32 STIFFNESS OF FIGURE CORRECTED. 



nothing tends so much to do away this effect as 

 a few irregular trees near to and without the 



O 



boundary. And this leads me to remark, what 

 might be proved by a thousand observations, that 

 it is the ring fence of a plantation which mainly 

 fixes on it the stiffness of artifice, and prevents it, 

 whatever be its form, from having the ease and 

 elegance of natural wood, All ornamental clumps 

 ought, therefore, as soon as possible to be freed 

 from the encumbrance of their surrounding hedge 

 or dyke; and it is impossible to describe the instant 

 surprise of new beauty which succeeds to such act 

 of demolition. If to the removal of such hampering 

 lines from the landscape be added the advantage of 

 a few chance scattered trees, allowing the clumps as 

 it were to dissipate like the verge of a cloud, your 

 work of art is completly charming, and hardly to 

 be distinguished from that of Nature's hand. But 

 as your garden fence cannot be so disposed of, the 

 best that can be done is to break, by a few trees, 

 the exactness of the outline ; and if you have 

 planted within your enclosure, it is at once pleasant 

 and easy to transfer some portion to the outside. 

 For this you have trees where they are wanted, 

 and of such size as to need no fencing, and by 

 forming a colony to relieve an over crowded popu- 

 lation you avoid the pain of cutting off young and 

 promising lives. And as this is an operation so 

 important wherever the hand of rural improvement 

 is at work, the devotion of a page to the subject 

 may be allowed. 



