85 



their vast breadth; though they are evi- 

 dent defects, whenever they appear to cut 

 across the stems of trees, and hide only 

 half their trunks; for if the whole trunk 

 were perfectly hid by such a swell, the 

 injury would be less, because the imagi- 

 nation is always ready to sink the valley 

 and raise the hill, if not checked in its 

 efforts by some actual standard of mea- , 



surement. In such cases the best expe- 

 dient is to view the ground from a gentle 

 eminence, that the eye may look over, and 

 of course lose these small inequalities. 



As the improvement at Welbeck, ori- wdbeck. 

 ginally suggested by his Grace the Duke 

 of Portland, has, I confess, far exceeded 

 even my own expectations, I shall take 

 the liberty of drawing some general con- 

 clusions on the subject, from the success 

 of this bold experiment. x\t the time I 

 liad the honour to deliver my former opi- 

 nion, my idea of raising the ground near 

 the house was confined to the west front 

 alone; and, till it had been exemplified 

 and executed, few could comprehend the 

 seeming paradox of burying the bottom 



