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PAEKS AND PLEASTTBE-GEOUNDS. 



The park may be viewed as distinguished by the 

 quantity and variety of its woodlands, arranged in the 

 form of plantations, or dispersed in clumps and groups 

 through its pasture-lands. We have already adverted 

 to various subjects connected with a country residence ; 

 to these we shall again refer only as forming part of 

 the arrangements of the park scenery. 



The Unity of the Pabk may be described to be that 

 harmony of effect produced by well-arranged scenery 

 which, however diversified and picturesque, does not 

 suggest any discordant or offensively incongruous ideas. 

 A park, indeed, of considerable extent, will never form 

 one picture; and neither will a small one, unless in 

 unfavorable circumstances. A simple or single unity, 

 then, is a quality not to be expected, and hardly to be 

 valued if it could be obtained. The absence of dis- 

 cordance, a character quite compatible with a beautiful 

 diversity, is perhaps all the unity that is desirable. It 

 must be confessed that this is a subject which has re- 

 ceived very inadequate attention, both in the theory 

 and the practice of designing. Yery often, in the lay- 

 ing out of grounds, no general plan has been adopted, 

 or at least no pervading idea has been carried out. 

 Improvement has proceeded in a bit-by-bit way — by 

 the planting of a field here and a knoll there. Clumps 

 or single trees are set down in adjoining fields, fences 

 are partially removed, and fragments of hedgerows or 

 belts of plantation are left standing in places whence 

 they ought to have been removed, or if preserved, 

 should have been made the nuclei of clumps or groups 

 of trees i The result of all this is confusion at the 

 very least. In many cases, and even in places of con- 

 siderable note, what beauty there is has arisen from 



