Descriptive Notice of Blair- Adam. 361 



in producing beauty, he may at least have the gratification of seeing his trees 

 grow, with the hope of leaving behind him something which his son or his 

 grandson may work into a place. He should always bear in mind that trees 

 are more easily removed than reared, and that there is more hope of a place 

 where the house stands in the middle of a forest, than there can be where it 

 appears staring in the midst of a bare plain, without a single tree within view. 

 But in planting — whether in the smaller groves or larger woods, the different 

 kinds of timber trees should not be mixed, so as to produce one general uni- 

 formity of variety > if I may so express myself ; but, for the most part, though 

 perhaps not always, the individuals of each kind should be grouped together 

 in considerable masses, irregular both in form and size. The trees, moreover, 

 should be planted at such distances from each other as may enable them, when 

 grown up, to stand without risk of much interference with each other, being 

 well intermixed with hollies, thorns, yews, hazels, mountain-ash, elders, bird- 

 cherries, junipers, and all the different kinds of trees and bushes of smaller 

 growth. These should especially prevail about the edges of the grove or 

 wood, and they should likewise be planted as much as possible in patches of 

 the same plants. In short, the plantations of nature should be imitated as 

 nearly as may be. The woods at a distance from the site of the house should 

 be of larger dimensions, and they should partake more of the character of 

 groves as they draw nearer to it ; and as they get smaller in size, the variation 

 of the trees of which they are composed may become more frequent, and the 

 groves and woods should be so arranged as that they may play upon one 

 another as you move among them, — those nearer to the eye shifting upon 

 those that are more distant, so as to give the idea of continuity, whilst, at the 

 same time, the eye may have full permission to find its way in among them in 

 different parts. And as I should rather prefer an over-doing than an under- 

 doing of wood at first, so I should wish the proprietor to be early alive to the 

 necessity of making frequent inroads upon the outline of his groves and 

 woods, by carrying glades into them in certain places and loosening their 

 edges in others, so as by degrees to give air, that is, relative distance, as well 

 as nature, to the whole scene. But the attempt to convert so utterly flat and 

 unfavourable a subject as that which we have now supposed to exist is rarely 

 to be made. 



" Then, if the improver has never enjoyed the opportunity of studying the 

 manner in which nature plants, he will labour under great disadvantages, and 

 must even make up the deficiency by availing himself as largely as he can of 

 the study of the works of the best landscape-painters, modern as well as 

 ancient. 



" But, granting that the place which is to be improved is blessed with some 

 degree of variety of ground, though it should even be altogether without any 

 other requisite, plantation alone may in time give wonderful charms to it. 

 For then the sides of the steeps may be covered with woods, the trees of 

 which may be brought feathering loosely down from the denser parts, and 

 scattered in irregular confusion upon the sloping lawns. Dingles and dells 

 may be made mysteriously intricate and interesting, by filling them with dark 

 woods and tangled thickets in one place, and leaving natural openings of 

 fairy-like turf in others, on which the richest mellowed lights may fall. Groves 

 and dense coverts may clothe the knolls, and straggle towards one another 

 with a species of broken continuity, so as to leave no mass in a staring and 

 isolated condition, and the whole may thus be made to resemble a portion of 

 one of nature's own wild woodland scenes. 



" The question will naturally arise, how many years must elapse before such 

 a change could be effected on a perfectly treeless place ? The answer to this 

 question will naturally depend upon the nature of the soil and the degree of 

 liberality of expenditure which the proprietor may be disposed to lay out upon 

 its plantation. But, even under circumstances the least favourable, it may 

 be answered by any one who has had the good fortune to read a most inter- 

 esting volume called the Blair-Adam Book, written and printed, though not 



