46 THE ART AND PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



A hill is made to appear higher if its summit be planted. A grand 

 irregularity is given to the sky-line. When the hillside is clothed 

 with foliage, then the variety of form, of colour, of light and shadow, 

 are brought into play, and should be profoundly studied for the 

 production of those subtle effects of beauty, the fascination of which 

 we feel without the care of definition. The infinity of form and of 

 tint gives variety of effect. If the foliage were so disposed that 

 formality intruded here, regularity in the height of the trees, similarity 

 of form, and an appearance of massiveness in the leafy clothing of 

 the hillside, how wasteful of opportunity for beauty of effect the 

 planting would appear! When such a regularity in foliage is found, 

 it should be our object to break up its apparent surface. We 

 should never create it. The effect may be narrowed to a single 

 tree. Notice how inferior is the glow of light on an unbroken 

 mass of leaves, when compared with the same rays falling on a tree 

 whose boughs are irregularly branched, as is an old oak ; the 

 illumination touches the tips of the branches, qualifying their tints, 

 which tints appear varied in half shadow, and that is set off by 

 the almost gloom of the deep recesses ; indeed, there is an expression 

 ol mystery in the picturesqueness that is presented which augments 

 the beauty of the object. It is the same when the single tree is 

 part of a grand assemblage of them, or when he towers above 

 his compeers. The artist can use the variety of form in various 

 trees, with the gradations and contrasts of colour they give him in 

 varying conditions, almost as a painter uses his pigments. When 

 the hill is grandly irregular in its natural form, then the effects to be 

 aimed at, in present realisation or in future years, are proportionally 

 more easy of attainment. The landscape gardener must always have 

 his vision projected through the coming years that will develop his 

 scenery by growth ; and he must realise in imagination, as he 



