it will perhaps furnish amusement to trace the course 

 of such a line on the map ; but I have purposely distinguished, 

 by italics, some observations containing principles which have 

 not before been reduced to practical improvement. 



^^ It is in the act of removing trees and thinning woods 

 that the landscape gardener must shew his intimate knowledge 

 of pleasing combinations, his genius for painting, and his acute 

 perception of the principles of an art which transfers the 

 imitative though permanent beauties of a picture to the pur- 

 poses of elegant and comfortable habitation, the ever-varying 

 effects of light and shade, and the inimitable circumstances 

 of a natural landscape. 



^^ Examples of this may be seen at Bulstrode, at Michel 

 Grove, at Brentry Hill, etc. 



^^ Although I have never seen Valley Field myself, yet 

 it flatters me to learn that under the direction of my two sons, 

 by taking advantage of the deep romantic glen and wooded 



