THE UNITY OF THE PARK. 



61 



viewed as distiiignislied by the quantity and variety of its 

 woodlands^ arranged in tlie form of plantations^ or dis- 

 persed 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 Park 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 

 unfavourable 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 discord- 

 ance, a character quite compatible with a beautiful diver- 

 sity, is perhaps all the unity that is desirable. It must 

 be confessed that this is a subject which has received 

 very inadequate attention, l)oth in the theory and the 

 practice of designing. Very often, in. the laying out of 

 grounds no general plan has been adopted, or at least no 

 pervading idea has been carried out. Improvement has 



forest, often of vast extent and of diversified stirface, was the 

 exclusive prerogative of royalty, and was invested with peculiar 

 laws and privileges. The chase, a name still occiu'ring ia some 

 places in England, was a smaller portion of couiitry, lyiiig in a 

 state of nature, and unenclosed. The pa/rh was of more limited 

 dimensions than either of the former, and was surrounded by 

 fences. In the conception of a park, enclosure is the dominant 

 idea ; and hence, in the Lowlands of Scotland, wliich were enclosed 

 witliin the memory of the last generation, a fenced field of any 

 description is, in popular usage, called a parTc. 



