THE LAWS OF DEVELOPING LANDSCAPE. 605 



shows the details ; if the picture be broad the law of mass becomes the 

 principal, and the law of distance shows the details. 



Straight lines, level ground, walks, &c, connected with buildings, are 

 harmonious, and a comparatively small portion of straight lines and level 

 ground in landscape is useful as a contrast to show off the surrounding 

 beauty, but only as a contrast. 



We can see nature only in part ; we can never see the whole. The 

 common remark of making "things look larger than they are " is folly. 

 To show the most possible is a duty, but much must necessarily remain 

 unseen. 



True arrangement shows far more of scenery than is possible by false 

 arrangement. To reveal the advantages in a beautiful manner is the true 

 object of the arranger ; and when these are hid or injured it is false 

 arrangement. The principles of arrangement are distances and mass, 

 shown in Fig. 168, which, w T hile they cannot show the whole of a scene, 

 still show the most that the mind can conceive. By developing the long 

 line shown in Fig. 170 (c) instead of the short cross view shown in 

 Fig. 170 (b) great advantage will be gained, and the great disadvantages 

 of limited impressions avoided. 



Profile. 



Trees are the life of landscape. The various heights of vegetation, its 

 trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, are given in books, but little is given 

 upon how to develop their beauty. 



Trees give variation of sky-lines ; shrubs, variations of mid-distances ; 

 flowering plants, the variations cf ground-lines. Each has at least three 

 divisions : the high, the medium, and the small. The shrubs and flowering 

 plants can be divided into many more than three, but finished planting 

 must be done on the ground itself, as a painter adds colour to his canvas, 

 uniting all in harmony, so that no division can be seen in his finished 

 picture. 



As the foundations so absolutely necessary to a residence hold the 

 house, but become subdued when the house is complete, so the minute 

 Armaria balearica may veil a nook of land, and grass may veil the general 

 ground formation with many square yards of Roses rising from it. Trees 

 which rise above shrubs, as the Mountain Ash, the Birch, and many 

 others, break away above the mid-distance. Above these Maples can form 

 their pictures of true scenery. Such trees as Elms and Tulip trees, 

 forming the high towers of the scenery, unite their impressions to the 

 skies. 



In all scenes one subject should be principal. As a scene of Maples 

 might have its prominent points, so also might Tulip trees, with their 

 dark foreground touched with occasional Silver Birches. In taking 

 general observations of trees, many minor views unite in forming the 

 general prospects from grounds and skies. 



Buildings have their pictures with ground-line, and distance, and sky- 

 line ; the ground-line effect being produced by its base, terraces, steps, &c, 

 according to requirements ; the mid-distance effects by the windows, doors, 

 &c. ; and the sky-line effects by the union of chimneys, roofs, towers, &c, 

 with the circle of the skies above. 



