68 



PARKS AND PLEASTJRE-GIIOUNDS. 



tions, we do not mean that the smooth outline of every 

 green hill should be exchanged for a serrated one of 

 trees placed over it. Still less would we recommend the 

 capping of all the knolls with clumps of wood^ which is 

 in as bad taste as planting up all the hollows. We 

 would have some of -the hills or rising grounds in the 

 park covered with masses of wood feathered out towards 

 the bottom^ with scattered groups thinly distributed 

 across the valleys. In other cases_, the rising grounds 

 might be clothed with groups becoming thinner towards 

 the top;, and thickening as they descend on both sides. 

 Where there are low green hills with fine outlines^ the 

 summits of one or more of these should by all means be 

 left vacant, and a curtain of wood drawn along the lower 

 slopes and base, and even the adjacent valley. Where 

 there is no such variety of surface as we have supposed 

 above, or where the park is of limited extent, each case 

 wUl fall to be dealt with as the natural character of the 

 place will suggest or allow, regard being had to the 

 general import of the principles already indicated. The 

 planting of the sloping banks of the platforms which 

 constitute the main area of some parks, and of the 

 ravines by which they are intersected, has often a 

 wretched effect. This is owing to several causes : for exam- 

 ple, to their being formed without relation to other groups 

 or masses in the park, and to their trees appearing above 

 the banks, and dividing the landscape with what seems a 

 meagre, ill-grown belt. When such places are planted, 

 they should form a portion of some of the more general 

 combinations in the park, and the spaces covered with 

 trees should be extended beyond the top of the banks in 

 order to secure a certain amount of breadth. It some- 

 times happens, that in such planted ra^dnes the lines of 



