172 THE FLORIST AND 
ments, a pleasure ground that extends beyond the space of an acre, will 
afford satisfaction to the visitor in proportion as it is made to resemble the 
work of nature, without her defects. 
In the close vicinity of our dwelling-houses, it is useless to attempt an 
imitation of nature in the style of their enclosures. Neatness, beauty and 
convenience are to be regarded above all other considerations. But in an 
extensive tract which is designed for rural recreation, the more nearly we 
can imitate the ways of nature consistently with the attainment of other 
needful purposes, the more satisfaction shall we derive from the place. There 
is an air of freedom and seclusion about a place that seems entirely inarti- 
ficial, that fills the soul with the most agreeable emotions. We feel secure 
from interruption, and a pleasing sense of our right to ramble and loiter 
there. The first highly -wrought fence or other artificial structure immediately 
suggests the idea that we may be trespassers, and that we may meet some 
one who, as guardian or proprietor, may dispute our right to enter upon his 
grounds. It does not follow that there is anything like envy combined with 
this feeling ; but every object that is palpaply artificial produces a sense of 
constraint, and damps the poetic emotion of solitude. Though the proprie- 
tor of a place may feel disposed to disregard these influences on the minds 
of strangers, I am confident that, in the same proportion as, on any account, 
it would fail in exciting agreeable emotions in the minds of others, would it 
also fail in yielding pleasure to himself and his family. 
Though complete and uninterrupted solitude would be hardly preferable 
to death, yet every man of reflective mind delights in occasional retirement. 
Heioves to go out so far into the fields and woods that he may not be liable 
to interruption ; and he feels this charming seclusion most powerfully in 
scenes of native wildness, or in those in which the planter has designedly or 
otherwise imitated the spontaneous ways of nature. No sooner does he per- 
ceive this careless irregularity, unmixed with the costly works of art, than 
he feels that he is alone. If at the same time the solitary birds of the wil- 
derness are seen and heard around him, the emotion of solitude is the more 
vividly impressed upon his mind. Indeed this feeling is seldom complete, 
until he hears those wild notes from creatures that cautiously avoid the busy 
town and its vicinity. It seems to me, therefore, an important principle in 
the art of creating landscape that there should be present in it everything 
agreeable that is found in a wildwood, and that everything artificial should 
be excluded that would disturb those poetic feelings which are awakened by 
the real scej:ies of nature. 
