ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
77 
“ Were it made the object of study,” says Price, “ how 
to invent something, which, under the name of ornament, 
should disfigure a whole park, nothing could 
he contrived to answer that purpose like a 
clump. Natural groups, being formed by trees 
of different ages and sizes, and at different distances from 
each other, often too by a mixture of those of the largest size 
with others of inferior growth, are full of variety in their out- 
lines ; and from the same causes, no two groups are exactly 
alike. But clumps, from the trees being generally of the same 
age and growth, from their being planted nearly at the same 
distance, in a circular form, and from each tree being equally 
pressed by his neighbour, are as like each other, as so many 
puddings turned out of one common mould. Natural groups 
are full of openings and hollows, of trees advancing before, or 
retiring behind each other ; all productive of intricacy, of va- 
riety, of deep shadows and brilliant lights : in walking about 
them the form changes at every step ; new combinations, new 
lights and shades, new inlets present themselves in succession. 
But clumps, like compact bodies of soldiers, resist attacks from 
all quarters ; examine them in every point of view ; walk 
round and round them ; no opening, no vacancy, no strag- 
glers ; but in the true military character, ils sont face par- 
tout !”* 
The chief care, then, which is necessary in the formation 
* Those who peruse Price’s “ Essay on the Picturesque,” cannot fail to 
be entertained with the vigour with which he advocates the picturesque, and 
attacks the clumping method of laying out grounds, so much practised in Eng- 
land, on the first introduction of the modern style. Brown, was the great prac- 
titioner at that time, and his favourite mode seems to have been to cover the 
whole surface of the grounds with an unmeaning assemblage of round, bunchy 
clumps. 
