Particular Objects 185 



The sun is too high in the heavens at midday to occasion 

 any but the smallest shadows, and those only to the very 

 tallest trees. It is towards evening, when the stillness and 

 softness of the air, or the glory of the descending sun, invite 

 to a closer communion with nature, that shadows will be 

 most conspicuous and most rapidly changing. The lines or 

 grouping of western^ and southwestern plantations should 

 be particularly arranged with reference to their shadows, 

 that these may be varied, but pleasingly rounded, and softly 

 mingled. And as the shade from everything becomes exag- 

 gerated in its dimensions the lower the sun descends, there 

 will be the more necessity that the upper lines of the planta- 

 tions under notice shall be gentle, elegant, and finished, while 

 the plants should rarely be very large, or their shade will 

 cover the whole garden towards evening. If the full light 

 of the sinking sun can be let in uninterruptedly through two 

 or three openings on to the lawn, the result will be a more 

 checkered and therefore a more beautiful one. There may 

 be a large amount of pleasure drawn from this source by a 

 devoted student. 



Other sides of a place, though of less consequence in regard 

 to shadows, will not be unproductive of them. On the south 

 margin it must be a pretty high tree that will produce any 

 very manifest effect, and large trees can be very Httle tol- 

 erated in that quarter. More than two or three, at distant 

 intervals, would be decidedly undesirable. Further east a 

 little may be done, but it must be set about cautiously for 

 fear of creating ' injurious shade.- All the specimens and 

 groups on a lawn will, at some period of the day, give forth 

 partial shadows, and this will be one of the advantages of 

 varying their outlines and arrangement. As a series of only 

 httle patches of light and shade would be wearisome and 

 distressing to the eye, this shows the necessity of having a 



