II. ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 



stand the matter, and begin to walk backward and for- 

 ward, stretching out lines and cocking his eye, make no 

 bones with him ; send for a bricklayer, and see the 

 stumps driven into the ground yourself. The four out- 

 side lines being laid down with, perfect truth, it must be 

 a bungling fellow, indeed, that cannot do the rest ; but 

 if they be only a little askew, you have a botch in your 

 eye for the rest of your life, and a botch of your own 

 making too. Gardeners seldom want for confidence in 

 their own abilities j and, in many cases, it requires time 

 and some experience of their doings, to ascertain whether 

 they know their business or do not j especially when 

 in pretensions they are so bold, and the result is at a con- 

 siderable distance, and clouded with so many intervening 

 circumstances j but this affair of raising perpendiculars 

 upon a given line, is a thing settled in a moment : you 

 have nothing to do but to say to the gardener, " Come, 

 let us see how you do it." He has but one way in which 

 he can do it j and, if he do not immediately begin to 

 work in that way, pack him off to get a bricklayer, even 

 a botch in which trade will perform the work to the 

 truth of a hair. 



