General Principles 65 



instead of exhibiting it all at once, may be a little longer 

 dilated upon. There are few natural pictures, except such as 

 are very fine and commanding, which do not lose their power 

 of attraction in the precise ratio of their breadth. That which 

 is gazed upon through a variety of comparatively narrow 

 openings, though only just above commonplace, will win 

 more notice than if it lay before the observer in its naked 

 expanse. And as we pass along behind a screen that is grace- 

 fully unfolded, as it were, at intervals, to reveal to us frag- 

 ments of landscape, curiosity is excited to catch those poirits 

 hidden by the opaque portions of the screen and an extreme 

 diversity of prospect is gained. 



Whether the plantations between different openings, made 

 to exhibit a pleasing landscape, be the result of necessity, to 

 hide what is objectionable, or of choice, to heighten and 

 impart variety to the pictures intermediately displayed, their 

 outlines and edges alike require to be most carefully and artis- 

 tically treated. Not that this should be artificially done, 

 but with such refined and delicate art that it shall appear as 

 if nature herself had polished them off. Roundness, and yet 

 irregularity, play of outline, an intermixture of evergreen and 

 deciduous plants, forest trees, tree-like shrubs, and such as 

 are decidedly shrubby, with variety of form and color, should 

 be their chief characteristics. 



When any broad sheet of water, such as the sea, a large 

 river, or a lake, forms the principal object from the front of a 

 house, or from some point in the garden, the value of a good 

 irregular woody foreground, fig. 14, will be even more 

 apparent. A great glare of water is seldom agreeable to the 

 sight, and in some kinds of weather may be most disagree- 

 able or melancholy. The passage across it of vessels of all 

 sorts likewise becomes far more interesting and delightful 

 when it is only to be observed at intervals and is occasionally 



