^ixti^cMj 0?^-^^ Ulrich Middeldorf BLACKWFr r A N ESSAY ON THE PICTURES Q^U E, AS COMPARED WITH THE SUBLIME AND THE BEAUTIFUL; AND, ON THE USE OF STUDYING PICTURES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING REAL LANDSCAPE. By UVEDALE PRICE, Es(^ Q^JAM MULTA VIDENT PICTORES IN UMBRIS, ET IN EMINENTIA, QVJS. NOS NGN VIDEMUS. Cicero. A NEW EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. LONDON: Printed for J. ROBSON, New Bond-Street. M.DCC.XCVI. PREFACE. AS the general plan and intention of my work have been a good deal mifunderftood, I wifh to give a fliort ac- count of them both. The title itfelf miQ:ht have fhewn that I aimed at fomething more than a mere book of gardening ; fome, however, have con- ceived that I ought to have begun by fetting forth all my ideas of lawns, Shrubberies, gravel walks, 6cc. ; and as my arrangement did not coincide with their notions of what it ought to have been, they feem to have concluded that I had no plan at all. I have in this eflay undertaken to treat of two fubjedis, diflincfl^, but intimately con- necfted, and which, as I conceive, throw a reciprocal light on each other. I have be- A 2 gun 17 PREFACE. gun with that which is laft mentioned, as I thought fome previous difcuflion with regard to pid:ures and picturefque fcenery, would moil naturally lead to a particular examination of the character itfclf. In the firft chapter, I have ftated the general rea- fons for ftudying the works of eminent landfcape painters, and the principles of their art, with a view to the improvement, of. real fcenery ; and in order to ihew how little thofe works, or the principles they contain, have been attended to, I have fup- pofed the fcenery in the landfcape of a great painter, to be nev/-modelled accord- ipg to the tafte of Mr. Brown. Having fhewn this contraft between drefled fcenery, and a pidure of the mo ft ornamented kind, I have in thefecond chapter compared to- gether two real fcenes ; the one in its pic- turefque and unimproved, ftate, the other when dreffed and improved according to the prefent fafiiion. The pidurefque circura- ftanices detailed in this fcene, very naturally lead me, in the third chapter, to inveftigate -f their PREFACE. V their general :aufes and effed:s ; and in that, and the fix following chapters, I have traced them, as far as my obfervation would enable me, through all the works of art, and of nature. This part, the moft curious and inter- efting to a fpeculative mind, will be lead fo to thofe who think only of what has a dired; and immediate reference to the ar- rangement of fcenery : that indeed it has not ; but it is a difcullion well calculated to give juft and enlarged ideas, of what is of no flight importance — the general charac- ter of each place, and the particular cha- racter of each part of its fcenery. *Every place, and every fcene that are worth ob- ferving, muft have fomething of the fub- lime, the beautiful, or the pid;urefque; and every man will allow that he would wifh to preferve and to heighten, certainly not to weaken or deftroy, liieir prevailing cha- radter. The moft obvious method of fuc- ceeding in the one, arid of avoiding- the other, is by ftudying their caufes and ef- A 3 fedts; VI PREFACE. fedts ; but to confine that fludy to fceneiry only, would, like all confined iludies for a particular purpofe, tend to contrad: the mind ; at lead when compared with a moire comprehenfive view of the fubjedt ; I hawe therefore endeavoured to take the mofl en- larged view polTible, and to include in it whatever had any relation to the character I was occupied in tracing, or which fhew/- ed its diftindion from thofe which a very fuperior mind had already inveftigated ; and fure I am, that he whoftudies the various ef- fects and charaders of form, colour, and light and fliadow, and examines and comi- pares thofe characters and effeds, and the manner in which they are combined and dif- pofed, both in pidures and in nature, — will be better qualified to arrange, certainly to enjoy, his own and every fcenery, than he who has only thought of the moft fafliion- able arrangement oi objeds; or has looked at nature alone, without having acquired any juft principles of feleclion. I be- PREFACE. VU 1 believe, however, that this part of my Effay, and the very title of it, may have given a falfe bias to the minds of many of my readers ; nor am I furprifed at fuch an efFe(5t. It is a very natural conclufion, and often juftified, that an author is partial to the particular fubjed: on which he has written ; but mine is a particular cafe. The two charaders which Mr. Burke has fo ably difcufled, had, it is true, great need of invefligation ; but they did not want to be recommended to our attention. What is really fublime or beautiful, mud always attrad and command it; but the pidtu- refque is much lefs obvious, lefs generally attractive, and had been totally negledted and defpifed by profefled improvers : my bufinefs therefore was to draw forth, and to dwell upon thofe lefs obferved beauties. From that circumftance it has been con- ceived (or at leaft afTented) that I not only preferred fuch fcenes as were merely rude and pidurefque, but excluded all others. A 4 The via PREFACE, The fecond part is built upon the foun- dations laid in the firft, for I have exa- mined the leadino; features of modern ear- dening (in its more extended fenfe) on the general principles of painting ; and I have fhewn in feveral inflances, efpecially in all that relates to the banks of artificial water, how much the charader of the pidiurefque has been neglecfled, or facrificed to a faJtfp idea of beauty. But though I take no flis^ht interefl in whatever concerns the tafte of gardening in this, arid every other country, and am particularly anxious to preferve thofe pic- turefque circumftances, which are fo fre- quently, and irrecoverably deflroyed; yet in writing this EiTay, I have had a more comprehenfive objecft in view: I have been defirous of opening new fources of inno- cent, and eafdy attained pleafures, or at leafl of pointing out how a much higher relifli may be acquired for thofe, v/hich, though known, are negledled : and it has given me no fmall pleafure to find that both PREFACE. IX both my objeds have in fome degree been attained. That painters do fee effeds in nature, which men in general do not fee, we have, in the motto I have prefixed to this effay, the teftimony of no common obferver ; of one, who was fufficiently vain of his own talents and difcernment in every way, and not likely to acknowledge thofe of other men without ftrons: convid:ion. It is not a mere obfervation of Cicero ; it is an exclamation : Quam multa vident pidores ! it marks his furprize at the extreme difference which the fludy of nature, by means of the art of painting, feems to make almoft in the fight itfelf. It may likewife be obferved, that his remark does not extend to form, in which the ancient painters are acknow- ledged to be our fuperiors : not to colour, in which they are alfo conceived to be at leafi: our rivals ; but to light and fhadow, the fuppofcd triumph of modern over ancient art; on which account the profefibrs of painting, fince its revival, have a ilill better right JL PREFACE. right to the compliment of fo illuflrious a panegyrift, than thofe of his age. If there were no other means of feeing with the eyes of painters, than by acquir- ing the practical /kill of their hands, the generality of mankind mufl of courfe give up the point; hut luckily wc may gain no little infight into tlieir method of conlidering nature, and no inconfiderable ihare of their relifh for her beauties, by an ealier procefs — by ftudying their works. This ftudy has one great advantage over moft others ; there are no dry elements to ftruggle with. Pidures, as like wife draw- ings and prints, have in them what is fuit- ed to all ages and capacities : many of them, like Swift's Gulliver's Travels, dif- play the mofl: fertile and brilliant imagina- tion, joined to the mofl accurate judgment and feledion, and the deepefl knowledge of nature: like that extraordinary work, they are at once the amufement of child- hood and ignorance, and the delight, in- flrutTlion, and admiration of the higheiV and mod cultivated minds. G It PREFACE. XI It is not, however, to be fuppofed, that theory and obfervatlon alone will enable us to judge either of pidlures or of nature, with the fame fkill as thofe, who join the practical knowledge of their art, to habi- tual reflection on its principles, and its produdions : between fuch artifls, and the mere lover of painting, there will always be a fufficient difference to juftify the re- mark of Cicero * : but by means of the iludy I have fo earneflly recommended, we may greatly diminifh the immenfe diftance that exifts between the eye of a firft rate painter, and that of a man who has never * There is an anecdote of S. Rofa, which fliews the very juft and natural opinion that painters of eminence en- tertain of their fuperior judgment with regard to their own art: it is alfo highly characSteriftic of the lively im- petuous manner of the artift of whom it is related, and whofe words might no lefs juftly be applied to real obje(Sls, than to the imitation of them. Salvator Rofa^ ejjcnclogli moftrata una fmgolar pittura da tin dilettante^ che inf.emcnunte in ejlremo la lodava \ egli con un di quel fuoi foUti ge/li Jpiritofi efclamb : O penfu quel che tu direjliy jo tu la videjji con gU occhi di Salvator Rcfa, thought Xll PREFACE. thought on the fubjed:. Were it, indeed, poflible that a painter of great and general excellence, a Titian, or a Carach, could at once beflow on fuch a man, not his power of imitating, but of diftinguifliing and feel- ing the efFeds and combinations of form, colour, and light, and fhadow, it would hardly be too much to aflert that a new appearance of things, a new world would fuddenly be opened to him ; and the be- flower might preface the miraculous gift, with the words in which Venus addreifes her fon, when fhe removes the mortal iilni from his eyes, Afplce, namque omnem quae nunc obdu£la tuenti Mortales hebetat vifus tibi & humida circum Caligat, nubem eripiam. CONTENTS, l-J ! ■■ CONTENTS. Chapter I. Page 1 HE reafons why an improver fliould ftudy pic tures as well as nature - - - - - . I The artift's deiigns in rral fcenery muft neceflarily change with rhe growth, decay, and various ac- cidents of trees ; the only fixed and unchano-in? compotJtions are in the defigns of painters - g Diftindtiou between the painter and the improver- q Between looking at pictures merely with a re- ference to other pidlures, and ftudying them with a view to |the improvement of our ideas of nature ------- ir The general principles of both arts the fame - ic Ttie prefent fyftem of improving, at variance with thofe principles - _ _ _ - i6 The manner in which a piifturc of Claude would probably be improved by an admirer of Mr. Brown - - - _ _ __iy Chapter II. Caufesof the neglecSl of the pidurefque in modern improvements - - - _ - - 25 Intricacy and variety, the chara oi5 Its variety would not arife merely from a diver- fity of plants — variety in forefts produced by a few fpecies - - - 317 Continual and unvaried diverfity, a fource, and a fpecies of monotony - - - 3 '9 Accident and negledt the fources of variety in un- improved parks and forefts - - 321 The reafons why lawns have in general little variety . . _ ^ ^22 Why a lawn looks ill in a picture - - 3^ Why the moft beautiful lawn, painted by Claude, would not be equal to his beft pictures - 324 Verdure and fmoothnefs, which are the charac- teriftic beauties of a lawn, are in their nature allied to monotony - - - 325 Improvers, inftead of remedying that defeiV, have added to it - - - ibid. Soft and fmooth colours, like foft and fmooth fonnds, are grateful to the mere fenfe; a relifh for more artful combinations acquired by de- grees - - - - 328 Such a relifti does not exclude a tafte for fimple fcenes, and for fimple melodies , - 329 Chapter III. On the general effeds of water in landfcape - 331 Remarks on certain palfages of the poets refpcfl- ing the banks of rivers ; none of them applica- ble to thofe of Mr. Brown's artificial water - ibid. Mr. Brown's artificial rivers have no objedls of refleflion - - _ ■j^'* The XX CONTENTS. Page The formal fweeps of fuch imitations, contrafted with the intricacies and varieties of natural rivers - - - ' - 335 Water with a thin grafly edge like an overflow- ing - - - - 338 No profeflbr has yet endeavoured to make an arti- ficial river like a natural one - - 34^ It muft be done by attention to the banks, and to objecls of refledion, as an artificial river muft be without motion - - -3^1 ObjeAs of refiedion peculiarly fuited to ftill water 353 Remarks on the expreflion of a fine Jheet of water - tb'td. The great water at Blenheim - - 355 The drefled bank, and garden fcenery ; the reafon why that part is fuperior to the other improved parts - - - - 358 The water below the cafcade - - 362 General reflexions on the fubje^l of the eflay - 366 Appendix -- __-.3gi ERRATA. Page 55. bettvsen lines 15 and 16 the tvord than omit ted. 125. 