fuccefs. In any fituation, however, art must mifcarry, if Nature has not furnished a fufficient fupply of materials: confined ftagnant pools are always difgufting: fews, indeed, may often be neceffary; but, like the kitchen garden, they ought not to be feen.

SECTION THE FIFTH.

WOOD.

OVER this element of the rural art the power of the artist is abfolute; he can increase or diminish at pleasure if the place be over-wooded, he can lighten it with lawn, or with water: if too naked, he can fupply the deficiency by PLANTING.

IN forming ORNAMENTAL PLANTATIONS, two things are to be confidered, the fpecies of plantation, and the fpecies of tree.

THE different species of plantation are the Wood, the Grove, the Coppice or Thicket, the Border or Skreen, the Mafs Clump or Tuft, the Group, and the Single Tree.

WOODS,

WOODS, Groves, and extenfive Thickets, are more particularly adapted to the fides of hills, and elevated fituations: detached Maffes, Groups, and Single Trees, to the lower grounds. A naked hill gives an idea of bleakness; as a valley filled with wood does that of dankness. The Shrubery depends more on the given accompaniments, than on its own natural fituation.

MUCH depends upon the difpofition of the fe veral diftinct woodineffes (whether accidental or defigned) with refpect to each other; and much alfo on the refpective outlines, particularly those of the larger kind. The Atmosphere and the Earth are equally bountiful, in affording the rural artist fit fubjects for study. The margins of seas and lakes give us, in their bays and promontories, an ample choice of outline; while the blue expanfe, fcattered with fummer's clouds, difcovers infinite variety, both of figure and difpofition.

In the choice of trees, four things are obfervable: the height, the form, the colour, and the ufe. This is more effential to a good choice, than may appear at first fight; nothing heightens the idea of ornament, efpecially in the eye of the owner, more than utility; nor, on the contrary, does any thing tend to throw a damp on the gratification, more than does the worthleffnefs of the object before us.

Immediately under the eye, the gaudy Shrub, and the ornamental though ufelefs Exotic, may be admitted; but for more diftant objects, and in lefs embellished fituations, the Timber tree ought to prevail. We fhould endeavour to make fuch a choice, as will gratify the prefent age, and benefit the future.

IN mixing trees, there is, in refpect of height, a general rule the tallest should be made to occupy the central parts, defcending gradually to the margin: but, with refpect to colour, all precept, perhaps, would be vague; the tints ought to be as wild and various as the evening sky, tinged by the fetting fun.

FOR farther remarks on this fubject, see the following MINUTES IN PRACTICE.

SECTION THE SIXTH.

NATURAL ACCOMPANIMENTS.

THE most judicious mixture of wood and lawn appears dull and uninteresting, when unaccompanied by animated nature. What sprightliness

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and

and elegance are added to the plain, in the playful attitudes and racings of the horfe→and how much additional grandeur the vale receives in the feattered herd!-How ftrikingly beautiful the bofom of a hill enlivened by the pafturing flock !-What gaiety is given to park scenery, in the airy action of the fawn;-and how peculiarly delightful the fequeftered lawn, while the hare is prefent! Even the squirrel gives a chearfulness to the grove: while the plumy tribes difperfe an agreeable animation through the whole scene.

SECTION THE SEVENTH.

FACTITIOUS ACCOMPANIMENTS.

UNDER this head, we arrange Fences, Walks, Roads, Bridges, Seats, and Buildings.

THE FENCE, where the place is large, becomes neceffary; yet the eye diflikes constraint. Our ideas of liberty carry us beyond our own fpecies: the imagination feels a diflike in feeing even the brute creation in a ftate of confinement,

Befide,

a tall

a tall fence frequently hides, from the fight, objects the most pleasing; not only the flocks and herds themselves, but the furface they graze upon. These confiderations have brought the unfeen fence® into general use.

THIS fpecies of barrier, it must be allowed, incurs a degree of deception, which can scarcely be warranted, upon any other occafion. In this instance, however, it is a species of fraud which we obferve in nature's practice: how often have we seen two distinct herds feeding, to appearance, in the fame extended meadow; until coming abruptly upon a deep-funk rivulet, or an unfordable river, we discover the deception.

BESIDES the funk fence, another fort of unseen barrier may be made, though by no means equal to that; especially if near the eye. This is constructed of paling, painted of the invifible green. If the colour of the back ground were permanent, and that of the paint made exactly to correfpond with it, the deception would, at a distance, be complete; but backgrounds, in general, changing with the season, this kind of fence is the lefs eligible.

MASSES and Tufts of woodinefs, scattered promifcuously on either fide of an unseen winding S 2 fence,