190 Slanfcscape Hrcbitecture 



directly, others to incline very much, others but little, 

 some partially, some entirely. 



"If the direction be strongly marked on a few 

 principal parts, great liberties may be taken with the 

 others, provided none of them are turned the con- 

 trary way. The general idea must, however, be 

 preserved, clear even of a doubt. A hillock, which 

 only intercepts the sight, if it does not contribute to 

 the principal effect is, at the best, an unnecessary 

 excrescence, and even an interruption in the general 

 tendency, though it hide nothing, is a blemish. On a 

 descent, any hollow, any fall, which has not an outlet 

 to lower ground, is a hole: the eye skips over it, 

 instead of being continued along it; it is a gap in the 

 composition. 



"There may indeed be occasions when we should 

 rather wish to promote than to check the general 

 tendency. Ground may proceed too hastily towards 

 its point; and we have equal power to retard or 

 accelerate the fall. We can slacken the precipitancy 

 of a steep by breaking it into parts, some which shall 

 incline less, than the whole before inclined, to the 

 principal direction, and by turning them quite away, 

 we may even change the course of the descent. 

 These powers are of use in the larger scenes, where 

 the several great parts lie in several directions; and 

 if they are thereby too strongly contrasted, or led 

 to points too widely asunder, every art should be 

 exerted to bring them nearer together, to assimilate 

 and connect them. As scenes increase in extent, 



