Where a ridge of ground very near the eye intercepts the view of a valley below, it is wonderful how great an effect may be produced by a very trifling removal of the ridge only; thus, at MOCCAS COURT, a very small quantity of earth concealed from the house the view of that beautiful reach of the river Wye, which has since been opened. At OLDBURY COURT the view is opened into a romantic glen, by the same kind of operation. At CATCHFRENCH the same thing is advised, to shew the opposite hills; and in this instance it may appear surprising, that the removal of a few yards of earth was sufficient to display a vast extent of distant prospect. But this effect must depend on the natural shape of the surface near the eye; for example, if the shape be that of the upper line [fig. 41] A, the object at F cannot be seen without the removal of all the earth between the dotted line and the surface; but if the shape be that of B, the removal of the part not shaded will not be sufficient to shew the valley; and it is not always desirable to see the whole surface; on the contrary, it is better that a part should be concealed than that the whole should be shewn foreshortened, which is always the case in looking down or up an inclined plane*.
*[Having often seen great expense incurred by removing ground to shew the whole surface of a valley from the top of a hill, it may not be improper to explain that such an effort is seldom useful or desirable. To the painter it is impossible to represent ground thus foreshortened, and the first source of beauty, in the composition of a landscape, is the separation of distinct distances; the imagination delights in filling up those parts of the picture which the eye cannot see; and thus, in a landscape, while we do not see the bottom of a deep glen, we suppose it deeper than it really is; but when its whole shape is once laid open, the magic of fancied rocks and rattling torrents is reduced, perhaps, to the mortifying discovery of a dry valley or a swampy meadow.]
