178 Xan&scape arcbftecture 



about them. For all these purposes mere underwood 

 suffices, but for greater effects larger trees are requi- 

 site; they are worthy of the scene, and not only 

 improvements but accessions to its grandeur; we are 

 used to rank them among the noblest objects of 

 nature, and when we see they cannot aspire to the 

 midway of the heights around them, the rocks are 

 raised by comparison. A single tree is therefore 

 preferable to a clump; the size, though really less, 

 is more remarkable ; and clumps are besides generally 

 exceptionable in a very wild spot from the suspicion 

 of art that attends them ; but a wood is free from that 

 suspicion, and its own character of greatness com- 

 mends it to every scene of magnificence. " 



No chisel should be allowed to touch the stones except 

 to break off chunks. The stone or rock masses should 

 be laid lengthwise in the wall, not with the narrow 

 parts up and down, and naturally the larger pieces 

 should rest on the ground. Where the stones rest on 

 the ground, the point of junction of the stone and soil 

 should be at least two or three inches above the actual 

 rock base. There is a principle involved in the idea. 

 Concealment serves to suggest that the rocks have not 

 been brought to the spot, but have grown there, and 

 the soil gradually gathered about them. In this way 

 it looks, and should look, as if the position of these rocks 

 was the work of nature. Sometimes it is well to have 

 a few small rocks at the foot of the wall, as if nature 

 had dropped them there broad side down. It ought, 



