THE PLACE AND THE PROSPECT 7 



is now a serious opening, which may probably 

 mean decay in the trunk. 



Discouraging, all this? Not at all; for here 

 are these same trees that time has matured into dig- 

 nified beauty and efficient shelter; here is such a 

 varied contour, such a succession of natural divi- 

 sions by tree and hedge and house and approach, 

 that the relative largeness of the place is at once 

 apparent, or, to be honestly accurate, was apparent 

 not to my desk-dulled eyes, but to the acute 

 vision of my landscape-engineer friend, who early 

 came to look at my purchase and quickly saw how 

 very big were these particular two acres, and 

 what they might become as a garden. He saw 

 that the natural vertical axis of the place was 

 through the selected living-room of the house and 

 along the center of the garden-to-be, and that a 

 horizontal axis could readily be created at a proper 

 intersection. He it was who gave me courage to 

 cut away some trees that the better ones might 

 be yet better, and whose own great skill suggested 

 the development which has made the new plant- 

 ings fit the old trees and shrubs so that maturity 

 has seemed to go right along with that same 

 planting. 



I have had very many reasons to be thankful 

 for friends, and none more potent than for the 



