General Principles 63 



garden. For the very amplitude and grandeur of such scenes 

 serve to render the meagerness of the home view all the more 

 marked and inconsistent. In addition to which, it may be 

 assumed, as a sort of rule, that every landscape, distant or 

 otherwise, should have a distinct foreground, and that this 

 should be obtained within the home estate and tolerably 

 near the principal points of observation. So that to create 

 such a foreground it will be needful to separate the prospect 

 into two, three, or more divisions. And if this be happily 

 executed, omitting merely the tamest portions, and making 

 the openings of various widths, with very differently shaped 

 plants or groups to compose the framework of the picture, a 

 result more consonant with the character of the place, and 

 more attractively beautiful though less imposing, will be 

 realized than if the whole had been left to its native boldness 

 and breadth. 



The treatment of foregrounds may be exempHfied however 

 imperfectly, in figs. 13 and 14, the former of v/hich represents 

 a foreground to a flattish and quiet landscape, and the other 

 to a lake or the sea. In all these cases, the materials of 

 which the foregroimd is composed are natural ones, and are 

 treated in the natural manner. Of course, however, different 

 kinds of ornamental fences might enter largely into the com- 

 position and become characteristic elements of the scene. 



This principle of dividing a large landscape into several 

 portions, in relation to a place of narrow Umits, by the intro- 

 duction of very irregular masses of trees and shrubs along or 

 near its front boundary, may be yet further developed and 

 applied to cases in which only such smaller scenes can be 

 admitted. For the treatment of both would be the same, and 

 the effects of each would be alike suitable and desirable. 

 Examples will not be unfrequent where snatches of delicious 

 scenery can be gleaned with the aid of much contrivance here 



