36 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



an effect, plainness and simplicity must characterise the treatment 

 adopted. Formal beds for flowers or plants, to break the grand 

 sweep of grass, must be avoided. A lawn should naturally be in 

 the lower ground ; specimen plants may be planted about the sides, 

 preferably on the higher ground, so that the eye may be led to 

 dwell on certain points, and to unconsciously pierce in particular 

 directions ; and particularly in order that the shadow of the trees 

 or shrubs may fall athwart the grass in due season. But the sweep 

 of the lawn should be unimpeded and clear, and nothing should 

 invade its expression of repose. As it is not desirable to have too 

 spacious an area of turfed ground, lawns will most generally take 

 the form of vistas, and will serve chiefly to give a background of 

 rest to the various features displayed. 



Excepting formal slopes, all turfed ground, as well as all surface 

 curves in general formation, must take us from one level to another, 

 not by one inelegant drop, like the edge of an inverted saucer, 

 but by a double curve commonly called Ogee (fig. ff). It is without 

 question desirable to have views so arranged that they may illustrate 

 the extent of the place, and confer, if only by appearance, the 

 sensation of spaciousness ; but, in regard to the garden proper, it 

 is most undesirable that its extent should be visible at a glance 

 from any point. The spectator should receive or retain an idea 

 of its vastness, by reason of the contrasting treatment of its several 

 divisions, each insensibly separated from the other, but not screened 

 off, while every point of view is carefully considered in relation to 

 the desired effect ; and this effect, as well as that of the house 

 and its surroundings, must have its artistic and natural relation to 

 the landscape. Incongruity and inappropriateness are inimical to 

 harmonious, sweet influences. Things beautiful in themselves are 

 destructive of beauty when inappropriately placed, and particularly 

 of that beauty which should come to us in a sweet, indefinable 

 effluence from a landscape near or far. 



