MARCH. 123 



Oil emerging ffom these little plantations, rising like islands 

 out of the plain, a small lake appears in sight bounded on the 

 opposite side by another coppice that reaches to the water's 

 edge. This grove is very narrow in width, but so close as 

 not to reveal the little dell, into which we enter by a rustic 

 cart path opening through the trees. If the underwood were 

 removed, allowing one to see through it into the space be- 

 yond, a great part of the pleasing illusion would vanish. 

 The prospect of the collection of water would be less charm- 

 ing, and the intricacy and variety of the scenery would be 

 diminished, by revealing the space beyond, and leaving 

 nothing to be supplied by the imagination, or to take the vis- 

 itor by surprise. This tract which, including a space of sev- 

 eral acres, is a perfect level, seems to the visitor nearly double 

 its actual size. When we pass round the pond and its mar- 

 ginal wood, we are apt to imagine that this grove, separating 

 us fram a view of the pond, is as deep as it is broad. Were 

 the whole ground which is thus agreeably diversified only 

 one unvaried and open plain, or undivided forest, the apparent 

 extent of it would be greatly diminished. On this plain I 

 have known several small parties, employed in picking whor- 

 tleberries, to be assembled within a few rods of one another, 

 without being fully aware of the presence of any except their 

 own party. 



All the conditions I have enumerated are occasionally 

 found, as the combined result of the spontaneous efforts 

 of nature and the labor of man operating without reference to 

 any such ends : and I have generally observed that when 

 men operate with deliberate intention of beautifying a spot, 

 they are more apt to fail than the rustic, who attends only to 

 his crops, and leaves the rest to nature. Any combination of 

 forms, in the outlines of wood scenery, and in the course of 

 streams which may fortuitously occur, would not be ridicu- 

 lous as a work of art : but as soon as the designer ventures 

 greatly beyond this limit, and produces, as the special imita- 

 tion of nature, something plainly beyond the reach of natural 

 accidents, the manifest artificial character displeases and of- 

 fends the beholder. Such would be any strictly geometrical 



