One great advantage of WIMPOLE arises from its comparative beauty, or the contrast between the place and its environs. The counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon consist generally of flat ground, while the hills are open corn fields thinly intersected by hedges. But WIMPOLE abounds in beautiful shapes of ground, and is richly clothed with wood; it is, therefore, like a flower in the desert, beautiful in itself, but more beautiful by its situation. Yet no idea of this beauty can be formed from the approach to the house; because the plain is everywhere covered with lofty trees, which hide, not only the inequalities of the ground, but also the depth of wood in every direction; and although the original straight lines of the trees have been partially broken, the intervals shew none of the varied scenery beyond. I do not, therefore, hesitate to say, that, by judiciously removing some hundred trees, the place would be made to appear more wooded: for it frequently happens, that a branch near the eye may hide a group of twenty trees, or a single tree conceal a whole grove.
