The Landscape Gardener; Comprising the History and Principles of Tasteful Horticulture (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ROAD OF APPROACH. 25 terposing dense masses of perennial shrubs. These, indeed, supply convenient screens from any offensive object. Concealment even of a structure disagreeable to the eye, may be accomplished without lapse of time, by a plantation of Weymouth pines, intertwined with luxuriant privet, and clothing their comparative nudity by such adventitious foliage. These materials form nurserymens' summer-screens for hot-house plants, rendered nearly impervious to wind, by a practice however equally inadmissible and inexpedient in pleasure-gardens, frequent aud formal pruning. On the convex side of the extreme projection of a curved road or walk, a large handsome tree, producing the desirable appearance of having caused the curvature, suggests resemblance to a natural tract. If unattended with extreme inconvenience, the road of approach to a mansion should have a gentle ascent on commencement, and a similar feature on approximating its termination. On no account should it be suffered to bisect the grounds or to pass along the direct bottom of a valley, thus frequently intercepting a beautiful undulation of the lawn, and converting itself from a mere inevitable object of convenience, to one of glaring conspicuousness, exciting disgust. By very gentle ascent along one of 26 ENTRANCE TO PLEASURE-GROUND. the sloping sides, and prevalent interception from view, by passing within grouped trees, it acquires the refreshing shade of an avenue, without its stiffness; and, by its receding character, loses much of the offensive glare of gravel. For similar reason, its width should be as narrow as consistent with convenience. Even in a meadow, if the commonest species of gate be interposed between trees, it acquires an interesting appearance. Plantations of a perennial character...