SckelVs Landscape-Gardening. 167 



4-. There are also in nature paths which penetrate through 

 overhanging precipitous rocks, and are called hohlwege, or hol- 

 low ways ; and sometimes through rude arches, which are formed 

 by nature, and sometimes even by art, through the interior of 

 the rocks, where the traveller is led, as if by a miracle, by torch- 

 light, to the opposite side. These scenes are but rarely required 

 to be produced by the imitative art of gardening. But there are 

 other kinds of hollow ways in nature which can be easily imi- 

 tated, and created in gardens ; these paths are cut in the earth, 

 instead of in the rock. The steep banks are covered by many 

 sorts of shining-leaved and other shrubs, particularly honey- 

 suckle, the clematis, the bramble, the raspberry, the hop, the 

 sloe, and different species of whitethorn ; with the wild rose, 

 the maple, the berberry, the buckthorn, the wayfaring tree, 

 (Fiburnum Lantana) j with the dogwood, the cornel cherry, the 

 hazel, the spindle tree, the privet, and many others, besides a 

 great number of field and meadow flowers. 



From this entangled mass rise here and there almond, plum, 

 and cherry trees ; sometimes also the Pseudo-Platanus (gemeine 

 ahorn), the service tree, and others of the sort, grow out of the 

 declivities, which are never perpendicular, but rise steep and 

 boldly from the path. 



These sunk walks are particularly beautiful ; they possess in 

 general a confidential, contemplative character, which also ap- 

 proaches solitude, by excluding and concealing from the eye all 

 natural scenes except those which lie within their immediate 

 boundary. Sunk walks leading to eminences generally surprise 

 the spectator when they terminate with an extensive prospect, 

 which was previously concealed from view. These charming 

 walks are never quitted without feeling a lively wish of soon re- 

 turning to enjoy their delightful, unpretending, romantic beauties. 

 Sunk paths, when constructed in gardens, are much more rich 

 in plants than when they are natural, as they unite the climbing 

 and other exotic shrubs and trees, without any particular regard 

 being had to grouping, or keeping ; as not this character, but 

 rather one of a disordered, wild, entangled, and confused plant- 

 ation, is peculiar to them. In planting the slopes, therefore, 

 much more attention should be paid to the health and growth 

 of the plants, and care taken that they do not shade each other 

 too much, so as to cause their death. 



This luxuriant mass of plants and trees must partially cease 

 at certain places, and give place to trees, which must interlace 

 high above the path on which the spectator walks, as if in the 

 deep shade of an arbour, and where rays of light, tinging with 

 gold the distant overhanging shrubs, will point out to him the 

 end of his solitary wandering. The slopes of this path must be 



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