TREATMENT OF GROUND. FORMATION OF WALKS. 303 
beauty of the ground will be restored. This is effected with 
comparative facility, as every foot of surface taken from the 
depression, adds by removal two feet to the height of the 
adjoining elevation. 
The improvement of picturesque surfaces must proceed 
in a similar manner. When a surface is naturally and truly 
picturesque, art will add little or nothing to its effect. It 
will rather therefore endeavour to produce a perfect whole, 
and a connection between the various parts, than to disturb 
the existing features. In the vicinity of the house, the artist 
will soften down that boldness and inequality which, if too 
great, might interfere both with convenience and the beauty 
of utility , which must there be constantly kept in view. 
Otherwise, the beauty of picturesque surfaces may be often 
heightened by various means within our reach ; such as in- 
creasing the abruptness of surface by taking away a few feet 
of earth, or by adding other picturesque irregularities, which 
by connection may strengthen the expression of the whole. 
Mr. Price has remarked, that 11 the ugliest ground is that 
which has neither the beauty of smoothness, verdure, and 
gentle undulation, nor the picturesqueness of bold and sud- 
den breaks, and varied tints of soil : of such kind, is ground 
that has been disturbed and left in that unfinished state : as 
in a rough ploughed field run to sward.”* Such ground it 
is often difficult to restore to a picturesque state, even when 
that was its previous expression. But it is not impossible to 
do so, for it must be remembered that it is not by forming 
the surface alone that nature renders it picturesque, but also 
by the accessories and accompaniments which she liberally 
bestows upon the surface when once formed. These are, 
Essay on the Picturesque, I. 193. 
