260 3Lanbscape Hrcbitecture 



extend like sheets of vivid green, with here and there 

 clumps of gigantic trees, heaping up rich piles of 

 foliage; the solemn pomp of groves and woodland 

 glades with the deer trooping in silent herds across 

 them; the hare bounding away to the covert; or 

 the pheasant suddenly bursting upon the wing; the 

 brook taught to wind in natural meanderings or 

 expand into a glassy lake; the sequestered pool 

 reflecting the quivering trees, with the yellow leaf 

 sleeping upon its bosom, and the trout roaming 

 fearlessly about its limpid waters. These are a few 

 of the features of park scenery, but what most de- 

 lights me is the creative talent with which the English 

 decorate the unostentatious abodes of middle Hfe. 

 The rudest habitation, the most unpromising and 

 scanty portion of land, in the hands of an English- 

 man of taste becomes a little paradise. With nicely 

 discriminating eye, he seizes at once upon its capa- 

 bilities, and pictures in his mind the future landscape. 

 The sterile spot grows into loveliness under his hand; 

 and yet the operations of art which produce the 

 effect are scarcely to be perceived. The cherishing 

 and training of some trees; the cautious pruning of 

 others; the nice distribution of flowers and plants of 

 tender and graceful foliage; the introduction of a 

 green slope of velvet turf; the partial opening to a 

 peep of blue distance, or a silver gleam of water; all 

 these are managed with a delicate tact, a pervading, 

 yet quiet assiduity, like the magic touchings with 

 which a painter finishes up a favourite picttire. " 



