1/8 Landscape Gardening 



intended shape of a lawn, and to the objects for which they 

 are made, becoming broader where large and ugly things have 

 to be concealed, and narrower where they are less urgently 

 wanted. 



In shaping the outhnes of any raised masses of earth, a 

 correct and practiced eye will be the safest guide. Never- 

 theless, it may be remarked that all the more prominent and 

 higher points should also be the fullest, the roundest, and 

 the steepest, while the retiring parts can be scooped out 

 and sloped back into a kind of hollow basin. This is the 

 shape almost universally found on the face of natural hills, 

 where fullness and precipitancy are the common attendants 

 of the more forward projections, but are seldom or never 

 seen in the recesses. The reverse of all this in gardening is 

 among the worst features that can be introduced. Con- 

 cavity should be rigidly adhered to in all the receding por- 

 tions of mounds. 



Perhaps the most influential characteristic of an artificial 

 bank is its being well tailed out into the ground, and by a 

 decided under curve. There can be no resemblance to nature 

 without this. It gives the very crowning stroke of finish and 

 grace. But as this point has been more than once previously 

 insisted on it does not demand further pressing. 



Much of the success of any efforts to vary and undulate 

 banks of earth will turn upon the way in which they are 

 planted and the turf is brought up their faces. The boldest 

 swells require to be as boldly planted, that is with the tallest 

 description of plants admissible. The smaller elevations and 

 the hollows can be planted with smaller varieties, thus mak- 

 ing the entire range a series of undulations on the surface 

 of the plants, as well as that of the ground, the first corre- 

 sponding in a great degree to the last. Along the fronts, 

 also, the plants should come much lower down on the fuller 



