As the house indicates the commencement of the masses, the character of country surrounding the scene of improve ment must determine the limits and style of their termina tion. if the lands are laid out in regular enclosures, hound ed by hedges and hedge rows, the same style must prevail in the margin of the park ; at least in as many places, and to such a degree, as will produce connection ; and, if possible, as much farther as will harmonize the scene within with the country without. If it is entirely or in part surrounded by forest scenery, the termination is easily and completely effected, by attending to the style of wood and species of tree prevailing without, for a moderate dis tance within the boundary. if bounded by the sea, or a large lake, an abrupt termination will be as natural as it would be formal on the margin of a cultivated surface.
2. The parts which enter into the composition of a mass of Wood, and compose its varied and intricate boundary by real or apparent connection, are thickets, groups, and single plants. A single plant may either be a single tree, or a single shrub; a group, two or three plants, either of trees or shrubs, or both, connected, yet contrasted in their positions ; and as they are generally planted of some size, in order to be speedily out of the reach of cattle, they ought to be contrasted in the inclination of their stems, in order, as far as art can go, to transfer a similar variety to their branches and future growth. A thicket, or, as it is called by Mr. Wheatly, a clump, (though undoubtedly he never had in his mind's eye the round and oval shapes which now pass by that name,) is a small irregular mass, or a cluster of groups, and may contain either trees alone, or trees and shrubs.
Every one of these, though considerably detached, must be considered as belonging to the nearest mass' either of wood, of building, or of rocks, or some other object of magnitude which rises boldly into the air. A group, or a single tree, equidistant from every other object, can form no part of any of them ; it cannot, therefore, enter into the composition of a whole, and can only be regarded as a spot in the composition, or admired for its particular beauties. Connection, therefore, real or apparent, is the leading con sideration in respect to the situation, or position of thickets and groups. As we have before observed, they must be either near, or apparently near, to the masses to which they belong, so as to effect that loose and airy appearance in the boundaries of the mass, which the painter effects by the touches of his pencil in finishing the outline of a tree. For this purpose, groups, thickets, and single trees, may be used at the same time. When a considerable length of un varied line is to be broken into parts, a thicket may stand detached from it, connected by a few straggling trees in the interval between. This thicket, in its turn, may have
its boundary similarly varied by detached groups, and from these may stand out one or two single trees. The next break in the line to be varied, may be effected by two or three groups contrasted in disposition; some attached ; others playing easily round them at moderate distances, but still so as to slide easily into a whole. By proceeding in this way along the most formal and monotonous line, it may not only be varied, but changed in character. so as to present every variety of prominence and recess. With respect to the distances which these parts of forms, (speak ing of them always with reference to their ground plan,) ought to be from the mass and from each other, almost every thing will depend on the situation. They may be at some distance on a Bat, not to be viewed from an emi nence considerably above its level ; because the effect of vision will, at a moderate distance, in this situation, throw a surface, scattered with single trees, into a mass of a ood. But on declivities, viewed from opposite declivities or distant plains, the contiguity must be greater to form a breadth of mass. But here, as in most other instances, the practice of sketching landscape, and especially trees, will afford a more correct idea of the effect and the principle, and a more apt illustration of the practice, than a volume of the justest and most minute instructions.
Thickets may next be considered in regard to their form, that is, the form of their ground plan ; and with groups and single trees in regard to the choice of species. Thickets are produced by nature, by the inroads of cattle, or other animals, grazing or cropping the herbage, and with it the young trees in forest scenery. On levels and sheltered situations, we find their form comparatively regular, be cause there appears no permanent or general reason to oc casion their encroachment on one side more than on the other. But on varied surfaces and soils, a preference is given by depasturing animals to certain natural plants. and the side on which they abound is penetrated more deeply than the other. The plan of the thicket therefore varies accordingly. In elevated grounds exposed to a particular wind, the thickets will exceed in length, which will be found generally to be in the direction of the storm. The cause is too obvious to be pointed out ; but this effect, and every other observed in the groups and thick ets of natural scenery, always merit study, and most fre quently deserve imitation in creations of landscape sce nery.