OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



easy cheatery — by their unexpected sequence — 

 by such abrupt diversions, even, as have pal- 

 pable cause in inequality of surface or ob- 

 truding rock or cliff. It is quite possible, in- 

 deed — nay, it is altogether probable that the 

 curves and devices which are most charmingly 

 effective in the work itself, may have a stiffness 

 and an impertinence upon the map which will 

 thoroughly disappoint. 



As cases in point, I remember once looking 

 down with exceeding interest from the height 

 of some Italian town (I think in Bologna) 

 upon what seemed a charming garden; its 

 curves were full of grace; its little coppices 

 were admirably adjusted; its flow of walks 

 as happy as a dream ; but when I found my way 

 to it afterward, by a bribe to its custodian, and 

 met it upon tame level— the bird's-eye view 

 being gone — it seemed the baldest of dreary 

 pattern- work in turf — with no significance in 

 its curves, and no keeping in its lines. 



Again, there was a day when I went wander- 

 ing in sun and shadow through the masses of 

 a Scotch garden, not far from Hawthornden, 

 with cliff and brook and water and bridge and 

 tangles of wildwood— all so caught by the 

 landscape designer and so strung along the 

 foot-ways he had planted, that delight was 



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