171 



slielter or ornament,, llcncc tlic preparation of tlie soil is lo 

 be considered, in reference to those two separate purposes or 

 heads, which shall be examined in their order. And here, 

 as in may instances, which occur in tlic seciuel, I entertain 

 great doubt of ])cing able to make myself distinctly under- 

 stood. It is one thing to be acquainted with a series of daily 

 practices and manual operations, and another to render a mi- 

 nute detail of them, of their causes, and consequences, and 

 various application intelligible to the reader. Language from 

 its nature often treats more clearly of abstract ideas, and gen- 

 eral truths, than of sensible or material objects ; and there 

 are processes in all arts, which a single glance of the eye 

 will more fully explain, than whole pages of description. 

 On this account, I stand greatly in need of the indulgence of 

 the reader ; and I shall endeavour to deserve it, by studying 

 perspicuity in the delineations which are to follow, in this and 

 other sections, and conciseness also, in as far as the peculiar- 

 ities of a new subject will admit. 



First, then, as to the preparation of the soil for single 

 trees, and open dispositions of wood. It has been said 

 above, that no trees of magnitude can be raised, without 

 very considerable depth of soil. No tree transplanted should 

 have less than from eighteen inches to two feet deep of 

 mould, prepared and enriched according to the above princi- 

 ples, to some distance round the plant. If park-planting be 

 intended, the first thing to be done is, to mark out with stakes 

 the site or position of the single and scattered trees, or groups 

 of two, three, or more ; a work of no small nicety and diffi- 

 culty in any case, and which, where the prominent parts of 

 a place are concerned, cannot be trusted to inferior hands. 

 Here an art is in requisition of a far higher and more difficult 

 class than the mere planting of trees, I mean the art of de- 

 signing real landscape, or landscape composed of nature's 

 own materials : for, as these open or loose dispositions of 

 wood form often the principal features of the picture, or its 