1- 9" /"' feldoms, read felilom. 207. 1. 17- /-'■ oppofltes, rear/ oppofite. 438. 1. 3- /of" an, read and. 249. 1. 13- for what a mullltude, read what foch a multJtuilc. 290. 1. 3- for well, recid dwell. 291. 1. 3- for can be, read is. . 1. 4. for be, ' ead can be. 360. note, 1. 5. from the botto.Ki, for have, read hath. 367. 1. ult. for have, nad hath. ON THE PICTURES QJJ E, &c. ' I ^HERE is no country, I believe (if -*• we except China) where the art of laying out grounds is fo much cultivated as it now is in England. Formerly the deco- rations near the houfe were infinitely more magnificent and expenfive than they are at prefent; but the embellifhments of what are called the grounds, and of all the exten* five fcenery round the place, was much lefs attended to; and, in general, the park, with all its timber and thickets, was left in a flate YoL. L B of [ 2 1 of wealthy negled : as thefc embellifh- ments are now extended over a whole dif- trid:, and as they give a new and peculiar chara(5terto the general face of the country^ it is well worth confidering whether they give a natural and a beautiful one, and whe- ther the prefent fyftem of impro-ving (to ufe a fhort though often an inaccurate term) is founded on any juft principles of tafte. In order to examine this queftion, the firft enquiry will naturally he, whether there is any ftandard, to which in point of grouping, and of general compofition^ works of this fort can be referred ; any authority higher than that of the perfons who have gained the moft general and popular reputation by thofe works, and whofe method of conduding them has had the moft extenfive influence on the general tafte ? I think there is a ftandard ; there are authorities of an infi- nitely higher kind ; the authorities of thofe 4 great [ 3 ] o-reat artifls who have moO; diligently ftu- died the beauties of nature, both in their grandeft and moft general effects, and In their minuteft detail; who have obferved every variety of form and of colour, have been able to feled and combine, and then, by the magic of their art, to fix upon the can- vas all thefe various beauties. But, however highly I may think of the art of painting, compared with that of im- proving, nothing can be farther from my intention (and I wifh to imprefs it in the flrongefl manner on the reader's mind) than to recommend the fludy of pidures in pre- ference to that of nature, much lefs to the exclufion of it. Whoever iludies art alone, will have a narrow pedantic manner of con- fidering all objeds, and of referring them folely to the minute and particular purpofes of that art to which his attention has been particularly dired:ed; this is what improvers B 2 have [ 4 ] have done : and if every thing is to be re- ferred to art, at lead let it be referred to one, whofe variety, compared to the monotony ofv^hatis called improvement, appears infi- nite, but which again falls as fliort of the bound lefs variety of the miflrefs of all art. The ufe, therefore, of ftudying pid:ures is not merely to make us acquainted with the combinations and effed:s that are con- tained in them, but to guide us by means of thofe general heads (as they may be called) of compolition, in our fearch of the num- berlefs and untouched varieties and beauties of nature; for as he who Hudies art only will have a confined tafte, fo he who looks at nature only, will have a vague and un- fettled one; and in this more extended fenfe I fhould interpret the Italian proverb, " Chi sinfigndy ha un pazzo per maejiro: He is a fool who docs not profit by the ex- perience of others." Wc [ S ] We are therefore to profit by the expe- rience contained in pi^fiures, but not to con- tent ourfelves with that experience only ; nor are we to confider even thofe of the higheft clafs as abfolute and infalUble fland- ards, but as the bejft and only ones we have; as compofitions, which, like thofe of the great claflical authors, have been confecrated by long uninterrupted admiration, and which therefore have a fimilar claim to influence our judgment, and to form our tafte in all that is within their province, Thefe are the reafons for fludying copies of nature, though the original is before us, that we may not lofe the benefit of what is of fuch great moment in all arts and fciences, the accumulated experience of paft ages; and, with refped to the art of improving, we may look upon picftures as a fet of ex- periments of the different ways in which trees, buildings, water, &c. may be dif- B 3^ pofed, [ 6 ] pofcd, grouped, and accompanied in the moft beautiful and ftrlking manner, and in every ftyle, from the moft fimple and rural to the grandeft and moft ornamental : many of thofe objefts, that are fcarcely marked as they lie fcattered over the face of nature, when brought together in the compafs of a fmall fpace of canvas, are forcibly impreffed upon the eye, which by that means learns how to feparate, to feled:, and combine. Who can doubt whether Shakefpeare and Fielding had not infinitely more amu fo- ment from fociety, in all its various views, than common obfervers? 1 believe it can be as little doubted, that the having read fuch authors muft give any man (howevei: acute his penetration) more enlarged views of human nature in general, as well as a more intimate acquaintance with particular characters, than he would have had from the obfervation of nature only 5 that many groupii ( 7 ] groups of charaders, many combinations of incidents, which might otherwife have efcaped his notice, would forcibly ftrikc him, from the recoUedtion of fcenes and pafTages from fuch writers -, that in all thefe cafes the pleafurc we receive from what pafTes in real life is rendered infinitely more poignant by a refemblance to what we have read or have feen on the ftage. But will any man argue from thence that thefe cha- raders and incidents have no intrlniic me- rit, but merely that which is derived from their having been made ufe of by great and admired authors ? The parallel between this and the affiftance which painting gives to- wards an accurate as well as a comprehen* five view of nature is fo obvious as hardly to require pointing out. I am therefore perfuaded that thofe men*s minds will be the moft amufed (and per- haps not the lead ufefully employed) to B 4 whom [ 8 ] whom " all the world's a flage," who re-t mark wherever they go (and habit will give a rapid and unobferved facility in doing it) not only the characters of all individuals, but their efFedl on each other. Such an obferver will not divide what pafTes into fcenes and chapters, and be pleafed with it in proportion as it will do for a novel or a play, but he will be pleafed on the fame principles as Shakefpeare or Fielding would have been. This appears to me a true and exad ftatement of the mutual relation that painting and nature bear to each other. Had the art of improving been cultivated for as long a time, and upon as fettled prin- ciples, as that of painting, and were there extant various works of genius, which, like thofe of the other art, had flood the teft of ages (though from the great change which the growth and decay of trees muft pro- duce in the original defign of the artift, this [ 9 ] is hardly poflible) there would not be the fame neceffity of referring and comparing the works of reality to thofe of imitation ; but as the cafe flands at prefent, the only models of compofition that approach to per- fection, the only fixed and unchanging fe- leftions from the works of nature, united with thofe of art, are in the pictures and de- ligns of the moft eminent maders. But although certain happy compofitions, detached from the general mafs of objec?:s, and coniidered by thernfelves have the great- efl and moft lafting efFedt, both in nature or painting; and though the painter, in re- fpe6l to his own art, may think of thofe only, and give himfelf no concern about the reft, he cannot do fo if he is an improver as well as a painter; for he might then iiegled: or injure what was eftentlal to the whole, by attending only to a part, and jn that confifts the great and obvious diffe- rence [ 10 ] rence between the pradtlce, not the general principles, of the two arts : there is another alfo that leads to the fame point, and which lias not been fufficiently attended to; the dif- ference between looking at nature merely with a view to making pictures, and look- in <^ at pidures with a view to the improve- ment of our ideas of nature i the former often does contrad the tafte when purfued too clofely, the latter I believe as generally refines and enlarges it. The greateft paint- ers were men of enlarged and liberal minds, and well acquainted with many arts befides their own, L, da Vinci, M. Angelo, Ra- phael, Titian, were not m.erely patronized by the fovereigns of that period ; they were confidered almoft as friends by fuch men as Leo, Francis, and Charles, and were inti- mately conneaed with Aretino, Caftiglione, and all the eminent wits of that time. Thofe great artifts (nor need I have gone fo far back [ " 3 back for examples) confidered pid:ures and nature as throwing a reciprocal light on each other, and as conned:ed with hiflory, poetry, and all the fine arts; but the prac- tice of too many lovers of painting has been very difrerent,and has, I believe, contributed in a great degree, and with great reafon, to give a prejudice againfl the ftudy of pic- tures as a preparation to that of nature. In the fame manner that many painters confider natural fcenery merely with a re- ference to their own practice, many con- noifleurs confider pictures merely with a re- ference to other pictures, as a fchool in which they may learn the routine of connoiiTeur- fhip, that is, an acquaintance with the mofl: prominent marks and peculiarities of diffe- rent maftersj but they rarely look upon them in that point of view in which alone they can produce any real advantage, — as a fchool m which we may learn to enlarge, refine, and [ 12 ] and corredt our ideas of nature, and in re- tarn, may qualify ourfelves by this more li- beral courfe of ftudy, to be real judges of what is excellent in imitation. This reflec- tion may account for what otherwife feems quite unaccountable, namely, that many en- thufiaftic admirers and colle(flors of Claude, Pouffin, &c. fhould have fufFered profelTed improvers to deprive the general and ex- tended fcenery of their places, of all that thofe painters would have moft admired and copied. Should the narrow and perverfe application of fo excellent a ftudy be pro- duced as an argument againft the ftudy altogether, that of the holy gofpel might on the fame ground be objected to, for certainly its pure and exalted dodrines have been by fome lefs induftrioufly ap- plied to enlarge, corred:, and refine our na- ture, than to furnifh matter for fcholaftic diftinclions, and all that vain and fruitlefs parade which in theology and in every other art [ <3 ] art and fcience anfvvers fo well to the cant of connoifTeurfhip in painting. He who can in any degree contribute to direct ftudies to their proper objedl, even in matters of lefs moment, deferves well of mankind ; with refpe(fl: to improvement in its moft comprc- heniive fenfe, the great objed: of enquiry feems to be, what is that mode of ftudy which will beft enable a man of a liberal and intelligent mind to judge of the forms, colours, eifefts, and combinations of vifible objects; to judge of them either as fingle compofitions, which may be confidered by themfelves without reference to what fur- rounds them i or elfe as parts of fcenery, the arrangement of which mufl be more or lefs regulated and reftrained by what joins them, and the connedlion of which with the general fcenerymuft be conftantly attended to. Such knowledge and judgment comprehend the whol^ fcience gf improvement with regard to t 14 ] to its ciFefl