ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
85 
in its many variations. And we may add here, that effi- 
cient and charming as is the assistance which all orna- 
mental planters will derive from the study of the best 
landscape engravings and pictures of distinguished artists, 
they are indispensably necessary to the picturesque im 
prover. In these he will often find embodied the choicest 
and most captivating studies from picturesque nature ; and 
will see at a glance the effect of certain combinations of 
trees, which he might otherwise puzzle himself a dozen 
years to know how to produce 
After all, as the picturesque improver here will most 
generally be found to be one who chooses a comparatively 
wild and wooded place, we may safely say that, if he has 
the true feeling for his work, he will always find it vastly 
easier than those who strive after the Beautiful; as the 
majority of the latter may be said to begin nearly anew — • 
choosing places not for wildness and intricacy of wood, but 
for openness and the smiling, sunny, undulating plain, 
where they must of course to a good extent plant anew. 
After becoming well acquainted with grouping, we 
should bring ourselves to regard those principles which 
govern our improvements as a whole. We therefore must 
call the attention of the improver to the two following 
principles, which are to be constantly in view : the pro- 
duction of a whole, and the proper connexion of the parts. 
Any person who will take the trouble to reflect for a mo- 
ment on the great diversity of surface, change of position, 
aspects, views, etc., in different country residences, will at 
once perceive how difficult, or, indeed, how impossible it 
is, to lay down any fixed or exact rules for arranging plan- 
tations in the modern style. What would be precisely 
adapted to a hilly rolling park, would often be found entire- 
