HOW TO MAKE A COUNTBY PLACE. 443 



especially on the exposed part towards the public load, 

 were then trenched over twenty to fifty feet broad, 

 heavily composted and planted with a judicious mixture 

 of evergreens and ornamental trees. The border, how- 

 ever, for many years, until the trees were fifteen to 

 twenty feet high, and in many cases touched each other, 

 was annually enriched and planted in potatoes, the crop 

 being some remuneration for the expense. 



The next step after deciding upon the situation of the 

 house, was to form the avenues and plant them ; the one 

 from the Boston entrance, with alternating Pinus excelsa, 

 and Magnolia tripetala at one end, and with large mas- 

 ses of rhododendrons, Kalmia latifolia, Mahonias, and 

 other rare evergreen shrubsj as a frontage to aback ground 

 of ISTorway spruces at the other ; until the road reaches 

 the Italian garden, with a view of the lake on one side, 

 and the house and lawn on the other, when the avenue 

 effect of the planting ceases— and groups, masses, and 

 singJe specimens, and the ornamental arrangement, 

 shown in the view, commence. 



The other avenue from the Natick entrance is plant- 

 ed with rows of white pine and larch, now, perhaps, 

 twenty to twenty-five feet high, and being all fine 

 trees, the effect is already very marked. 



The next step was to plant the lawn of about eight 

 acrds with the best specimens selected from the nurseries 

 or border plantations. This has been most cleverly and 

 successfully done, much of it in the winter with frozen 

 balls and with the most ornamental and choicest trees ; in 

 some cases large specimens twenty to thirty feet high 

 were brought twenty miles, but even after the clumps, 

 masses, and single specimens on the lawn were arranged 

 and planted, it was still annually enriched and cultivated, 

 and the ground around each tree and mass of trees is, 

 even to this day, kept clean to a circle following the 

 drip of the branches. 



The house, a front or entrance view of which is given 



