HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE. 430 



hesitation we find ourselves compelled to say BO much 

 about these two places, especially our own ; but we 

 have known them both from their commencement, with 

 all their sins of omission and commission ; and with 

 all the motives and designs for each step taken in their 

 improvement, and the reason why every tree was 

 planted or cut down on either place, which is a know- 

 ledge we have of no other place, and more than all, as 

 one was a dense wood and the other a naked field, they 

 are better examples of the two styles than any other 

 places we recollect, even if we had been equally 

 familiar with others. 



When we purchased our own place, in 1840, we found 

 a house partially built in the midst of a wood, but 

 without any view, though we were aware that w r e had, 

 or ought to have, a range of mountains on one side, the 

 Hudson River on the other, a valley on the third, and 

 a long range of country on the fourth ; but between us 

 and these views, and all more or less around us, were 

 thinly scattered houses, which were far from agreeable 

 accessories to the landscape. 



We felt, after studying our position, that our plan 

 ought to be to conceal these offensive objects, by plant- 

 ing them out, and to open up the attractive points of 

 river, valley, and mountain ; but how to do this was the 

 question ! 



The trees, like all trees grown in a forest, were tall 

 and spindling, hiding out with their heads what they 

 should not have concealed, and opening through their 

 naked stems what ought to have been hid ; our object 

 therefore, was to get the branches of these trees (prin- 

 cipally oaks and hickories) down near the ground, in 

 order to form masses and groups, not only to hide out our 

 boundaries and these objectionable hmi.ses, but also to pro- 

 duce certain effects of light and shade, us the beginning 

 and basis of ornamental planting. We accomplished 

 this in part by topping all the tivc-s which had any signs 



