WOODLANDS 163 



der of the scene cannot be all wild. Moreover, though 

 we exercise the deepest cunning of the art, and main- 

 tain it with the greatest care, the marks of the culti- 

 vator on the attempted wild plantation will be soon 

 seen and noted, and not always felt to be satisfactory 

 by common, sensible folks. 



It is for these reasons that the writer deprecates all 

 interference with masses of woodlands, except to foster 

 them and keep them growing in the most satisfactory 

 way, and to leave them absolutely untouched by horticul- 

 tural skill except that which undertakes to remove ex- 

 crescences, superfluous branches, dead wood, and clog- 

 ging pools of water, and to allow not even maples and 

 chestnuts to be planted along edges of woods, for fear 

 they will injure the native woodland effect, which it is so 

 easy to lose and so hard to restore. Setting aside all 

 mere sentiment, and looking at the subject of imitating 

 woodland effects in the sensible way which is always, as 

 we have before said, the most artistic way, we will feel, 

 as we look out on a well-designed park or home-ground 

 treatment, that it is good to see great groves of trees 

 intermingled with shrubs, and vines that cluster over 

 walls and fences, and are arranged and cultivated so 

 that they will grow and thrive for a number of years 

 with little pruning, transplanting, or other change. They 

 can be managed so as to make us think of the most 

 charming effects of woodland and meadow, and yet not 

 for a moment deceive us, but make us, instead, ex- 

 claim how well the grouping is contrived for the open 

 meadows and lawns and long vistas of the place, and at 

 the same time for the individual exhibition of the native 

 charms of the trees and shrubs. The buildings, fences, 

 and other structures necessary for human comfort and 