on the eye, and I believe can never be perfectly acquired, unlefs to the fludy of natural fcenery, and of the various ftyles of gardening in different periods, the improver adds the theory at leaft of that art, the very eflence of which is connec- tion: a principle moft adapted to correct the chief defedts of improvers ; a principle always prefent to the painter's mind, if he deferves that name ; and by the guidance of which he conliders all fets of objedls, what- ever may be their character or bounda- ries, from the moft extenlive, profpedl to the nioft confined wood fcene: neither refer- ring every thing to the narrow limits of his canvas j nor defpiHng what will not fuit it, unlefs, indeed, the limits of his mind be equally narrov/ and contraded; for when I fpeak of a painter, I mean an artift, not a mechanic. Whatever minute and partial objedions may [ 'S ] may be made to the fludy of pidures for the purpofe of improvement, (many of which I have already difcuifed in my letter to Mr. Repton,) yet certainly the great lead- ing principles of the one art, as general compofition — grouping the feparate parts — harmony of tints — unity of character, are equally applicable to the other : I may add alfo, what is fo very efTe ntial to the painter, though at fir ft fight it feems hardly within the province of the improver — breadth and effe(5l of light and ihade. Thefe are called the principles of paint- ing, becaufe that art has pointed them out more clearly, by feparating what was mofl ftriking and well combined, from the lefs interefting and fcattered objedls of general fcenery ; bat they are in reality the gene- ral principles on which the effed of all vifible objeds muft depend, and to which it muft be referred. Nothing [ i6 ] Nothing can be more diredly at watf with all thefe principles \^ founded as they are in truth and in nature) than the prefent fyftem of laying out grounds. A painter, or whoever views objeds with a painter's eye*, looks with indifference, if not with difguft, at the clumps, the belts, the made water, and the eternal fmoothnefs andfame- nefs of a finifhed place ; an improver, on the other hand, confiders thefe as the moll perfed embelliihments, as the laft finifhing touches that nature can receive from art ; and confequently muft think the finefl: com- pofition of Claude (and I mention him as * When I fpeak of a painter, I do not mean merely a profefTor, but any man ("artift or not) of a libera) mind, with a ftrong feeling for nature as well as art, who has been in the habit of comparing both together. A man of a narrow mind and little fenfibillty, in or out of a profeflion, is always a bad judge; aird poflibly (as that ingenious critic the Abbe du Bos has well explained) a worfe judge for being an artift. the t >7 ] the mofl ornamented of all the great mafters) comparatively rude and imperfedl ; though ' he probably might allow, in Mr. Brown's . phrafe, that it had ** capabilities/' No one, I believe, has yet been daring enough to improve a picture of Claude *^ or at leafi; to acknowledge it ; but I do not think it extravagant to fuppofe that a man, * The account in Peregrine Pickle, of the gentleman who had improved Vandyke's portraits of his anccftors, ufed to ftrike me as rather outre i but I met with a fimilar inftance fome years ago, that makes it appear much lefs fo. I was looking at a collection of pitftures with Gainf- borough ; among the reft the houfekeeper fhewed us a portrait of her mafter, which fhe faid was by Sir Jofhua Reynolds : we both flared, for not only the touch and the colouring, but the whole ftyle of the drapery and the general efFeft, had no refemblance to his manner. Upon examining the houfekeeper more particularly, we difco- vered that her mafter had had every thing but the face- not re-touched from the colours having faded — but to- tally changed, and newly compofed, as well as painted, by another, and, I need not add, an inferior hand. Such a man would have felt as litde fcruple in making a Claude like his own place, as in making his own por- trait like a fcare-crow. Vol. I, C thoroughly [ >8 ] thoroughly pcrfuaded, from his own tafte, and from the authority of fuch a Writer as Mr. Walpole*, that an art, unknown to * I can hardly think it neceflary to make any excufe for calling Lord Orford Mr. Walpole ; it is the name by which he is beft known in the literary world, and to which his writings have given a celebrity much beyond what any hereditary honour can beftow. It is more neceflary, perhaps, to make an apology for the liberty I muft take of canvafling with freedom many pofitlons in his very ingenious and entertaining trcatife on Modern Garden- ing. That treatife is written in a very high flrain of panegyric on the art of which he gives fo amufing a hift-ory : mine is a direct and undifguifed attack upon it. The greater his authority the more neceflary it is to combat the imprefiion which that alone will make on moft minds. I do it, however, with great deference and reludance; for I know how difficult it is to fteer between the tamenefs of over-caution and the appearance of acrimony, or of want of refpe6l towards a perfon for whom I feel fo much, and to whom on fo many accounts it is due. But he who is warmly engaged in a caufe, and has to fight againft ftrongly-rooted opinions, upheld by powerful fupporters, muft, if he hopes to vanquifli them, take every fair advantage of his opponents, and not feem too timid and fearful of giving offence where he means none* every t 19 ] every age and climate, that of creating land- fcapes, had advanced with mafter-fteps to vigorous perfedtion ; that enough had been done to eftablifli fuch a fchool of landfcape as cannot be found in the reft of the globe ; and that Milton's defcription of Paradife feems to have been copied from fome piece of modern gardening -, — that fuch a man, full of enthufiafm for this new art, and with little veneration for that of painting, fhould chufe to fhew the world what Claude might have been, had he had the advantage of feeing the works of Mr. Brown. The only difference he would make between im- proving a pidure and a real icene, would be that of employing a painter inftead of a gardener. What would more immediately ftrike him would be the total want of that leading feature of all modern improvements, the C a clump J t 20 ] clump * ', and of courfe he would order fe* veral of them to be placed in the moil open and confpicuous fpots, with, perhaps, here and there a patch of larches, as forming a ftrong contraft, in ihape and colour, to the Scotch firs. — His eye, which had been ufed to fee even the natural groups of trees in improved places made as feparate and clump-like as poflible, would be (hocked to fee thofe of Claude, fome with their ftems half concealed by bufhes and thickets; others ftanding alone, but, by means of thofe thickets, or of detached trees, con- neded with other groups of various fizes * As fome difputes have arifen about the meaning of the word clump, it may not be improper to define what I mean by it. My idea of a clump, in contra-diftindion to a group, is, any cloje mafs of trees of the fame age and groiuth, totally detached from all others, I have generally fuppofed them to be of a round, or at leaft of a regular form : their fize of courfe muft vary, and no rule can vi^ell be given when fuch a detached mafs ceafes to be a clump, and may be called a plantation. and [ 21 J and {hapcs. All this rubbifh mufl be clear- ed away*, the ground made every where quite fmooth and level, and each group left upon the grafs perfedly diftind and fepa- rate, — Having been accull:omed to whiten all diflant buildings, thofe of Claude, from the efFed of his foft vapoury atmofphere, would appear to him too indiftin(5t ; the painter of courfe would be ordered to give them a fmarter appearance, which might poflibly be communicated to the nearer buildings alfo. — Few modern houfes or or- namental buildings are fo placed among trees, and partially hid by them, as to con- ceal much of the {kill of the archited, or the expence of the pofTelTor; but in Claude, not only ruins, but temples and palaces, are often * I do not mean by this, that nothing fhould be cleared; on the contrary, a proper degree and ftyle of clearing adds as much to beauty and efFedl as it does to neatnefs. But of this I Ihall fay more hereafter, C3 fo [ 22 ] To mixed with trees, that the tops over* hang their baluftrades, and the luxuriant branches fhoot between the openings of their magnificent columns and porticos : as he would not fuffer his own buildings to be fo mafked, neither would he thofe of Claude; and thefe luxuriant boughs, and all that ob- Aruded a full view of them, the painter would be told to expunge, and carefully to reftore the ornaments they had hid. — The lalT: finishing both to places and pictures is water: in Claude it partakes of the general foftnefs and drefled appearance of his fcenes, and the accompaniments have, perhaps, lefs pf rudenefs than in any other mafter* j yet, compared * One of my countrymen at Rome was obferving that the water in the Colonna Claude had rather too drefled and artificial an appearance. A Frenchman, who was alfo looking at the picture, cried out, " Cependant, Mon- ficur, on pourroit y donner une fi belle fete !" This Vas very character iftic of that gay nation, but it is equally ' ■ . fq compared with thofe of a piece of made water, or of an improved river, his banks are perfectly favage ; parts of them covered with trees and bufhes that hang over the water ; and near the edge of it tuffacks of ruflies, large ftones, and flumps; the around fometimes fmooth, fometimes bro- ken and abrupt, and feldom keeping, for a long fpace, the fame level from the water : no curves that anfvver each other; no re- femblance, in fliort, to what he had been ufed to admire : a few ftrokes of the paint- er's brufh would reduce the bank on each fide to one level, to one green; would make curve anfwer curve, without bufli or tree to hinder the eye. from enjoying the uni- form fmoothnefs and verdure, and from purfuing, without interruption, the conti- fo pf a number of Claude's pidlures. They have an air dc fete beyond all others ; and there is no painter whofe works ought to be fo much ftudied for highly drefled yet varied nature. C 4 nucdl [ H ] nued. fweep of thefe ferpentlne lines j — a little cleaning and polifliing of the fore- ground would give the lafl touches of im- provement, and complete the pidlure. There is not a perfon in the fmallcft de- gree converfant with painting, who would not, at the fame time, be {hocked and di- verted at the black fpots and the white fpots,-the naked water,-the naked build- ings,-the fcattered unconnected groups of trees, and all the grofs and glaring viola- tions of every principle of the art ; and yet this, without any exaggeration, is the me- thod in which many fcenes, worthy of Claude's pencil, have been improved. Is it then poflible to imagine that the beau- ties of imitation fhould be fo diftind: from thofe of reality, nay, fo completely at va- riance, that what difgraces and makes a pidlure ridiculous, fliould become orna- mental when applied to nature ? CHAP-. t ^5 ] CHAPTER IL IT fecms to me, that the negled, which prevails in the works of modern im- provers, of all that is pidlurefque, is ow- ing to their exclufive attention to high polifli and flowing lines, the charms of which they are {o engaged in contem- plating, as to make them overlook two of the moil, fruitful fources of human pleafure ; the firft, that great and uni- verfal fource of pleafure, variety, whofe power is independent of beauty, but with- out which even beauty itfelf foon ceafes to pleafe ; the other, intricacy, a quality which, though diftind from variety, is fo ^ connedVed [ 26 ] conneded and blended with it, that the ©ne can hardly exift without the other. According to the idea I have formed of it, intricacy in landfcape might be defined, that dijpofition of objeBs which ^ by a par^ tial and uncertain concealment, excites and nourifies curiojity'^. Variety can hardly require a definition, though, from the prac- tice of many layers- out of ground, one might fuppofe it did. Upon the whole, it appears to me, that as intricacy in the difpofition, and variety in the forms, the * Many perfons, who take little concern in the in- tricacy of oaks, beeches, and thorns, may feel the effects of partiali cpncealriient in more interefting objedls, and may have experienced how differently