448 



ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK 1. 



The beauty of wood on individual estates is too obvious to 

 require illustration. Although every one cannot analyse its 

 effects, all mankind can relish them. The noble grandeur and 

 rich beauty of a hanging wood, in autumnal colouring, seen 

 from below, cannot be unknown ; and the fine effect of a dark 

 green tree, or group of trees, backed by the splendour of a 

 morning or the glow of an evening sky, cannot be unfelt 

 hy any mind, awake to the finest feelings of our nature. It 

 is in the arrangement and management of trees and shrubs 

 that picturesque improvement almost wholly consists : all the 

 other materials of landscape are commonly beyond our con- 

 troul. Earth and rocks are in general too ponderous to con- 

 tend with, — buildings are often too expensive, — and water is 

 only to be met with in certain situations and circumstances; 

 but we rarely find a spot where trees cannot be planted, and 

 we can hardly conceive one where they will not greatly add to 

 the beauty and variety of natural scenery. 



But, independently of the beauty and profit of wood, the 

 pleasure attending the formation and management of planta- 

 tions, will be a considerable inducement to every virtuous mind. 

 We look upon our young trees as our offspring ; and nothing 

 of inanimate nature can be more gratifying than to see them 

 grow and prosper under our care and attention ; nothing more 



