The farm, on the contrary, is for ever changing the colour of its surface in motley and discordant hues; it is subdivided by straight lines of fences. The trees can only be ranged in formal rows along the hedges; and these the farmer claims a right to cut, prune, and disfigure. Instead of cattle enlivening the scene by their peaceful attitudes, or sportive gambols, animals are bending beneath the yoke, or closely confined to fatten within narrow enclosures, objects of profit, not of beauty [see fig. 75]. This reasoning may be further exemplified by an extract from the Red Book of ANTONY. The shape of the ground at ANTONY is naturally beautiful, but attention to the farmer's interest has * almost obliterated all traces of its original form; since the line of fence, which the farmer deems necessary to divide arable from pasture land, is unfortunately that which, of all others, tends to destroy the union of hill and valley. It is generally placed exactly at the point where the undulating surface changes from convex to concave and, of course, is the most offensive of all intersecting lines; for it will be found that a line of fence, following the shape of the ground, or falling in any direction from the hill to the valley, although it may offend the eye as a boundary, yet it does not injure, and, in some instances, may even improve the beautiful form of the surface. No great improvement, therefore, can be expected at ANTONY, until almost all the present fences be removed, although others may be placed in more suitable directions [see figs. 76 and 77].
*[In this, as in many other cases, I transcribe from the Red Book, as if my plans were not yet executed.]