the paflions are moved by an open licentious difplay of beauties, and by the unguarded diforder which fometimes cfcapes the care of modefty, arid which coquetry fo fuccefsfully imitates : Parte appar delle mamme acerbe & crude. Parte altrui ne ricuopre invida vefte ; Invida fi, ma fe agli occhi il varco chiude, L'amorofo penfier gia non s'arrefta. tints. [ 27 ] tints, and the lights and fliadows of ob- jedts, are the great charaderiftics of pic- turefque fcenery 5 fo monotony and bald- nefs are the greateft defeats of improved places. Nothing would place this in fo diftindt a point of view as a comparifon between fome familiar fcene in its natural and pic* turefque, and in what would be its im- proved ftate, according to the prefent prin- ciples of gardening. All painters, who have imitated the more confined fcenes of nature, have been fond of making ftudles from old neglected bye roads and hollow ways ; and, perhaps, there are few fpots that, in fo fmall a compafs, have a greater variety of that fort of beauty called pic- turefque; but, I believe, the inftances are very rare of painters, who have turned out volunteers into a gentleman's walk or drivc^ either when made between artificial banks, or [ 28 ] or when the natural fides or banks have been improved. I fhall endeavour to ex- amine w^hence it happens, that a pid:u- refque eye looks coldly on what is very generally admired, and difcovers a thou- fand interelling objeds where a common eye fees nothing but ruts and rubbifli -, and whether the pleafure of the one, and the indifference of the other, arife from the caufes I have affigned. Perhaps, what is moft immediately ftrik- ing in a lane of this kind is its intricacy ; any winding road, indeed (efpecially where there are banks) muft neceffarily have fome degree of intricacy ; but in a dreffed lane every effort of art feems directed againfl that difpofition of the ground : the fides are fo regularly fioped, fo regularly plant- ed, and the fpace (when there is any) be- tween them and the road fo uniformly le- velled ; the fweeps of the road fo plainly artificial. [ 29 ] artificial, the verges of grafs that bound it lb nicely edged ; the whole, in fhort, has liich an appearance of having been made by a receipt, that curiofity, that moft ac- tive principle of pleafure, is almoft extin- guished. But in thefe hollow lanes and bye roads all the leading features, and a thoufand circumftances of detail, promote the natu- ral intricacy of the ground ; the turns are fudden and unprepared -, the banks fometimes broken and abrupt; fometimes fmooth, and gently but not uniformly Hop- ing; now wildly over-hung with thick- ets of trees and bufhes ; now loofely ikirt- ed with wood ; no regular verge of grafs, nd cut edges, no diftind lines of feparation; all is mixed and blended together, and the border * of the road itfelf, fhaped by the mere • It may be obferved, that whenever a border, or fuch a feparation of the general covering of the furface (whe-' ther [ 3° ] mere tread of paifengers and animals. Is a5 uuconftrained as the footfteps that formed it: even the tracks of the wheels (for no cir- cumflance is indifferent) contribute to the pidurefque cffea of the whole ; the lines they defcribe are full of variety; theyjuft mark the way among trees and bufhes, while any obftacle, a clufter of low thorns, a furze-bufh, a tufTuck, a large ftone, will force the wheels into fudden and intricate turns, at the fame time thofe obftacles themfelve?, either wholly or partially con- cealing the former tracks, add to that variety and intricacy ; often a group of trees, or a ther grafs, mofs, heath, &c.) as difcovers the foil, is- formed by the aclion of water, of froft, or by j;he tread of animals, it is free from that edginefs, that cutting liny appearance, the fpade always leaves, and which of all things is moft deftruftive of variety and intricacy: this, I think, accounts for the attachment of painters to what is called broken ground, and to the natural banks of rivers, as well as for their contempt for thcfe of ar- tificial water. thicket^ { 3' ] thicket, will occafioii the road to feparatc in two parts, leaving a fort of iiland in the - middle *, and of thefe and numberlefs other accidents painters have continually availed themfelves. . * In the Abbe de Lille's exquifite poem on gardens, (which I had not read when I publiflied my elTay, but which I have hardly ceafed to read fmce I had it in my poffeflion) there are fome lines that very beautifully de- scribe, or rather indicate the fame circumftance in the reparation of a brook : I am tempted to tranfcribe part of the paflage, as it affords a very happy example how mucli the motion, the tranfparency, and the various charaos of water, add life and animation to a fcene cjomparatiy,dy <]ead> Plus loin il fe fepare en deux ruifleaux agiles; Que fe fuivant Tun I'autre avec rapidite, Difputent de vitefle, Sc de limpidite. The whole paflage is excellent, and the poem alto- gether full of the juftefl: tafte, and the niccft difcrimina- tions, as well as the mofl brilliant imagery, and the whole exprefled in the happieft, and moil poetical fly]e. i ihould have thought myfelf very ungrateful, if in a fecond edition I had not acknowledged the very gfeat pleafure and inftrudlion I had received from it, an4 added my teftimony to that I believe of qvqtj other reader.. Ifi [ 32 ] In forerts particularly, it is inconceiva- ble how much the various routes in all di- redlions, through the wild thickets, and among the trunks of old trees, add to the intricacy and perplexed appearance of the fcenerys an effed: that would be totally deftroyed if the tracks were all fmoothed and made level, and a gravel road, with eafy fweeps, made in their room. It is a lingular circumflance, that fome of the moft ftrlking varieties of form, of colour, and of light and fhade, fhould, in thefe, as in many other fcenes, be owing to the indifcriminate hacking of the peafant, nay, to the very decay that is occafioned by it. When oppofed to the tamenefs of the poor pinioned trees of a gentleman's plantation drawn up ftrait and even toge- ther, there is often a fort of fplrit and animation in the manner in which old neg^ k(Sted pollards ilretch out their immenfe limbs [ 33 ] limbs quite acrofs one of thefe hollow roads, and in every wild and irregular direction : on fome the large knots and protuberances add to the ruggednefs of their twifled trunks ; in others, the deep hollow of the infide, the mofles on the bark, the rich yellow of the touch-wood, with the blacknefs of the more decayed fubflance, afford fuch variety of tints, of brilliant and mellow lights, with deep and peculiar fhades, as the finefl timber tree (however beautiful in other refpedls) with all its health and vigour, cannot exhibit. This carelefs method of cutting, juft as the farmer happened to want a few ftakes or poles, gives infinite variety to the gene- ral outline of the banks : near to one of thefe " unwedgeable and gnarled oaks'*, often rifes the flender elegant form of a young beech, afh, or birch, that had efcaped the axe, and whofe tender bark and Vol. I. D light [ 34 ] light foliage appear flill more delicate and airy when feen Tideways againft the rough bark and inaffy head of the oak, Some- times it rifcs alone from the hank ; fome- times from amidfl: a clufter of rich hollies or wild junipers ; fometimes its light and upright ftem is embraced by the projecfting cedar-like boughs of the yew. The ground itfelf, in thefe lanes, is as much varied in form, tint, and light and fliade, as the plants that grow upon it ; this, as ufual, inflead of owing any thing to art, is, on the contrary, occafioned by accident and negled; *. The winter tor- rents-, * The manner in which improvers may profit by the luciy efFedls of accident and neglect (for I do not mean to liiy that they are always lucky) is fully difcufled in my letter to Mr. Repton. The principle, which is here ex- emplified in trees and hollow lanes, extends to objedls of much greater importance, to every fpecies of improve- ment, even to the higheft and moft important of all, that of government. Neither improvers nor legiflators will leave r 35 ] rents, in fome places waOi down the mould from the upper grounds, and form pro- jed:ions of various /hapes, which, from the fatnefs of the foil, are generally enriched with the moft luxuriant vegetation; in other parts, they tear the banks into deep hollows, difcovering the different * ftrata of earth, and the fhaggy roots of trees; thefe hollows are frequently overgrow^n with wild rofes, with honeyfuckles, periwincles, leave every thing to negleil and accident ; but it certainly is wife in both, by carefully obferving all the efFeeen (horn. No animal indeed is fo confiant- ly introduced in landfcapc as the iheep, but that (as I obfcrved before) does not prove fuperior pidturefquenefs ; and I imagine, that befides their innocent charadter (fo fuit^ ed to paftoral fcenes, of which they are the natural inhabitants) it arifes from their being of a tint at once brilliant and mellow, and which unites happily with all objects j and alfo from their producing broader maffes of light and ihadow than any other animal. The reverfe of this is true with regard to deer; their wild appearance, their lively adion, their fudden bounds, the intricacy of their branching horns, are circumftances highly pidurefque ; their effed; in groups is apt to be meagre and fpotty. Among [ 73 ] Among favage animals, the lion with Jjis fliaggy maoe is much more pi(flu- refque than the lionefs, though flie is equally an objeft of terror. The efFedt of fmoothnefs or roughnefs, in producing the beautiful or the pi6:u- refque, is again clearly exemplified in birds. Nothing is more ftri(5tly beautiful, or more happily conveys that idea, than their plu- mage when fmooth and undifturbed — when the eye glides over it without interruption. Nothing, on the other hand, has a more pid:urefque effc<^ than feathers, when they are placed as detached ornaments, or when in their natural ftate they are ruffled by any accidental circumftance — by any fudden paffion in the animal — or when they appear fo from their natural arrangement. As all the effedis of paffion and of ftrong emotion on the human figure and countenance arc pidurefque, fuch likewife are their cffeds on [ 74 ] on the plumage of birds; when inflamed with anger, or with defire, the firfl fymp- toms appear in their ruffled plumage *. The game cock, when he attacks his rival, raifes the feathers of his neck, the purple pheafant his creft, and the peacock, when he feels the return of fpring, fliews his paflion in the fame manner, And every featber fhivers with delight. Many birds have received from nature * In all animals the fame caufes produce the fame kind of efFedt. The briftles of the wild boar, the quills on the fretful porcupine, are fuddenly raifcd by fudden emotions ; and it is curious to obferve how all that dif- turbs inward calm, creates a correfpondent roughnefs without. The firft fymptoms of the interruption of that ftate of the mind, which fo well anfwers to the beautiful, is an interruption of outward fmoothncfs. In man, when inflamed with anger, the eye-brows are contraded, the Ikin wrinkled ; and the moft terrible of animals (hews the fame pidurefque marks of rage and fiercenefs. the [ 75 ] the fame picfturefque appearance as in others happens only accid'JOVuJiy : fuch are the birds v.hofe heads and necks are adorn- ed with ruffs, with crefts, and with tufts of plumes; not lying fmoothly over each other as thcfc of the back, but loufely and irre- gularly difpofed. Thefe are, perhaps, the moft ftriking and attractive of all birds (and it is the fame in all other objeds) as hav- ing that degree of roughnefs and irregula- rity, which gives a fpirit to ftnoothnefs and lymmetry; and as thefe lafl: qualities pre- vail, the refult of the whole is juftly called beautiful. Birds of prey have generally more of the pidurefque, from the angular form of their beaks, the rough feathers on their legs, their crooked talons, their colour (on which I fhali fay more hereafter) as alfo from their adion and energy 3 all this counter- l^alances the general fmoothnefs of the plu- mage [ 76 1 mage on their backs and wings, which they have in common with the reft of the feathered creation. Laftly, among our own fpecies, beggars, gypfies, and all fuch rough tattered figures as are merely pic- turefque, bear a clofe analogy, in all the