208 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



the valleys between sufficiently narrow, to prevent the eye 

 looking over a regularly level plain for any great length. 

 The difference trees make in such a landscape, therefore, is 

 not so great as on level or undulating ground, unless they 

 exist in sufficiently large masses to confine the view to a few 

 openings in the leaf canopy, which could only occur in a 

 regular forest. But in mountainous districts the amount of 

 detail in the near distance provided by trees is very great, 

 more especially if they happen to be distributed naturally 

 and irregularly along the sides of ravines, or on the slopes. 

 They help to clothe the nakedness of rocky slopes and 

 precipices, and in both cases they give a greater depth and 

 variety to the country, which take off that bleakness and 

 wildness which bare mountain districts invariably exhibit ; 

 and, in their various shades and tints of spring, summer, and 

 autumn, they add colour and life to the foreground, where 

 they are almost as essential to the creation of a pleasing 

 scene as on flat or undulating ground. 



As regards a forest, the fact is self-evident that trees are 

 the chief features present, and it is therefore superfluous to 

 discuss their desirability or the reverse. 



It is obvious, therefore, that without trees, either as 

 individuals or in the form of clumps or woods, a really 

 attractive landscape cannot be obtained. But the degree 

 of its attractiveness depends a great deal, if not entirely, 

 upon the species of trees, and their arrangement, grouping, 

 and general distribution over the ( face of the country, rather 

 than upon their numbers or the size of individual masses. 

 A few shapely and well-placed trees have far more effect 

 than perhaps ten times the number mixed indiscriminately, 

 or badly placed. In fact, the desired effect in all cases is a 

 matter of judgment, skill, and design, rather than accident 

 and chance, although the latter may occasionally produce 

 results which, if detail is ignored, the former may fail in 

 achieving with every care. But, if every constituent of 

 attractive landscape effect derived from trees be carefully 

 analysed, it may be possible to see the causes of success or 

 failure, although it may not be possible for any one indi- 

 vidual to secure the former, or avoid the latter in the course 

 of a lifetime. The landscape artist who is compelled to plant 



