SECTION XT. 



457 



the pales and gateway should, of course, cross the coach-road at right 

 angles. Moreover, the external grass-plot, which in front should he 

 kept neat with the scythe, must be protected from stray cattle on the 

 turnpike road hy a low rough fence of Larch stakes, about two feet 

 high, or less, of which the bark is allowed to remain upon the'stakes. 



If, in laying out an entrance-gate on such picturesque principles, at 

 an old place where great trees could be commanded for the external 

 wooding, and for the park-like margins on each side of the carriage- 

 way, the effect would be splendid were any tolerable skill displayed in 

 the execution ; and it would,- 1 am certain, do much to bring this style 

 into fashion in any district in which it chanced to be executed. Without 

 the passport of fashion I know that nothing will go down in England ; 

 as even there picturesque effect in the details of the handsomest places 

 is not always studied. In Scotland the thing is neither known nor 

 studied at all ; but wherever it does appear, it seizes our approbation 

 we know not why, and powerfully detains it, without our being able to 

 assign the true cause. At places where great trees cannot be com- 

 manded, the power of the transplanting-machine may be called in to 

 our assistance ; and that, with a good choice of subjects, spreading and 

 spiral, as the different parts may require to be brought out, will accom- 

 plish any design of ordinary magnitude within a short period. 



I am very far from believing that any thing which I am capable of 

 designing or executing in this way is worthy of general imitation, 

 although it may give useful hints to professional men. Notwithstand- 

 ing, as verbal description is never so effectively aided as by the efforts 

 of the pencil, I have added a sketch of the western entrance to this 

 place, (plate VT.) which gives the example of a limited mew designed 

 on the above principles. Owing to the very broken and untoward 

 nature of the ground, and its being completely triangular, added to the 

 circumstance of the turnpike-road sweeping round the lodge on the 

 left-hand side of the picture, it was extremely difficult so to manage it 

 as to produce any tolerable effect. But one of the chief recommenda- 

 tions of the plan of improving park entrances by external wooding 

 consists in this, that it surmounts all obstacles, and cures all deformi- 

 ties, at the least possible expense. The means of cure, namely wood, is 

 so beautiful in itself that it throws its own delightful character over 

 every thing which it touches. If your ground be high, it will give it 

 shelter ; if tame and flat, variety and elevation ; and if it be irregular 

 and deformed, it will oftentimes convert those seeming obstructions 

 into playful intricacy and unexpected beauty. 



Respecting the sketch thus presented to the picturesque reader, I 

 have only further to observe, that the mansion-house here is a plain 