qualities that make them fo, to old hovels and mills, to the wild fore ft horfe, and other objeds of the fame kind. More dignified characters, fuch as a Be- Hfarius — a Marius in age and exile *, have the fame mixture of pidurefquenefs, and of decayed grandeur, as the venerable re- mains of the magnificence of paft ages. If we afcend to the hlghcft order of created beings, as painted by the grandefl: of our poets, they, in their Itate of glory * The noble pi£^ure of Salvator Rofa, ^t Lord Townfend's, which in the print is called Belifarius, has been thouaht to be a Marius amono- the ruins of Carthage. and I 77 ] and happiiiefs, raiie chiefly ideas of beauty and fablimity : like earthly objedls, they become pidurefque when * ruined — when Ihadows have obfcured their original bright- nefs, and that uniform, though angelic expreflion of pure love and joy, has been deftroyed by a variety of warring paf- iions : Darken'd fo, yet fhone Above them all the archangel ; but his face Deep fears of thunder had entrench'd, and care Sat on his faded cheek ; but under brows Of dauntlefs courage and confiderate pride Waiting revenge ; cruel his eye, but caft Signs of remorfe and pafHon. * If from nature we turn to that art from which the expreflion itfelf is taken, wc (hall find all the principles of pidlurefque- nefs confirmed. Among painters, Salvator * Nor appear 'd Lefs than archangel ruined, and the excefs Of glory obfcured. Rofa [ 78 1 Rofa is one of the mod: remarkable for his piiflurefque effeds, and in no other mafter are feen fuch abrupt and rugged forms, fuch fudden deviations both in his figures and his landfcapes ; and the rough- nefs and broken touches of his penciUing, admirably accord with the objects they iharaderife. Guide, on the other hand, was as emi- nent for beauty ; in his celeftial counte- nances are the happiefl examples of gra- dual variation — of lines that melt, and flow into each other; no fudden break — no- thing that can dillurb that pleafing lan- guor which the union of all that confti- tutes beauty impreffes on the foul. The ftile of his hair is as fmooth as its own charadler, and its efFedt in accompanying the face will allow; the flow of his dra- pery — the fweetnefs and equality of his pencilling— and the filvery clearnefs and purity [ 19 ] purity of his tints, are all examples of the juftnefs of Mr. Burke's principles of beau- ty. But the works even of this great mafter, flievv us how unavoidably an at- tention to mere beauty, and flow of out- line, will lead towards famenefs and infi- pidity. If this has happened to a painter of fuch high excellence, who fo well knew the value of all that belongs to his art, and whofe touch, when he painted a St. Peter or a St. Jerome, was as much admired for its fpirited and charaderiftic roughnefs, as for its equality and fmooth- nefs in his angels and madonnas, — what muft be the cafe with men v/ho have been tethered all their lives in a clump or a belt ? There is another inftance of contraft be- tween two eminent painters, which I can- not forbear mentioning, as it confirms the alliance between roughnefs and pidu- rcfquenefs. [ 8o ] refquenefs, and between fmoothnefs and beauty, and fhevvs, in the latter cafe, the confequent danger of famenefs. Of all the painters who have left behind them a high reputation, none, perhaps, was more uniformly fmooth than Albano, or lefs de- viated into abruptnefs of any kind; none alfo have greater monotony of charader; but, from the extreme beauty and delica- cy of his forms, and his tints (particularly in his children) and his exquifite finifh- ing, few pidures are more generally cap- tivating. His fcholar, Mola, (and that circum- flance makes it more fmgular) is as re- markable for many of thofe oppofite qua- lities which diftinguifh S. Rofa, though he has not the boldnefs and animation of that original genius. There is hardly any painter whofe pldures more immediately catch the eye of a connoifleur, than thofe S of r 8i ] of Moia, or that lefs attradt the notice of a perfon unufed to painting. Salvator has a favage grandeur, often in the highefl: de- gree fubhme 3 and fubUmity, in any fliape, will command attention ; but Mola's fcenes and figures, for the moft part, are neither fublime nor beautiful ; they are purely pidlurefque t his touch is lefs rough than Salvator's ; his colouring has, in general, more richnefs and variety -, and his pictures feem to me the moft perfedl examples of the higher ftile of pid:urefque- nefs : infinitely removed from vulo:ar na- ture, but having neither the foftnefs and delicacy of beauty, nor that grandeur of conception which produces the fublime* Vol. 1, O CHAP- [ S2 ] CHAPTER IV. FROM all that has been ftated in the laft chapter, pidurefquenefs appears to hold a ftation between beauty and fubll- mity -y and on that account, perhaps, is more frequently, and more happily blended with them both, than they are with each other. It is, however, perfectly diftind from either; for in the firfl place it is evident that pidu- refquenefs and beauty are founded on very oppofite qualities ; the one on fmoothnefs*, the * Baldncfs feems to be an exception, as there fmooth.- nefs is pl^lurcfque, and not beautiful. It is, however, an exception, which, inftead of wcaiccning, confirms what I have faid, and fhews the conftant oppofition of the two charadlers, even where their caufes appear to be confounded. Baldnef?, is the fmoothncfs of age and decay, not of youth, health, and frcflmefs : it is picturefque, from pro- ducing t 83 ] the other on roughnefs ; — the one on gra- dual, the other on fudden variation j — the one on ideas of youth and frefhnefs, the other on that of age, and even of decay. But as mofl: of the quaHties of viiibk beauty (excepting colour) are made known to. us through the medium of another fenfe, the fight itfelf is hardly more to be attended to than the touch, in regard to all thofe fenfations which are excited by beautiful forms ; and the diftin(5lion be- tween the beautiful and the pid;urefque will, perhaps, be moll: flrongly pointed out by means of the latter fenfe. 1 am ducing variety and peculiarity of chara6ler j from de- firoying the ufual fymmetry and regularity of the face, and fubftituting an uncertain, inftead of a certain boun- dary. When a bald head is well plalftered and flowered, and the boundary of the forehead diftinftly marked in po- matum and powder, it has as little pretenfion to pic- turefquenefs as to beauty. G 2 aware L ^+ ] aware that this Is liable to a grofs and ob- vious ridicule; but for that reafon none but grofs and common-place minds will dwell upon it. Mr. Burke has cbferved, that * " men are carried to the fex, in general, as it is the fex, and by the common law of na- ture j but they are attached to particulars by perfonal beauty -y' he adds, " I call beauty a foclal quality ; for where women and men, and not only they, but when other animals give us a fenfe of joy and pleafurc in beholding them (and there are many that do fo) they infpire us with fentiments of tendernefs and affedlion towards their perfons ; we like to have them near us, and w^e enter wilHngly into a kind of rela- tion with them." Thefe fentiments of tendernefs and af- fediion, nature has taught us to exprefs by * Sublime and Beautiful, p. 66. carefles, t 85 ] carefTes, by gentle prefTure ; thefe are the endearments we make ufe of (where fex is totally out of the qiieftlon) to beautiful children, to beautiful animals, and even to things inanimate ; and where the fize and charadler (as in trees, buildings, &c.) ex- clude any fuch relation, ftill fomething of the fame difference of fenfation between them, and rugged objed:s, appears to fub- fifl; that fenfation however is diminished as the fize of any beautiful objed: is en- creafed; and as it approaches towards gran- deur and magnificence, it recedes from lovelinefs. As the eye borrows many of its fenfa- tion s from the touch, fo that again feems to borrow others from the fight. Soft, frefli, and beautiful colours, though " not fenfible to feeling as to fight," give us an inclination to try their effed on the touch j whereas, if the colour be not beautiful, G 3 that [ 86 ] that inclination, I believe, is always dimi- nifhed, and, in objeds merely pidturefque, and void of all beauty, is rarely excited *. I obferved in a former part, that fymme- tiy, which perfectly accords with the beau- tiful, is in the fame degree adverfe to the pid:urefque : i?' regularity is therefore a ftrongly marked diftindion between the two chara6ters. The general fymmetry which prevails in the forms of animals, is obvious, but as no precife ftandard of it in each fpecies has been made, or acknow- ledged, any flight deviation from what is mofl ufual, is fcarcely attended to. In the human form, from our being more nearly interefted in all that belongs to it, fymme- * I have read, indeed, in fome fairytale, of a country, where age and wrinlcles were loved and carefled, and youth and frefhnefs neglefted ; but in real life, I fancy, the moft pifturefque old woman, how^cver her admirer may ogle her on that account, is perfectly fafe from his carefTes. try [ 8/ ] try has been more accurately defined -, and as far as human obfervation and felecftion can fix a ftandard for beauty, that fi:andard has been fixed by the Grecian fculptors, and is acknowledged in all the mofl civilized parts of Europe : a near approach to that ftandard makes the perfon to be called re- gularly beautiful ^ a departure from it, (whatever ilriking and attractive peculia- rity it may beflow) is ftill a departure from that perfeftion of ideal beauty, fo dili- gently fought after, and fo nearly attained by thofe great artifts -, from the few pre- cious remains of whofe works, we have learned the rudiments of that fcience (as it might almofi: be called) which gave birth to them, the fcience of diflinguifhing what is moil exquifite and perfedl, from the more ordinary degrees of excellence. There are fome exprefTions in the lan- guage of a neighbouring people of lively G 4 imagina- [ 88 ] imagination, among whom gallantry and attention to the other fex has been particu- larly cultivated, which feem to imply an uncertain idea of fome charadler, which was not precifely beauty, but which, from whatever caufes, produced ftriking and pleafing efFe(^s : fuch are une phyjionomie de fantaijiey and the well known expreffion of iin certain jc nefgais qtioi , it is alfo com- mon to fay ot a wcaian — que fans etre belle elle efl piquante — a word by the bye that in many points ^nfwers very exacftly to picftu- rcfque. The amufmg hiflory of Roxalana and the Sultan, is at the fame time the hiilory of the picturefquc or the piquanty both in regard to perfon and manners, and alfo of its efFeds. Marmontel certainly did* not intend to 31 ve the petit 7ie% retroiifse as a beautiful feature, but to fhew how much fuch a ftriking irregularity ^ might accord and co-operate with the fame fort of irregularity [ 89 1 in the charader of the mind. The playful, unequal, coqueti'li Roxalana, full of fudden turns and caprices, is oppofed to the beau- tiful, tender, and conftant Elvira ; and the effeds of irritation, to thofe of foftnefs and languor : the tendency of the qualities of beauty alone towards monotony, are no lefs happily infinuated. Although there are no generally received flandards with refpedt to animals, yet thofe who have been in the habit of breeding them, and of attending to their forms, have fixed to themfelves certain ftandards of per- fedion ; Mr. Bakewell, like Phidias or Apelles, had probably formed in his mind an idea of perfection *, beyond what he had * It may be faid, that this perfedion relates only to their difpofition to produce fat upon the moft profitable parts ; a very grazier-like, and material idea of beauty it mull: be fairly owned. But ftilj, if a flandard of ftiapc (from whatever caufe) be acknowledged, and called beautiful, I 90 ] fecn in nature ; and which, like them, but by a different procefs, he was conftantly endeavouring to imbody. Any departure from the mofl: perfedl ftandard which he had realized, both he, and all thofe who acknowledged it, would probably confider as an irregulai-ity in the form, — as a de- viation from their idea of beauty, how- ever ftriking the animal might be to others in its general appearance. More mark- ed and fudden deviations from the general fymmctry of animals, whether arifmg from particular conformation, from accident, or from the effefts of age