36 4« Descriptive Notice of Blair- Adam. 



well as from the stream of the Girvan and its romantic glen, up which you 

 approach the wider valley, where the mansion stands on its elevated side. 

 But the great extent of judiciously planted and well-grown woods, which Sir 

 David has created within the short period of thirty years, has already had the 

 effect of giving a noble magnitude to the demesne. It may now be said to 

 be in that stage of advancement when the happiest results may be anticipated; 

 and these will certainly be produced by the gradual destruction of the hard 

 lines inevitably occasioned by fences, the loosening of the edges of woods and 

 groves, the introduction of glades in certain parts of them, and perhaps by the 

 enrichment of portions of the more open lawns by partial plantations. 



" I may likewise notice Dunskey, near Portpatrick, a place belonging to 

 Colonel Hunter Blair, brother to Sir David, which affords, if possible, a still 

 more remarkable example of what may be done by plantation, even in appa- 

 rently the most unfavourable circumstances. About 800 acres of thriving 

 wood having been got up there within a very short period of time, on ground 

 generally much elevated and exposed to the whole blast from the Irish 

 Channel. In the Island of Islay, also, Mr. Campbell of Islay, though a young 

 man, has in his own time raised about 1300 acres of wood, and he has now 

 the satisfaction of being able to drive for miles under the shade of thriving 

 trees of his own rearing. 



" To conclude the few remarks which I have ventured to subjoin to those 

 of Price upon planting, I shall only add that the effects sought to be produced 

 by the mixture of the different varieties of trees and shrubs must be much 

 guided by the comparative greatness or smallness of the place on which the 

 improver is operating, minute attention to the introduction of particular kinds 

 being more admissible in a smaller place or in the smaller or more observed 

 parts of a larger place, than in other positions. On this particular point 

 Mr. Wheatley speaks most sensibly — as indeed he does on planting in ge- 

 neral : — ' All these inferior varieties,' says he, ' are below our notice in the 

 consideration of great effects ; they are of consequence only where the plant- 

 ation is near to the sight ; where it skirts a home scene or borders the side of 

 a walk ; and in a shrubbery which in its nature is little both in style and in 

 extent they should be anxiously sought for. The noblest wood is not indeed 

 disfigured by them ; and when a wood, having served as a great object to one 

 spot, becomes in another the edge of a walk, little circumstances varying with 

 ceaseless change along the outline will then be attended to ; but wherever 

 these minute varieties are fitting, the grossest taste will feel the propriety, and 

 the most cursory observation will suggest the distinctions : a detail of all 

 would be endless, nor can they be reduced into classes. To range the shrubs 

 and small trees so that they may mutually set off the beauties and conceal 

 the blemishes of each other ; to aim at no effects which depend on a nicety 

 for their success, and which the soil, the exposure, or the season of the day 

 may destroy; to attend more to the groups than the individuals, — and to 

 consider the whole as a plantation not as a collection of plants, are the best 

 general rules that can be given concerning them.' 



" One remark more, and I have done with this part of the subject. Nothing 

 can be more unwise than to trust to delicate foreign trees or shrubs for the 

 production of important effects, which may thus be all ruined by the de- 

 structive cold of some severe winter. Such tender strangers may be well 

 enough introduced experimentally ; but they should have places assigned to 

 them where their failure may produce no serious blank, if they should un- 

 fortunately perish. 



" 1 shall offer but a single word on the subject of lawns. Levelling, smooth 

 shaving, and rolling, are operations only admissible close to the house ; and 

 even there it is better that it should be associated with terraces, bowling- 

 greens, flower-knots, and such minor pieces of formality as are in keeping 

 with that of the architecture. Everywhere else the lawns should be in rich 

 and natural-looking pasture, especially where they begin to sweep away under 

 trees, or to lose themselves in the woodlands. In such places, some of the 



