64 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GEOUNDS. 



racter of the park and grounds must be modified by these 

 varying circumstances. Manifold are the other diver- 

 sities of natural surface ; and to the slightest reflection 

 it must be apparent that they cannot all be dealt with in 

 the same way. On a convex surface,, for example^ we do 

 not generally meet with standing water; the beauties 

 consist mostly of distant ^dews^ and the business of the 

 designer is to select tliese^ to render them conspicuous, 

 and to set them off with beautiful foregrounds. On the 

 other hand, the concave surface suggests water scenery, 

 such as the lake or the artificial river. Prom such a 

 locality the distant views are necessarily limited, or 

 extend only in the direction of the valley; but if the 

 house be planted near one of the rising edges, or on the 

 breast of a slope, there "vviU be room for admirable pic- 

 torial effect in the middle distance and opposite ridge, as 

 well as for delicious walks or rides in the lower grounds. 

 We tlirow out these hints rather as illustrative of con- 

 tour than as indicating specific plans for particular 

 localities. We need scarcely add, that this natural diver- 

 sity of surface, while in its individual forms it affords 

 one of the essential elements of beauty, and has probably 

 suggested most of what is really fine in the practice of 

 the art, utterly precludes the laying down of any general 

 rule as e^^erywhere applicable. We shall have occasion 

 to revert to this principle ; meanwhile, we beg the atten- 

 tion of our* readers to its importance. 



Acquired Character of the Ground. — ^Except where 

 a residence has to be formed in an unimproved and deso- 

 late region (and that is a task not of common occurrence) , 

 the locality to be dealt with will have not only a natural, 

 but also an acquired character. Some growing timber 

 is generally found where a man thinks of setting down 