or difeafe, often very flrongly attrad: the painter's notice, and are recorded by him; but they never can be thought to make the objedl more beautiful : many of thefe would, on the contrary, by moll n:en be called deform i- beautiful, any departure from that fettled correfpondence and fymmetry of parts, v/i 11 certiinlj,' within that jurif- didion, be confidercd as a departure from beauty. ties, I 91 ] ties, and not without reafon. I fhall here- after have occafion to fhew the connection, as well as the diftlndion that fabfifls be- tween deformity and pi(5turefquenefs. If we turn from animal to vegetable nature, many of the moft beautiful flowers have a high degree of fymmetry : fo much fo, that their colours appear to be laid on after a regular and finiflied defign : but beauty is fo much the prevailing charac- ter of flowers, that no one feeks for any thing pidlurefque among them. In trees, on the other hand, every thing appears fo loofe and irregular, that fymmetry feems out of the quefl:ion ; yet dill the fame ana- logy fubfifl:s. A beautiful tree, confldered in point of form only, mufl: have a certain correfpondence of parts, and a comparative regularity * and proportion, whereas ine- quality * Cowley has very accurately enumerated the chief cjualities of beauty, in his defcription of what he confiders as [ 92 ] quality and irregularity alone, will give to a tree a piBurefque appearance; more efpe- cially if the effeds of age and decay, as well as of accident are confpicuous ; when, for inftance, fome of the limbs are fliat- tered, and the broken flump remains in the void fpacej when others, half twifted round by winds, hang downwards; while others again, flioot in an oppofite diredion, and perhaps fome large bough projeds fideways as one of the moll beautiful of trees, — the lime. He has not forgot fymmetry in the catalogue of its charms, though it is probabb that few readers will agree with him in admiring the degree, or the ftyle of it, which is difplayed in the lime : but exacl fymmetry in all things, was then as extravagantly in fafhion, as it is now (per- haps too violently) in difgrace. Stat Philyra ; baud omnes formofior altera furgit Inter Hamadryades ; molliflima, Candida, lasvis, Et viridante coma, & bene olenti flore fuperba, Spargit odoratam late atque aqualiter umbram. If we take Candida for clear, as candidi fontes j and viridante as peculiarly frefh and verdant, we have every quality of beauty feparatcly confidered. from [ 93 J from below the flag- headed top, and then as fuddenly turns upwards, and rifes above it. The general proportion of fuch trees, whether tall or fhort, thick or flender, is not material to their charad:er as pi5lu- rcfque objedls, but where elegance and gracefulnefs are concerned, a fliort thick proportion will not give an idea of thofe qualities. There certainly arc a great va- riety of pleafing forms and proportions in trees, and different men have different pre- diledlions, juffc as they have with refpedt to their own fpecies; but I never knew any perfon, who (if he obferved at all) was not flruck with the gracefulnefs arid elegance of a tree, whofe proportion was rather tall, whofe flem had an eafy fvveep, but which returned again in fuch a manner, that the whole appeared completely poifed and ba- lanced, and whofe boughs were in fome degree pendent, but towards their extremi- ties [ 94 1 ties made a gentle curve upwards : if ta fuch a form you add fre{h and tender foliage and bark, you have every quality afligned to beauty. In the laft chapter I defcribed the pro- cefs by which a beautiful artificial object becomes pidturefquc ; I will now fliew the limilar eifed of the fame kind of procefs, ia natural Q\>]t&.'^ ; and what may more point- edly illuftrate the fubjedl, will compare at the fame moment the eiFed of that procefs on animate and inanimate objeds. It can- not be faid that there is much general ana- logy between a tree, and a human figure -, but there is a great deal in the particular qualities which make them either beautiful, or pidurefque : almoft all the qualities of beauty, as it might naturally be expeded, belong to youth ; and, among them all> none is more confonant to our ideas of beauty, or gives fo general an impreiTion of I iU [ 95 ] it, as frellinefs : without it, the moft perfed form wants its moil: precious finifli -, where- ever it begins to fade, wherever marks of age, or of unhealthinefs appear, — though other effcds, other fympathies, other cha- racters may arife, — there mufl: be a diminu- tion of beauty/ Fre/linefs belongs equally to human, and to vegetable beauty, and is diffufed over the whole appearance ; many particular parts have likevvife a mutual ana- logy : the luxuriancy of foliage, anfwers to that of hair ; the delicate fmoothnefs of bark*, to that of the fkin; and the clear, even, and tender colour of it to that of the com- plexion : there is in both c^Co (though much more fenlibly in the fkin) another * Many forts of trees, like many individuals of the human fpecies, never have the frelhnefs of youth ; the one in the bark, or.the foliage ; the other in the fkm, or the complexion, or both of them in their general appcar- ^-"fp. J am here fu/pofing the change to be made, f om whit is in. Qvcry part, moft fre(h and beautiful in each. beauty [ 96 ] beauty arifing from a look of foftnefs, and fupplenefs, fo oppofite to the hard and dry appearance, which, as well as roughnefs, is brought on by age ; and which peculiar foftnefs (arifing in this cafe from the free circulation of juices to every part, and in contra- diftinftion to what is dry, though yielding to preffure) is well expreffed by the Greek word 'vy^oTijg; a word whofe meaning I fliall have occafion to dwell more fully upon hereafter*. The earlieft, and moft perceptible attacks of time, are made on the bark, and on the Ikin, which at firft, however, merely lofe their evennefs of furface, and perfed: clearnefs of colour : by degrees, the lines grow ftronger in each; the tint more dingy ; often unequal and in fpots ; and in proportion as either trees, or men or women, advance towards decay, the regular progrefs of time, and often the effeds of * See Appendix. aqcident. i: 97 ] ec^cident, occafion great and partial changes in their forms. In trees, the various hol- lows and inequalities which are produced by fome parts failing, and others in confe- quence falling in — from accidental marks and protuberances — and from other circum- flances, which a long courfc of years gives rife to, are obvious ; and many correfpondent changes, and from fimilar caufes, in the hu- man form, are no lefs obvious. By fuch changes, that nice fymmetry and correfpon- dence of parts, fo eiTential to beauty, is in both deftroyed ; in both, the hand of time traces ftill deeper furrows, and roughens their furface ; a few leaves, a few hairs, are thinly fcattered on their fummits ; that light, airy, afpiring * look of youth is gone, • With refpedt to trees I have heard it remarked by •imber-merchants, that when the top-(hoots of a tree ceafe to afplre, and feem rather to turn downwards, it will grow no more, however well the buds and leaves may appear. Vol. I. H and [ 98 ] and both feem fhrunk and tottering, and ready to fall with the next blaft. Such is the change from beauty j and to what ? lurely not to a higher, or an equal degree, or to a different ftyle of beauty, no, nor to any thing that refembles it : and yet, that both thefe objedts, (even in this lafl ftate) have often ftrong attradions for pain- ters — their works afford fufhcicnt teilimo- ny ; that they are called pidlurefque — the general application of the term to fuch ob- jeds, makes it equally clear; and that they totally differ from what is beautiful — the common feelings of mankind no lefs con- vincingly prove. One mifapprehenfion I would wifli to guard againft ; I do not mean, by the inftanccs I have given, to affert, that an objed, to be pidurefque, muft be old and decayed ; but that the mofl beautiful objects will often become fo, by age, and by decay : and I believe it is equally tnie. [ 99 ] true, that thofe which are naturally of a ft rongly marked, and peculiar charatfler, are likely to become flill more pidurefque, by the procefs I have mentioned. I have now very fully ftated the principal circumftances by which the pid:urefque, is feparated from the beautiful. It is equally diftindt from the fublime ; for though there are fome qualities common to them both, yet they differ in many eflential points, and proceed from very different caufes. In the firfl place, greatnefs of dimenlion * is a powerful caufe of the fublime ; the pidlu- refque has no connedlion with dimenfion of any kind (in which it differs from the -beautiful alfo) and is as often found in the * I would by no means lay too much ftrefs on great- nefs of dimenfion ; but what Mr. Burke has obferved with regard to buildings, is true of many natural ob- je<5ls, fuch as rocks, cafcades, &c. : Where the fcale is too diir.inutive, no greatnefs of manner will give them grandeur. H 2 fmalleft [ 100 ] fmallcft as in the large il objeds. — The fu- blime, being founded on principles of awe and terror, never defcends to any thing light, or playful; the pidurefque, whofe chara^leriflics are intricacy and variety, is equally adapted to the grandeft, and to the gayeft fcenery. — Infinity is one of the moft efficient caufesof the fublime ; the bound- lefs ocean, for that reafon, infpires awful fenfations : to give it piclurefquenefs, you muft deftroy that caufeofits fublimity^ for it is on the fhape, and difpofition of its boundaries, that the pi6lurefqlie muft, in great meafure, depend. Uniformity (which is fo great an enemy to the pidurefque) is not only compatible with the fublime, but often the caufe of it. That general, equal gloom which is fpread over all nature before a ftorm, with the llillnefs, fo nobly defcribed by Shakefpear, is in the highefl degree fub- lime. [ 101 ] lime *. The pidiurefque, requires greater va- riety, and does not fhew itfelf, till the dread- ful thunder has rent the region, has tofTed the clouds into a thoufand towering forms, and opened (as it were) the recelTes of the iky. A blaze of light unmixed with fhade, on the fame principles, tends to the fublime only : Milton has placed light, in its mod glorious brightnefs, as an inacceffible bar- rier round the throne of the Almighty : For God is light, And never but in unapproached light, Dwelt from eternity. And fuch is the power he has given even to its diminifhed fplendor. That the brightefl feraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes, * And as we often fee againfl a ftorm A filence in the heavens, the wrack ftand ftill, The bold winds fpeechlefs, and the orb iifcif As hufh as death, anon the dreadful thunder Does rend the region. H3 In [ 102 •] In one place, indeed, he has introduced very pidturefque circumflances in his fu- bUme reprcfentation of the deity ; but it is of the deity in wrath, — it is when from the weaknefs and narrownefs of our concep- tions, we give the names, and the effedls of our paffions, to the all-perfev£', Eu^coEvra, ret te ruyEaa-i Seoi TTSp. IL u. $6. * Longinus has only quoted the latter part of this paf- fage, and has begun his quotation by a verfe taken from a different part of the fame book ; but this does not at all affed the arguments I 2 The [ "6 ] The moft fublime pafTiige (according to my idea) in Virgil, or perhaps in any other poet, is that magnificent perfonification of a thunderflorm. Ipfe Pater, media nimborum in no(Ste, corufca Fulmina molltur dextra, quo maxima motu Terra tremet, fugere ferae, & mortalia corda Per gentes humilis ftravit pavor, — Hie flagranti Aut Atiio aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo Dejlcit. DivefV thefe two pafTages of terror, what remains ? In this laft particularly, the fublime oppofition between the caufe, and the efFcdl of terror, more ftrongly than in any other, illuftrates the principle. And I may here obferve, that one circumftance which gives peculiar grandeur to perfoni- fications, is, the attributing of natural events, to the immediate adtion of fome angry, and powerful agent. Ipfe Pater media, &c. Neptunus muros faevoque emota tridente Fuudamentja quatit. When- f i'7 ] Whenever Dante is mentioned, the in- fcription over the gates of hell, and the Conte Ugolino, are among the firft things which occur. Milton's Paradife Lofl is wrought up to a higher pitch of awful terror than any other poem