114 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



be made on a bald and uninteresting locality. On 

 such ground the artist will have to depend on his own 

 power of grouping together the masses of wood which 

 he may deem necessary for the purposes of decoration ; 

 and though he cannot avail himself of any swell of 

 the ground to add variety to the scene, he will have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that the outlines of his 

 plantations, clumps, etc., are perfectly at his command, 

 and that their effect cannot be diminished by any twist 

 or contortion of surface — a difficulty of not unfrequent 

 occurrence in other cases. Deprived of any advantage 

 which may be derived from undulations calculated to 

 heighten the effect of a plantation, or to relieve the 

 defects of an outline, he will have to create a piece of 

 scenery which should be complete in itself, and should 

 form a graceful and harmonious whole. The disposition 

 of the woods should be such as to make up a variety 

 of apparently connected, yet diversified, scenes, of con- 

 siderable length and breadth within the park. It is of 

 great practical moment to remark, that to accomplish 

 this, less planting will be' required on a flat than on 

 any other surface. The open spaces should be roomy, 

 the glades wide and sunny, and the whole expression 

 of the place should, so far as is possible, be light and 

 airy. In an undulating or hilly country, the woods 

 ought rather to occupy the sides of the hills or rising 

 grounds than the intervening valleys or hollows. In 

 this way the woods are seen to greater advantage, and 

 they tend to increase the height of the eminences on 

 which they are placed, and proportionally to deepen 

 the grounds below them. "When the valleys or de- 

 pressions of a park are all planted up, as they too 

 often are, the necessary result is the concealment of 



