THE LAWS OF DEVELOPING LANDSCAPE. 



597 



of observation. It can often be shown in high land views that the 

 salient points are somewhat lower than the top of the high ground, as a 

 slightly lower position w T ill bring many other points and features into 

 view, and still lose none of the extensions of the highest effects. 



In Fig. 165 a few hundred acres of land are supposed to be ex- 

 amined, and for the sake of explanation the high and low points of the 

 land are taken as salient points ; for although these are not really so on 

 land, as already indicated (for the real salient points are always near the 

 highest and lowest lands, and they are always important features to com- 

 pare with other sites), we are justified in fixing them as salient points, for 

 a plan of explanation. 



Undulations. 



Landscape consists of a series of undulations, composed of infinite 

 lights and shades. To command their object, we have to arrange the 

 characters of undulations. Undulations reveal their advantages by view 

 lines, are governed by the laws of contour and profile, and produce their 

 effects by perspective and radiation. 



When anyone in the early stages of thought looks at the parts of 

 scenery, he is apt to be bewildered. He considers scenery as being all 

 alike, whereas he will find, after learning to look properly, that scenery is 

 infinite and gives infinite impressions. 



There are no lines in nature. We use lines to delevop, but not to 

 make, nature ; nature is light and shade, producing impressions by 

 character. It enters our senses through our eyes, like music through the 

 ears, but a thousandfold more powerful than any music, for music gives 

 impressions of sound more or less vanishing, while landscape gives the 

 substance of music, a real, not vanishing, impression, and a permanent 

 joy. If scenery were developed in accordance with the character of 

 vegetation which each land naturally produces, the earth would arouse 

 perpetual joy in the observer, such as few ever dream of. Man's work 

 in the production of real beauty can only be accomplished by strict 

 obedience to natural laws. Nature, therefore, must, as it were, be 

 developed by nature, and by close discernment of the various aspects and 

 requirements of the soil ; so man must work in accordance with nature's 

 laws, and thereby learn how best to develop those beauties of which the 

 mind of man is able after all to form but a faint conception. 



In arranging objects intended to beautify and adorn, we shall find it 

 absolutely necessary to summarise, mentally as well as with the pen, the 

 various hills and vales, heights and hollows, sites and views, that charac- 

 terise and diversify the soil. 



All lands contain peculiar beauties and advantages. Every piece of 

 land contains its own pictures, and the first law of natural development 

 is to learn to see them, while the others deal with their development, 

 according to their own natural requirements. 



Proportion is essential in all things. It must be observed, or harmony 

 cannot be attained. To learn true proportion one must study the sizes 

 of land, its high and low parts, and its object, the lines of distances 

 belonging to the land, the character of its formation, &c. All these must 

 be comprehended before the work is commenced, for the first lines of work 