j to a mind full of poetical fire, he added the moft ftudied attention to effed ; and I think there is a fmgular inflance of that attention, and of the ufe he made of terror, in one of his moft famous limiles : As when the fun new rifen, Looks through the horizontal mifty air Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon In dim eclipfe, difuftrous twilight flieds On half the nations. Thefe circumftances are perfedly appli- cable to the fallen archangel; but Milton poffibly felt that the fun himfelf, when ihorn of his beams, and in eclipfe, was a lefs magnificent objedt than when in full I 3 fplendour. [ i>8 ] fplendour, and therefore added * that dig- nified image of terror And with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. From Shakefpear alfo, a number of de- tached pafTages might be quoted, to prove what furely needs no additional argument ; but that moft original creator, and moft ac- curate obferver, of whom no Englifhman can fpeak without enthufiafm, has furnifhed a more ample proof of the fublime effed: of unremitting terror. Let thofe who have read, or feen his tragedies, confider which among them all is moft ftrikingly fubhme; * It might even be conjecSlured, that he had literally added that laft image -, for the paufe (which no poet took more pains to vary) is the fame as in the preceding line, and the half verfe which follows « Darken'd fo, yet fhone" would do equally well in point of metre, and of fenfe after On half the nations, which [ i>9 ] which of them moft fufpends all our facul- ties in aftonifhment ; I believe almoft every voice will give it for Macbeth*, In that all is terror; and therefore either Ariftotlc, Longinus, Shakefpear, and Burke, or Mr, G. Mafon, and his learned friends, have been totally wrong in their ideas of the fublime, and of its caufes. ^ ' . That the fame principle prevails in all natural fcenery, has been fo fully, and clearly explained by Mr. Burke, that any further arguments feem fuperfluous ; yet as it fometimes happens, that what is placed in a different, though lefs ftriking light, may * The paffage from Ariftotle, lately prefixed by a poet of great eminence, to a wild and marvellous tale, which he has tranflated from the German, will not afFe6l the tragedy of Shakefpear j for no one can fay that in Macbeth the marvellous only prevails. It furnifhes,.. however, another proof (if proofs were wanting) that terrible and fublime were frequently ufed as nearly fyno- nymous terms. 'Ot 3i, /u>j to ^ofi'gfov, a>^^ to rt^arcihi fiwov Tra^surKtuac^onei) oi/Jev r^ayu^iXf HOivuviir{» I 4 chance [ 120 ] chance to ftrike particular minds, I will mention a few things which have occurred to me. I am perfuaded that it would be difficult to conceive any fet of objeds, to which, however grand in themfelves, an addition of terror, would not give a higher degree of fublimity ; and furely that muft be a caufe, and a principal caufc, the in- creafe of which increafes the efFedt; the ab- fence of which, weakens, or deftroys it. The fea is at all times a grand objed: 3 need I fay how much that grandeur is increafed by the violence of another element ? and again, by thunder and lightning ? how fhips in diftrefs, and amongft rocks ftill add to it ? Why are rocks and precipices more fublime, when the fea dafhes at the foot of them, forbids all accefs, or cuts oiF all retreat, than when we can with eafc approach, or retire from them ? How is it that Shakefpear has heightened the fubli- mity ^ [ i2r ] mity of Dover cliffs, fo much beyond what the real fcene exhibits ? by terror ; he has placed terror on the fummit, with Glou- cefter, ready to throw himfelf down the abyfs ; he has fufpended it in the middle, where <* Half way down ** Hangs one who gathers famphirej dreadful trade.'* He has again ftationed it on the beech be- low, and has drawn an idea of terror from the comparative deficiency of one knfc : The murmuring furge That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes Cannot be heard fo high j I'll look no more Lell my brain turn. The nearer any grand and terrible ob- jects in nature prefs upon the mind (pro- vided that mind is able to contemplate them with awe, but without abjed: fear *) the * In what manner, and by what fympathies, terror, in its various degrees and modifications, produces an idea of fublimity, [ 122 ] the more fubllme will be their effects. The moft favage rocks, precipices, and ca- tarads, as they keep their ftations, are only awful ; but fhould an earthquake fhake their foundations, and open a new gulph beneath the catarad, — he, who removed from immediate danger, could dare at fuch a moment, to gaze on fuch a fpecftacle, would furely have fenfations of a much higher kind, than thofe which were im- prefTed upon him when all was ftill and unmoved. fublimity, is a curious, but not an eafy fubjeft of difcuflion; certain it is, that we never fympathize with what is mean and cowardly, and that the effed of the fublime (how- ever produced) muft in all cafes be that of exalting the mind of the reader, or fpedlator. That effect Longinus has defcribed with equal juftnefs and energy. CHAP. [ ^23 ] CHAPTER V. /^AF the three charaders, two only, are ^^-^ in any degree fubjed to the im- prover ; to create the fubllme is above our contrad:ed pov^^ers, though we may fome- times heighten, and at all times lower its efFedls by art. It is, therefore, on a pro- per attention to the beautiful, and the pic- turefque, that the art of improving real landfcapes muft depend. As beauty is the moft pleafing of all ideas to the human mind, it is very natural that it fhould be moft fought after, and that the name ihould have been applied to every fpecies of excellence. [ 124 ] excellence. Mr. Burke has done a great deal towards fettling the vague and contra- didory ideas which were entertained on that fuhjeft, by inveftigating its principal caufes and efFeds ; but as the beft things are often perverted to the worft purpofes, fo his ad- mirable trcatifehas, perhaps, been one caufe of the infipidity which has prevailed under the name of improvement. Few places have any claim to fublimity, and where nature has not given them that charader, art is ineffcdual ; beauty, therefore, is the great objcd, and improvers have learned from the higheft authority, that two of its prin- cipal caufes are fmoothnefs, and gradual variation ; thefe qualities are in themfelves very feducing, but they are ftill more fo (when applied to the furface of ground) from its being in every man's power to produce them; it requires neither tafle, nor invention, but merely the mechanical hand And [ 125 ] ind eye of many a common labourer; and he who can make a nice afparagus bed, has one of the moft effential quaUfications of an improver, and may foon learn the whole myftery of Hopes, and hanging levels. If the principles of the beautiful, ac- cording to Mr. Burke, and thofe of the pi(5lurefque, according to my ideas, are juft, it feldoms happens that they are perfectly unmixed ; and, I believe, it is for want of obferving how nature has blended them, and from attempting to make objedis beau- tiful, by dint of fmoothnefs and flowing lines, that fo much infipidity has arifen. The mod enchanting objed: the eye of man can behold — that which immediately prefents itfelf to his imagination when beauty is mentioned — that, in comparifon of which all other beauty appears taftelefs and uninterefting — is the face of a beautiful woman ; but even there, where nature has fixed [ '26 ] fixed the throne of beauty, the very feat of its empire, {he has guarded it, in her moft perfed: models, from its two dangerous foes — infipidity and monotony. The Greeks (who cannot be accufed of having neglecfled the fludy of beauty, or, Hke Dutch painters, of having fervilely copied whatever was be- fore them) judged that a line nearly flrait of the nofe and forehead, was necefl'ary to give a zeft to all the other flowing lines of the ^ face; then the eye brows, and the eyelafhes, by their projecting (hade over the tranfpa- rent furface of the eye, and above all the hair, by its comparative roughnefs, and its partial concealments, accompany and re- lieve the foftnefs, clearnefs, and fmooth- nefs of all the reft. Where the hair has no natural roughnefs, it is often artificially curled and crifped *, and it cannot be fup- pofed * The inflrument for that purpofe is certainly of very ancient date, as Virgil (who probably ftudied the X cojiume f 127 ] pofed that both fexes have been Co often miftaken in what would beft become them. Flowers are the mofl delicate and beau- tiful of all inanimate objeds; but their queen, cojiume of the heroic age) fuppofes it to have been in ufe at the time of the Trojan war, and makes Turnus fpeak contemptuoufly of iEneas, for having his locks perfumed, and as Madame de Sevigne exprefles it, frifes naturellement avec des fers ; Vibratos calido ferro, myrrhaque madentes. The «^/ttr^/ roughnefs or crifpnefs of hair is often men- tioned as a beauty — I'auree crejpe crini— capelli crefpe, & lunghe, & d'oro. In many points the hair has a ftriking relation to trees ; they refemble each other in their intricacy, their dudility, the quicknefs of their grovi^th, their feeming to acquire frefh vigour from being cut, and in their being detached from the folid bodies whence they fpring ; they are the varied boundaries, the loofe and airy fringes, without which mere earth, or mere flefli, however beau- tifully formed, are bald and imperfect, and want their moft becoming ornament. In catholic countries, where thofe unfortunate victims of avarice and fuperftition, are fuppofed to renounce all idea [ 128 ] queen, the rofe, grows on a rough huihf whofe leaves are ferrated, and which is full of thorns. The mofs rofe has the addition of a rough hairy fringe, which ahnoft makes a part of the Hower itfelf. The arbutus^ with its fruit, its pendant flowers, and rich glofly foliage, is, perhaps, the moft beaati- ful of all the bardier ever-green fhrubs ; but the bark of it is rugged, and the leaves (which, like thofe of the rofe, are fa wed at the edges) have thofe edges pointed up- wards, and cluftering in fpikcs j and it may poflibly be from that circumflance, and from the boughs having the fame up- right tendency, that Virgil calls it arbutus horrida, or, as it ftands in fome manu- idea of pleafing our fex, the fiifl ceremony is that of cutting off their hair, as a facrifice of the moft feducing ornament of beauty -, and the formal edge of the fillet, which prevents a fingle hair from efcaping, is well con- trived to deaden the effetSt of features. fcripts. I 129 i fcripts *, horrens. Among the foreign oaks, maples, &c. thofe are particularly efteemed, * This epithet is frequently applied to fharp pointed and jagged obje£ls, in the fame upright pofition — hor- rentibus haflis — cautibus horrens Caucafus — horridior rufco, he. The Delphin edition fuppofes It to be called horrida, quia raris eft foliis j but the arbutus is far from being thin of leaves, when in a flourifliing ftate. Ruaeus may probably have taken this idea from a verfe in the 7th Eclogue — rara tegit arbutus umbra, which he in- terprets, raris inumbrat foliis ; but in another place Virgil calls xt^froudentia arbuta; and if rara, in the firft paflagc, does mean thin (as Martyn has alfo rendered it) it accords but ill with tegit, and with the fliepherd's re- queft— folftitium pecori defendite : I therefore imagine rara may mean, in that place, (as it does in many lan- guages) excellent— rarum, quod non ubique reperitur, unde pro praeftanti fumitur. Stef. Thef. Martyn thinks it is called horrida from the roughnefs of the bark; but an epithet, which applies to the tree in general, is more likely to be given from the general outward form, fhan irom a particular part lefs apparent, and often entirely hidden. Many plants point their leaves downwards.