67 



ness, so opposite to the richness and di- 

 versity of many of the forest lawns. 



It may, perhaps, be said, that thickets, 

 though very proper in forests, and, per- 

 haps, in parks, are not in character with 

 a lawn, or with such dressed ground as ar- 

 tificial water is generally made in. This 

 opinion I wish to examine ; for the notion 

 that a lawn, or any meadow or pasture 

 ground near the house, ought to be kept 

 quite open and clear from any kind of 

 thickets, has been one very principal cause 

 of the bareness I have so often had occa- 

 sion to censure. It is probable that the 

 first idea of a lawn may have arisen from 

 the openings of various sizes which are 

 found in forests and old parks, and that 

 these openings were the original objects of 

 imitation ; in copying which, improvers 

 have had the same degree of success, as 

 in their imitations of natural rivers, and 

 from the same cause, — that of never study- 

 ing their models. If it be true that many 

 of these forest lawns have every variety 

 that can be wished for, whether in the dis- 



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