PART VII. PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 367 



looking upwards, they may seem to favour the general ten- 

 dency to rise; and standing above and looking down, they 

 may appear in unison with the nature of the declivity. A hol- 

 low without an outlet, or a circular mound without a continu- 

 ation of swell, are alike unnatural and disagreeable. 



These remarks are chiefly intended for grounds which may 

 be managed by the operations of husbandry ; but the same ge- 

 neral principles will apply to hills and mountains, which can 

 only be improved by wood, or sometimes perhaps by build- 

 ings. Wood, indeed, is a material which will operate power- 

 fully on every species of ground where it can be reared. It 

 may render undulating surfaces more characteristic, by being 

 planted on the eminences; may give expression and effect to 

 tame formless hills, by judicious disposition upon their sides, 

 so as to vary both their surface and sky outline, and may even 

 render an uninteresting common intricate and varied. A few 

 trees falling down a declivity or precipice increase the appear- 

 ance of steepness ; and a wood covering the base, and creeping 

 up to various heights on the side of a hill, adds greatly to its 

 apparent height and grandeur. A surface full of deformities, 

 either hollows, pits, or unconnected excrescences, may by a ju- 

 dicious distribution of wood be rendered highly picturesque. 

 Solitary hills formally placed upon a level surface, which on 

 a small scale must be connected by adding earth to the angle 



