The bold and varied undulations of the grounds at Redleaf, the fortunate disposition of the wood, and especially of the single trees and small groups, left very little for art to do upon a large scale. In some places, a field or a part of a field might require to be planted, in order to form, add to, or connect, masses of wood; and, in others, a coppice might require to be thrown into pasture, and added to the park. But nature or accident had every where furnished so many trees in groups, that it became altogether unnecessary to plant; and hence there was no necessity for forming those heavy clumps by which so many places in every part of the country are disfigured. Another advantage of Redleaf is, that there is no marked boundary to the property; the mixture of wood, pasture, corn field, hill, and dale, being so much alike in general feature, in every part of the country, that it is utterly impossible for a stranger to tell where any man's estate begins or ends. Hence, there was no temptation to perpetrate that deformity which so often accompanies the clump, viz. the belt; a most unsocial plantation in a moral point of view, as shutting out all one's neighbours, whether poor or rich, and one which, as it regards pictorial beauty, generally destroys all harmonious connexion of the residence with the surrounding country. Mr. Wells's operations on the park scenery of Redleaf were therefore comparatively few, and not such as in any degree tended to alter the character of the place. He widened the river in one situation, and altered its direction in another, in order that it might be better seen from the windows of the house; he removed hedgerows, and laid down arable lands in pasture, so as to give extent and unity to the park or lawn; he added to or diminished the masses of wood, for the same purpose; and he formed a walk, so as to enable a stranger to make a general circuit of the place. These were the great features of improvement; and they have been executed with so much success, that a stranger, when he arrives at the house, and looks at the views from its windows, is so struck with the beauty and natural appearance of the scenery, that he cannot conceive that anything more is wanting to render the place perfect of its kind.
