CHAPTER II 



THE WOOD 



Ten acres is but a small area for a bit of woodland, 

 yet it can be made apparently much larger by well- 

 considered treatment. As the years pass and the 

 different portions answer to careful guidance, I am 

 myself surprised to see the number and wonderful 

 variety of the pictures of sylvan beauty that it dis- 

 plays throughout the year. I did not specially aim at 

 variety, but, guided by the natural conditions of each 

 region, tried to think out how best they might be 

 fostered and perhaps a little bettered. 



The only way in which variety of aspect was de- 

 liberately chosen was in the way of thinning out the 

 natural growths. It was a wood of seedling trees that 

 had come up naturally after an old wood of Scotch 

 Fir had been cut down, and it seemed well to clear 

 away all but one, or in some cases two kinds of trees in 

 the several regions. Even in this the intention was to 

 secure simphcity rather than variety, so that in moving 

 about the ground there should be one thing at a time 

 to see and enjoy. It is just this quality of singleness 

 or simplicity of aim that I find wanting in gardens in 

 general, where one may see quantities _gl_the_best 

 plants grandly grown and yet no garden pictures. 



