126 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



44 Having, therefore, made himself person- 

 " ally acquainted with the localities of the 

 64 estate, he will find no difficulty in adopting 

 " a general principle for lining out his worst 

 " land. To plant the eminences, and thereby 

 44 enclose the hollows for cultivation, is what 

 " all parties will agree upon : the mere farmer, 

 "because in the. general case, the rule will 

 " assign to cultivation the best ground, and 

 44 to woodland that which is most sterile ; 

 44 and also, because a wood placed on an 

 44 eminence affords, of course, a more com- 

 44 plete protection to the neighbouring fields, 

 44 than if it stood upon the same level with 

 44 them. The forester will give his ready 

 44 consent, because wood nowhere luxuriates 

 44 so freely as on the slope of a hill. The 

 44 man of taste will be equally desirous that 

 44 the boundaries of his plantation should 

 44 follow the lines designed by nature, which 

 44 are always easy and undulating, or bold, pro- 

 44 minent, and elevated, but never either stiff 

 44 or formal. In this manner the future woods 

 44 will advance and recede from the eye ac- 

 44 cording to, and along with, the sweep of 

 44 the hills and banks which support them, 

 44 thus occupying precisely the place in the 



