LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



561 



e ib M- object, can form no part of any of them ; it cannot, 

 ie! of therefore, enter into the composition of a whole, and 

 **> can only be regarded as a spot in the composition, or 

 " admired for its particular beauties. Connection, there- 

 fore, real or apparent, is the leading consideration in re- 

 <fa" spect to the situation, or positions of thickets and groups. 

 As we have before observed, they must be either near, 

 or apparently near to the mantel to which they belong, 

 ""r* to a* to effect th.it loose and airy appearance in the 

 boundaries of the mass, which the painter effects by the 

 touches of his pencil in finishing the outline of a tree. 

 For this purpose, groups, thickets, and single trees, 

 may be used at the same time. When a considerable 

 length of unvaried line is to be broken into parts, a 

 thicket may stand detached from it, connected by a few 

 straggling trees in the interval between. This thicket, 

 in its turn, may have its boundary similarly varied 

 by detached groups, and from these may stand out 

 one or two single trees. The next break in the line to 

 be varied, may be effected by two or three groups 

 contrasted in disposition ; some attached ; others play- 

 ing easily round them at moderate distances, but still 

 so as to slide easily into a whole. By proceeding in 

 this way along the most formal and monotonous line, 

 it may not only be varied, but changed in character, so 

 a* to present every variety of prominence and recess. 

 With respect to the distances which these parts of forms, 

 (speaking of them always with reference to their ground 

 plan, ) ought to be from the mass and from each other, 

 almost every thing will depend on the situation. They 

 may be at some distance on a flat, not to be viewed 

 from an eminence considerably above its level ; be- 

 cause the effect of vision will, at a moderate distance. 

 in this situation, throw a surface, scattered with single 

 trees, into a mast of wood. Rut on declivities, viewed 

 from opposite declivities or distant plains, the contigui- 

 ty must be greater to form a breadth of mass. Hut here, 

 as in most other instances, the practice of sketching 

 landscape, and especially trees, will afford a more cor- 

 rect idea of the effect and the principle, and a more 

 apt illustration of the practice, than a volume of the 

 justetand most minute instructions. 



ta> Thickets may next be considered in regard to their 

 form, that is, the form of their ground plan ; and with 

 groups and single trees in regard to the choice of spe- 

 cies. Thickets are produced by nature, by the inroads 

 of cattle, or other animals, grazing or cropping the 

 herbage, and with it the young trees in forest scenery. 

 evels and sheltered situations, we find their form 

 comparatively regular, because there appears no per- 

 manent or general reason to occasion their encroachment 

 on one side more than on the other. But on varied 

 surfaces and soils, a preference is given by depasturing 

 animals to certain natural plants, and the side on 

 which they abound is penetrated more deeply than the 

 other. The plan of the thicket therefore vanes accord- 

 ingly. In derated grounds exposed to a particular 

 I, the thickets will exceed in length, which will be 

 found generally to be in the direction of the storm. 

 The cause i too obvious to be pointed out ; but this 

 fleet, and every other observed in the groups and 

 thicket* of natural scenery, always merit study, and 

 moat frequently deserve imitation in creations of land- 



wapr 

 Th 



he species of tree ought obviously to be those of 

 the part of the BUM to which they belong ; for thickets, 

 groups, and single trees, ought to resemble disjointed 

 and broken fragments from those masse* . But in par- 



VOL. XII. PART II. 



ticular cases, for renderings prominence still more pro- On the M- 

 minent, or increasing the depth of a recess, a few te a ' s of 

 plants of similar or not discordant growths, but of dark- 

 er or lighter greens, may at a distance add to the ef- 

 feet of each. By the same process, with more con- 

 trasted species, where no other mode can be put in exe- 

 cution, the formality of a single row may in some de- 

 gree be varied in its situation and contour. 



3. The natural surface, we have already hinted, must Planting 

 influence in a considerable degree the form and mag- acc( ' r ' 1 ' n g 

 nitude, both of groups and masses. The beauty of all ^ 

 verdant scenery depends, more than on any other cir- 

 cumstance, on the inequalities of the ground's sur- 

 face. Wood will almost always add to this beauty by 

 heightening the eminences. A few trees on the sum- 

 mit of a knoll, raise it to the character of a hill. A con. 



nected train of groups placed along the back of a ridge, 

 produce at once a bolder and more varied outline, and 

 render a feature prominent and beautiful, which was 

 before dull or disagreeable in expression. To plant the 

 hills, and leave bare the vallies, is therefore a good 

 general maxim ; though carried to an undue excess, or 

 used without taste or feeling, by Brown and other po- 

 pular artists. At the first introduction of the modern- 

 style of gardening, all the hills were planted, but few 

 of them presented more than a circular clump of a few 

 yards diameter perched on their summit. The country 

 abounds in examples which ought to serve as beacons to 

 all future improvers, and warn them against an igno- 

 rant adoption of any maxim, without duly studying its 

 spirit and meaning. To plant a hill, is not to plant 

 only its summit, but in all cases a part, and in many 

 the greater part of its sides. Their beauty individually 

 requires this ; and the idea of a whole, renders their 

 connection with other hills, by clothing more or les* 

 not only their sides, but the intermediate vallies or 

 plains, an essential consideration. In extending this 

 practice to mountain scenery, the powerful effect of wood 

 may be nobly displayed by the hand of the master, who, 

 following the idea of the poet, shall 



" hill to hill unite. 



With nrecping train of forest and prodigality of shade." 



MASON. 



4. The spccici of tree. Were the imitation of natural ^^ K O f 

 woods to be the object in all cases, the variety in the trees, 

 plants would be limited to three or four native species, 



as a greater number are seldom found wild in Great 

 Britain, within the limited extent of forest scenery, 

 which would enter into the composition of a country 

 residence. But if the style of nature be imitated in 

 their arrangement, the variety may be much greater 

 without interfering with general effects. Nature dis- 

 seminates her plants by scattering their seeds, and the 

 offspring rise round the parent in masses or breadths, 

 depending on a variety of circumstances, but chiefly on 

 the facility which these seeds afford for being carried to 

 a distance by the wind, the rain, and by birds or other 

 animals. So disseminated, they spring up, different 

 sorts together, affected by various circumstances of soil 

 and situation ; and arrive at maturity, contending with 

 other plants and trees, and with the browsing of animals. 

 At last, that species which had enjoyed a maximum of 

 natural advantages, is found to prevail as far as this 

 maximum extended, stretching along in masses and an- 

 gular portions of surface, till circumstances changing in- 

 favour of some other species, that takes the prevalence 



