20 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



numerous herds, either of tame deer, sheep, cat- 

 tle, or horses, with a few picturesquely arranged 

 groups of lofty old trees. The first view of such 

 noble spaces is imposing. One has the impression 

 of a splendid picture, but it is the same picture 

 and the impression therefore is always the same. 

 Many blemishes become evident in the detail. All 

 tree-trunks being browsed upon up to a certain 

 height by the cattle (often with an effect quite 

 as regular as if trimmed with shears), much and 

 needed variety of form is lost. The shrubbery 

 cannot be preserved without special enclosures; 

 and hence it is needed to diversify the scene, and 

 help make, within the picture of the ensemble^ 

 many subordinate ones; indeed, every newly 

 planted tree must be enclosed ; and such artificial 

 enclosures gives to the picture a very stiff look. 

 A single path usually leads through these wide 

 grassy expanses to and from the castle, which, 

 in the middle of the lawn, stands bald and cold 

 in lonely majesty while cows and sheep browse 

 up to the marble steps leading to it. It would 

 not be surprising if the visitor, feeling quite for- 

 lorn in such monotonous and lonely grandeur, 

 should be under the impression that he had come 

 upon a bewitched region no longer inhabited by 

 man, where John Bull had been really trans- 

 formed into the shape of a beast. This effect 

 could easily be avoided if allotted spaces were 

 set apart for cattle as well as for deer, instead of 

 having the whole park given over to them. It 

 seems to have become a fixed idea with the 



