plantations 209 



of a narrow glade, neither has so much occasion for 

 variety in itself, as if it were single: if they are very 

 different from each other, the contrast supplies the 

 deficiency in each, and the interval is full of variety. 

 The form of that interval is, indeed, of as much con- 

 sequence as its own; though the outline of both the 

 woods be separately beautiful, yet if together they 

 do not cast the open space into an agreeable figure, 

 the whole scene is not pleasing; and the figure is 

 never agreeable when the sides too closely cor- 

 respond; whether they are exactly the same, or 

 exactly the reverse of each other, they equally 

 appear artificial. 



Every variety of outline hitherto mentioned may 

 be traced by the underwood alone, but frequently the 

 same effects may be produced with more ease, and 

 with much more beauty, by a few trees standing out 

 from the thicket, and belonging to, or seeming to 

 belong to, the wood so as to make a part of its figure. 

 Even where they are not wanted for that purpose, 

 detached trees are such agreeable objects, so distinct, 

 so light, when compared to the covert about them, 

 that skirting along it in some parts, and breaking it 

 in others, they give an unaffected grace, which can 

 no otherwise be given to the outline. They have a 

 still further effect, when they stretch across the whole 

 breadth of an inlet, or before part of a recess in the 

 woods; they are themselves shown to advantage by 

 the space between them, and that space seen between 

 their stems they in turn throw into an agreeable 

 14 



