250 



a foot to fourteen inches deep, and at the extremity of the 

 roots from six to eight inches. If by subsidence or the 

 beater, somewhat should be lost of those dimensions, it is 

 now proper to supply them. The next thing to be done is 

 to level and dress the surface, and prepare it for grass seeds. 

 Supposing the tree to stand, as often happens, upon a 

 mound or hillock forced up by the earth or compost, which 

 has been added to the original soil, the handsomest way of 

 uniting it with the ground is, first to flatten it a little at top, 

 and then to shape the mound in the fashion of the ogee in 

 architecture, a well-known figure, consisting of a round and 

 a hollow : for it is according to that pleasing figure, or some 

 modification of it, that the most beautiful aad elegant forms in 

 nature, whether animate or inanimate, (for example in the 

 female figure,) are always found to be fashioned : In fact, 

 they are the forms, on which every eye delights to dwell, 

 and every artist is studious to introduce into his works. 



In wooding a new, or improving an old place, by means 

 of the transplanting machine, it is to be observed, that on 

 the sides of approaches, or other principal parts of the 

 grounds, where foreground trees are scattered with profu- 

 sion, it is of some importance, that these hillocks should al- 

 ways appear easy and natural swells, which belong to the 

 ground, on which they have been superinduced. Above all 

 things, they should be well " tailed out," as the workmen 

 call it, beyond the dimensions of the pit, letting their hard 

 outline imperceptibly disappear, and, as it were, die away in 

 the outline of the adjoining surface. This is a business, 

 which good taste suggests, and a good eye will readily 

 direct. These hillocks, if handsomely shaped, give dignity to 

 the trees that crown their summits, instead of seeming artifi- 

 cial and unsightly protuberances. 



For this purpose, the director of the work should take a 

 view of the surface on every side, at teji or fifteen paces ofT, 

 as the work proceeds, and there give his orders for the execu- 



