If the fashion in gardening, like the fashion in dress, could be changed with no other difficulty than that of expense, we might follow its dictates, without any other consideration; we might boldly modernise old places, and reduce all improvement to the whim and caprice of the day, and alter them again on the morrow; but the change of fashion in gardening destroys the work of ages, when lofty avenues are cut down for no other reason but because they were planted in straight rows, according to the fashion of former times *.
*[Every sacrifice of large trees must be made with caution; at the same time, there may be situations in which trees are not to be respected for their size; on the contrary, it is that which makes them objectionable. We find that all trees grow more luxuriantly in valleys than on the hills; and thus it is possible that very uneven ground may be reduced to a level surface, if we judge of it by the tops of the trees. The hills at Longleat have been boldly planted, and, at the same period, many fast-growing trees were planted in the valleys; these latter are become, in many places, too tall for their situation. There are some limes, and planes, and lofty elms near the water, in situations where maples and crabs, thorns and alders, or even oaks and chestnuts, would be far more appropriate. There is no error more common than to suppose that the planter may not live to see his future woods, unless they consist of firs, and larches, and Lombardy poplars, and other fast-growing trees; but every day's experience evinces that man outlives the beauty of his trees, where plantations do not consist of oak. On the contrary, tall mutilated planes, or woods of naked-stemmed firs, remind him that groups of oak and groves of chestnut might have been planted with greater advantage.]
