76 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



not turn to any otlier account. Some liave been seized 

 with the itch of transplantation ; they have not known 

 when to stop,, and have clnng with invincihle pertinacity 

 to the misdeeds which they have accomplished with 

 much expense and labour. Some^ again^ have been un- 

 willing to cut down old trees — a reluctance with which 

 we cordially sympathize^ — and have failed to connect 

 them skilfully with the adjacent masses^ which either have 

 been or might have been formed. The only consolation 

 in these cases is, that the labyrinthine effect formerly 

 alluded to not unfrequently cloaks the deformities, if at 

 the same time it obstructs and precludes the beauties, 

 which might have existed. We see little of the con- 

 fusion, because the dense encumbrances of the landscape 

 do not permit ns to see much of anything. The eye of 

 taste, indeed, can often discern the loss, and suggests 

 regrets that so many natural advantages have been 

 thrown away. There is, however, one specific fault to 

 which the neglect of general grouping very commonly 

 leads, and which ought not to be passed over without 

 some animadversion — we mean what has been ludi- 

 crously but appropriately called the Dotting System. 

 This consists in placing a number of objects in nearly 

 equidistant positions, without reference to their intrinsic 

 or relative importance. Examples of this mode of plant- 

 ing occur in the park when plantations, clumps, or groups 

 are set down in complete isolation, or without any per- 

 ceptible relation to surrounding objects. Trees are seen 

 occupying the broad spaces or narrower openings be- 

 tween the woods without a greater affinity to one mass 

 than to another. This effect, exhibited on the side of a 

 green hill, where it is peculiarly infelicitous, has been 

 well compared to a pattern of sprigged muslin. Into 



