OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



charming effect at one point of your grounds, 

 do not for that reason repeat it in another. 

 Because the Virginia creeper makes a beau- 

 tiful autumn show, clambering into the tops of 

 one of your tall cedars with its five-lobed crim- 

 son leaflets, do not therefore plant it at the 

 foot of all your cedars. Because at some spe- 

 cial point the red rooflet of a gateway lights 

 up charmingly the green of your lawn, and 

 fastens the eye of visitors, do not for that rea- 

 son make all your gateways with red rooflets. 

 If some far-away spire of a country church 

 comes through some forest vista to your eye, 

 do not perplex yourself by cutting forest path- 

 ways to other spires. 



Again, (and I think I have trenched upon 

 this topic previously in the course of these 

 pages,) every possessor and improver of a 

 country estate, however small or however 

 large, should work upon clearly defined plans, 

 decided upon from the beginning, I do not 

 mean to say that diagrams and surveyor's 

 maps may be positively necessary, provided 

 the director of the improvements has a clear 

 understanding of the boundaries and surface, 

 and a clear understanding of the effects he 

 wishes to accomplish. I only insist that pro- 

 miscuous planting, and the laying down of 



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