From hence the drive descends the hill, in one bold line, No. 21, with a view towards the opposite wood across the valley. Having again ascended the hill, in wood, there are some parts of the present drive which might be made interesting by various expedients. At No. 22, one side of the drive might be opened to shew the opposite hanging wood in glades along the course of the drive. At No. 23, a shorter branch might be made to avoid the too great detour, though there is a view into the valley of Fulmer, at No. 24, worthy to be preserved*, In some parts the width of the drive might be varied, and some of the violent curvatures corrected; in others, the best trees might be singled out, and little openings made, to be fed by sheep occasionally; and another mode of producing variety would be to take away certain trees, and leave others, where any particular species abound: thus, in some places, the birches only might be left, and all the oaks and beech and other plants removed, to make, in time, a specimen of Birkland forest, while there are some places where the holly and hawthorn might be encouraged, and all taller growth give place to these low shrubs, with irregular shapes of grass flowing among them. This would create a degree of variety that it is needless to enlarge upon. *[I have distinguished, by Italics, some peculiar circumstances of variety, from having observed great sameness in the usual mode of conducting a drive through a belt of young plantation, where trees of every species are mixed together. There is actually more variety in passing from a grove of oaks to a grove of firs, or a scene of brushwood, than in passing through a wood composed of a hundred different species of trees as they are usually mixed together.]
