ARRANGEMENT OF WOODS IN THE PARK. 



69 



liglit along the upper edges of tlie slopes^ as seen from 

 below^ proclaim tlie poverty of the whole alfair. We 

 add an earnest caution against the inconsiderate filling-np 

 of ravines and hollows by means of wood. Such places 

 may have no agricultural and but little pastoral value, 

 and yet the choking of them up with plantations may 

 be almost the last thing which an improver ought to do. 



Arrangement of Woods in the Park. — This is a 

 subject second in importance to none which we have 

 hitherto treated. Success in this department is essen- 

 tial to that unity and harmony which are necessary to 

 the development and finished expression of park scenery. 

 It is, however, a matter somewhat difficult to handle, 

 both in theory and in practice. For the sake of clearness, 

 we may begin our remarks with the explanation of a 

 few terms which we cannot help iising, and which indeed 

 we have used already. A Group is a term borrowed 

 from the technical language of painters and sculptors. 

 It denotes an aggregation of at least two, but generally 

 more objects, closely related to each other by nearness 

 and position, but only remotely related in these respects 

 to other objects. In the internal structure of the group, 

 ' the olDjects are so arranged, that while one or more may 

 occupy leading positions, the others hold only inferior 

 places ; at the same time each must appear to belong to 

 the same combination, and to contribute to the making 

 up of a whole. The external and remote relation of the 

 group to other objects is of a more evanescent and inde- 

 finable description, but is of not inferior importance. A 

 group may, indeed, be conceived in a state of isolation 

 from objects of the same kind, as two or thi-ee human 

 figures in the corner of a landscape painting, a few 

 statues on a terrace, or a patch of pahn-trees in a wide 



