What to Avoid 31 



A still more striking interruption to that beautiful con- 

 tinuity, which does so much in the way of producing size and 

 expression, occurs when unnecessary divisions are introduced 

 into a place. These may be employed to detach parts of a 

 very different character; or, as in the old system of hedging in 

 particular portions, may simply be intended to change the 

 scene suddenly, or furnish certain Hnes which are probably 

 supposed to accord with the general character of the house. 

 Not only, however, are those formal divisions mostly inad- 

 missible in a Hmited space, but all kinds of separating Hnes, 

 though varied and broken in the most artful manner, must 

 be condemned, as a rule, unless the place is tolerably large. 

 These remarks of course do not apply to plantations or 

 fences between the kitchen and pleasure garden, or between 

 the latter and the field, nor do they refer to those irregular 

 masses of shrubs or trees which may sometimes be thrown 

 partly across a lawn to occasion a fresh scene behind them. 

 They are simply aimed at such separating Hnes, whether of 

 fence or plantation, as might be dispensed with or for which 

 there is no real necessity, as well as at the practice of splitting 

 up a place into minute parts instead of making it as spacious 

 and airy as possible. 



Partly for the reasons just alleged, and also because they 

 introduce ugly strips of a conspicuously different color on a 

 lawn, a multiplicity of walks, beyond what are absolutely 

 requisite, is very undesirable in a small piece of ground. It is 

 acknowledged that numerous walks conduce to variety, but 

 it is much better to have only that moderate amount of the 

 latter which can be attained without the sacrifice of simplicity. 

 Walks that have no definite or sufficiently important object, 

 and do not serve to reveal features or aspects of a place 

 that would otherwise be imperfectly seen or entirely lost, are 

 always to be avoided. 



