PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 53$ 



there these fences are removed, and the masses are thinned out 

 into groups and scattered bushes and trees. I wish it particu- 

 larly to be observed, that all theground within the fences in 

 fig. 1. is not planted up ; but several vacant spots are left which 

 will farther vary the whole, even before the final thinning — the 

 grass which grows on these spots can easily be mown and given 

 to cattle, so that it can never occasion any loss of ground. 



How different from all this are the circular clumps, the ser- 

 pentine belts, and the dotting of single trees by landscape gar- 

 deners ! From their formal outlines and equidistant mode of 

 planting, more than from any other error, arises that distinct- 

 ness and monotony, which is so disgusting in made places, and 

 which will ever distinguish a tree, or a collection of trees, 

 planted by them, from the same tree or trees in natural scenery. 

 " It is most amusing to see the number of days occupied, and the 

 labour and difficulty they have in marking out the serpentine 

 sweeps of a plantation of two or three acres ; which, if nature 

 were followed, might be traced by the plough, after the foot- 

 steps of a judicious designer, in two or three hours." 



The above paragraph I certainly would have expunged in this 

 second edition, had I not lately observed the practice there con- 

 demned still continued ; which, after the publication of Mr. 



