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from the large undisturbed spaces between 

 them ; but a close wood of firs, is, perhaps, 

 the only one from which the opposite 

 qualities of cheerfulness and grandeur, of 

 symmetry and variety, are equally ex- 

 cluded ; and in which, though the sight is 

 perplexed and harassed by the confusion 

 of petty objects, there is not the smallest 

 degree of intricacy. 



Firs, planted and left in the same close 

 array, are very commonly made use of as 

 screens and boundaries; but as the lower 

 part is of most consequence where con- 

 cealment is the object, they are, for the 

 reasons I mentioned before, the most im- 

 proper trees for that purpose. I will, how- 

 ever, suppose them to be exactly in the con- 

 dition the planter would wish ; that the 

 outer boughs, on which alone he can place 

 any dependence, were preserved from ani- 

 mals ; and that though planted along the 

 brow of a hill, they had escaped from 

 wind and snow, and the many accidents 

 to which they are exposed in bleak situa- 



t 3 



