86 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



trees in the hands of a planter who has not considerable 

 knowledge and good taste in the composition of a landscape." 

 Some of them, as the native elm, from their abounding in 

 our own woods, may appear oftener ; while others, which 

 have a peculiar and exotic look, as the weeping willow, 

 should only be seen in situations where they either do not 

 disturb the prevailing expression, or, (which is better,) where 

 they are evidently in good keeping. " The weeping willow," 

 says Gilpin, with his usual good taste, " is not adapted to 

 sublime objects. We wish it not to screen the broken but- 

 tress and Gothic windows of an abbey, or to overshadow the 

 battlements of a ruined castle. These offices it resigns to the 

 oak, whose dignity can support them. The weeping willow 

 seeks an humble scene, — some romantic footpath bridge, 

 which it half conceals, or some glassy pool over which it 

 hangs its streaming foliage, 



' And dips 



Its pendant boughs as if to drink.' "* 



The manner in which a picturesque bit of landscape can 

 be supported by picturesque spiry-topped trees, and its ex- 

 pression degraded by the injudicious employment of grace- 

 ful drooping trees, will be apparent to the reader in the two 

 little accompanying sketches. In the first, (fig. 15), the ab- 

 rupt hill, the rapid mountain torrent, 

 and the distant Alpine summits are 

 in fine keeping with the tall spiry 

 larches and firs, which, shooting up 

 [Fig. 15 rTeesi,, keeping] ou cithcr sldc of thc old bridge, oc- 

 cupy the foreground. In the second, (fig. 16), there is evi- 

 dently something discordant in the scene, which strikes the 



* Foiest Scenery, p. 133. 



