The error into which inexperienced improvers are constantly liable to fall, is a want of breadth and extent in their designs; which latter, when executed, are so feeble as to be full of littleness, out of keeping with the magnitude of the surrounding scene. Their designs, like the sketches of a novice in drawing, are cramped and meagre. This is exemplified in ground by their producing, instead of easy undulations, nothing but a succession of short sweeps and hillocks like waves in the ocean. Now the most beautiful variation in ground is undoubtedly that of gradually varying lines and insensible transitions of surface, and these should correspond in magnitude and breadth to the size and style of the place. Such surfaces are full of the flowing lines and rounded smoothness which Burke considers characteristic of beauty, or the long undulations exhibit the outlines of Hogarth's favorite line of grace.
