VARIETY. 45 



This is so potent a fact tbat in making np tlie surface of 

 the grounds for park or residence purposes great care is 

 usually taken to avoid a perfect plane, and still to give 

 a uniform swell or depression. Breaking the plane with 

 a succession of little hillocks would be fatal indeed. Of 

 these three classes of surface the concave is usually to 

 be preferred for small areas, for it gives much the best 

 effect of extent. From any point within a concavity 

 the whole surface is visible. This is not true of a con- 

 vexity ; and a perfectly flat surface will, unless given 

 some bold and striking treatment, always have a sug- 

 gestion of inconsequentiality about it. 



A caution needs to be inserted here to secure the 

 best use of these several varieties of surface. As long 

 ago as 1770 Thomas Wheatley said : '^In made ground 

 the connection is, j^erhaps, the principal consideration. 

 A swell which wants it is but a heap; a hollow but a 

 hole ; and both appear artificial. . . . Such shapes 

 should be contiguous as most readily unite ; and the 

 actual division between them should be anxiously con- 

 cealed. If a swell descends upon a level ; if a hollow 

 sinks from it, the level is an abrupt termination, and a 

 little rim marks it distinctly. To cover that rim a short 

 sweep at the foot of the swell, a small rotundity at the 

 entrance of the hollow, must be interposed." All these 

 cautions are fully worth attention ; for the slightest dif- 

 ferences m the surface of the ground are obvious and 

 important to the sympathetic beholder. 



Broken ground offers an evident and spicy variety. 

 The value of broken ground for developments of the 

 picturesque hiis already been touched ujion. 



Sloping grounds have a value all their own, and, 

 for their most effective utilization, require a special 

 treatment. Mr. Parsons, in his " Landscape Gardening," 

 includes a cha])ter of useful directions for the treatment 

 of such sites, which the student will do well to consult. 