^ as the lilac, chefnut, Portugal laurel, &c. Whoever will compare the arbutus, and the Portugal laurel, both whofe Vol. I. K leaves [ 13^ ] erieemed, whofe leaves (according to a common, though perhaps contradidlory phrafe) are beautifully jagged. The oriental plane has always been reckoned a tree of the greatefl . beauty. Xerxes's pafTion for one of them is well known, as alfb the high eftimation they were held in by the Greeks and Romans* The furface of their leaves is fmooth and glofly, and of a bright pleafant green ; but they are fo deeply indented, and fo full of fliarp angles, that the tree itfelf is oftent diftinguiflied by the name of the true Jagged oriental plane. The vine leaf has, in * all refpeds, a leaves are ferrated, will find how ftrongly the epithet, horrens, applies to the former. Of the verb horreo, Stephens fays, proprie cum pill fetaeque in animante eriguntur. Vulgarly ftand an end ; capilli horrent. * The leaf of the Burgundy vine is rough, and its in- feriority, in point of beauty, to the fmooth-leaved vines, is, I think, very apparent, and clearly owing to that cir- eumflance. ilrong f '31 ] ilrong refemblance to the leaf of the plane j and that extreme richnefs of effecft, which every body muft be ftruck with in them both, is greatly owing to thofe fliarp an- gles, to thofe fudden variations, fo contrary to the idea of beauty when confidered by itfelf. — On the other hand, a clufter of fine grapes, in point of form, tint, and light and fhadow, is a fpecimen of unmixed beauty ; and the vine, with its fruit, may be cited, , as one of the moft ftriking inftances of the union of the two charadlers, in which, how ever, that of beauty infinitely prevails : and who will venture to affert, that the charm of the whole would be greater, by feparating them ? by taking oif all the angles and fharp points, and making the outline of the leaves, as round and flowing as that of the fruit ? — The effed of thefe jagged points and angles, is more flrongly marked in fculpture, [ efpecially of vafes of metal j K 2 where [ 132 ] where the vine leaf. If imprudently hand- led, would at leafl prove that (liarpnefs is very contrary to the beautiful in feeling ; and the analogy between the two fenfes is furely very jufl. It may alfo be remarked, that in all fuch works JJjarpncfs of exe- cution is a term of high praife. I muft here obferve (and I mull beg to call the reader's attention to what in my idea throws a ftrong light on the whole of the fubjedt) that almoft all ornaments are rough, and mofl of them fharp, which is a mode of roughnefs ; and, confidered analogically, the moil: contrary to beauty of any mode. But as the ornaments are rough, fo the ground is generally fmoothj which fliews, that though fmoothnefs is the grouiid, the efiential quality of beauty, without which it can fcarcely exift — yet that roughiiefs, in its different modes and de- grees, is the ornament, the fringe of beauty § that [ ^33 ] that which gives it Hfe and {\-»int, and pre- ferves it from baldnefs and iniipidity *. * The moft beautiful, or at leaft the '"noft touching, and exquifitcly modulated of all founds, that of a fine hu- man voice, appears to the greatefi advantage when there is fomc degree of Iharpnefs ia chc '.nft:rumi-i't which ac- companies it ; as in the harp, the violin ,or the liu; pfi- chord. The flute, or even the organ, have too mucli of the fame quality of found; they ^:ve no rdijf to the voice; it is like accompanying fuooth water, with fmooth banks. Often in the fwceteft and moft flowing melodies, difcords, (which are analogous to angles and (harpnefs) are introduced, to relieve the ear from that lan- guor and wearinefs, which long continued fmoothnefs always brings on; yet will any one hy, that, confidered feparately, the found of a harpfichord is as beautiful as that of a flute, or of a human voice ; or that they ought to be clafi'ed together ? or that difcords are as beautiful as concords ; or that bo^ h are beautiful, becaufe when they are mixed with judgment the whole is more de- lightful ? Does not this fhew, that what is veryjuftly called beautiful, from the efl^ential qualities of beauty being predominant, is frequently, nay, generally compo- fite ; and that we aft agaiiift the Conftant pradtice of nature, and of judicious art, when we endeavour to make objefts more beautiful, by depriving them of what gives beauty fome of its moft powerful attra(5tions, K 2 The [ "3+ ] The column is fmooth, the capital Is. rough; the facing of a building fmooth, the frize and cornice rough, and fuddenly projecting : fo it is in vafes, in embroidery, in every thing that admits of ornament * ; and as ornament is the moft prominent and ftriking part of a beautiful whole, it is frequently taken for the moft effential part, and obtains the firft place in defcriptions. A plain ftone building, without any fharp ornaments, may be very beautiful, and by many perfons be thought peculiarly fo from its fimplicity ; but were an architect to ornament the fliafts, as well as the capitals of * A goblet, rich with gems and rough with gold. — Pallani iignis auroque rigentem. Confider what is the natural, the only proccfs in ornamenting any fmooth furface, independently oi co- lour 5 it mult be by making it Icfs fmooth, that is, com- paratively rough : there mufl be different degrees and modes of roughntfs, of iharpn!.fs, and this is the character of thofe ornaments that have been admired for ages. his his columns, and all the fmooth flone work of his houfe or temple, there are few people who would not be fenfible of the difference between a beautiful building, and one richly- ornamented. This, in my mind, is the fpirit of that famous reproof of Apelles (among all the painters of antiquity the moll: renowned for beauty) to one of his fcholars who was loading a Helen with ornaments ; " Young man," faid he, " not being able to paint her beautiful, you have made her jich." K4 CHAP- [ 136 1 CHAPTER VI. AS, notwithftanding the various and flriking lights m which Mr. Burke has placed the aHi.ince between fmooth- nefs and beauty, and in fpite of the very clofe and convincing ari-uments he has drawn, by analogy, from the other fenfes, that pofition has been doubted *. — I hope it * A pcrfon of the moft unqucftioiied abilities, and general accuracy of judgment, but who had not paid much attention to this fuhjeil, afTerted that a variety of obje£ls were beautiful, without the lead frnoothnefs ; and that the piclurcfque was always included cither in the fublimc, or the beautiful. I afked him what he would call an old rugged mofly oak, with branches twifted into [ ^37 ] it will not be thought prefumptuous in me to offer fome farther illufrrations, on a fubjedt which he has treated fo copioufly, and in fo mafterly a manner. I am, in- deed, highly interefted in the queftion, for if his principles be falfe, mine are equally fo. I imagine the doubt to have arifen, from its being fuppofed that all which ftrongly attrads and captivates the eye, is included in the fublioie, and the beautiful ; but I cannot help flattering myfelf, that the having coniidered and compared the three charadlers together, has thrown a reciprocal light on each ; and that the pidturefque fills up a vacancy between the fublime and the into fudden and irregular deviations, but which had no character of grandeur ? He faid, he fliould call it a pretty tree. He would probably have been furprifed if 1 had called one of Rembrant's old hags a pretty woman j and yet they are as much alike as a tree and a woman can well be. beautiful, I 138 ] beautiful, and accounts for the pleafure w« receive from many objeds on principles dif- tind from them both ; which objeds fhould therefore be placed on a feparate clafs. One principal effed: of fmoothnefs (and to which perhaps it owes its fo general power of pleafing) is, that it gives an ap- pearance of quiet and repofe. Rough- nefs,* on the contrary, a fpirit and ani- mation. * By roughnefs, I mean what is in any way contrary to fmoothnefs ; whatever is rough, rugged, or angular, whether the objed be polifhcd, or unpoHflied. Accord- ing to this definitionj poliflied furfaces if cut into an- gles, (a? polifhed fteel, glafs- or diamond) can no longer be confidercd as fmooth objeils, though parts of them will be fmooth. A diamond when fmooth, has, like other polifhed fur- facer-, a confidarable degree of ftimulus j but when its furface is cut into iharp points and angles, it becomes infinitely more itiniulating. It is by means of thefe angles, of thefe fharp points, that a diamond acquires its di/linguithed title of a brilliant ; without them a piece of cut-glafs (as it is termed) would deferve it better. Again [ 139 ] mation. Thefe feem to me the moft pre- vailing efFed:s of the beautiful and the pic* turefque, as likewife the means by which they generally operate : and if thefe pre- mifes be true, it will be juft to conclude, that where there is a want of fmoothnefs, there is a want of repofe, and confequently of beauty; and on the other hand, that where there is no roughnefs, there is a want of fpirit and ftimulus, and confe- quently of pidurefquenefs. The fenfe of feeing (as I before ob- ferved) is fo much indebted to that of feel- ing for a number of its perceptions, that there is no confidering the one, abflradledly Again (to confider broken lights in another point of view) we can bear the full uninterrupted fplendor of the fetting fun, nay, can gaze on tne orb itfelf with little uneafinefs ; but M'hen its rays are broicen by paffing through a tliin fcreen of leaves and branches (as in a lane) no eye is proof agaiiift the ir- ritation. from [ H^ ] from the otlier : he therefore would reafon very ill on the effefts of vifion, who fhould leave out our ideas of rough and fmooth, of hard and foft, of thicknefs, diftance, 6cc. becaufe they were originally acquired by the touch. I fliould on that account fup- pofe, that befides the real irritation which they produce by means of broken lights, all broken, rugged farfaces have alfo, by fympathy, fcmethlng of the fame effed; on the fight, as on the touch ; and if it be true (as it probably will be acknowledg- ed) that fmooth furfaces (where there is no immediate irritation from light) give a repofe to the eye ; rugged and broken ones, muft produce a contrary impref- iion. But though it feems highly probable that broken and angular furfaces, both from fympathy, and from real irritation of the organ, flimulate more than fuch as are fmooth. t 14^ ] fmooth, yet the flimulus from which the ir.oilconilant and marked effedts proceed — that, which in a peculiar manner belongs to the pidurefque, and diftinguiflies it from the beautiful, — arifes principally from its two great charaderiftics, intricacy and variety, as produced by roughnefs and fudden deviation; and as oppofed to the comparative monotony of fmoothnefs, and flowing lines. If for inftance, we take any fmooth ob- jed'jwhofc lines are flowing, fuch as a down of the finefh turf, with gently fwelling knolls and hillocks of every foft and undulating form — though the eye may repofe on this with pleafure, yet the whole is fccn at once, and no farther curioflty is excited. But let thofe fwelling knolls (without altering the fcale) be changed into bold, broken pro- montories, with rude overhanging rocks ; inftead of the fmooth turf, let there be furze, heath. [ 142 1 heath, or fern, with open patches between, and fragments of rocks and large ftones lying in irregular mafles — it is clear, (on the fuppofition of thefe two fpots being of the fame extent, and on the fame fcale) that the whole of the one may be compre- hended immediately, and that if you tra- verfe it in every direction, little new can occur 'y while in the other, every flep changes the whole of the compofition* Then each of thefe broken promontories and fragments, have as many fuddenly varying forms and afpedls, as they have breaks, even without light and fhade ; but when the fun doesfhine upon them, each break is the occa- fion of fome brilliant light, oppofed to fome fudden (hadow : All deep coves, hollows, and fiffures (fuch as are ufually found in this ftyle of fcenery) invite the eye to pene- trate into their receffes, yet keep its curioHty alive, and unfatisfied ; whereas in the other, the I H3 ] the light and fhadow has the fame uniform, unbroken charad:er, as the ground itfelf. I have in both thefe fcenes avoided any mention of trees ; for in all trees of every growth, there is a comparative roughnefs and intricacy, which, unlefs counteracted by great fkill in the improver, will alv/ays prevent abfolute monotony: Yet the dif- ference between thofe which appear plant- ed, or cleared for the purpofe of beauty, with the ground made perfedly fmooth about them, and thofe which are wild and uncleared, with the ground of the fame character, is very apparent. Take, for in- ftance, any open grove, where the trees, though neither in rows nor at equal dif- tances, are detached from each other, and cleared from all underwood ; the turf on which they ftand fmooth and level; and their ftems diflindlly feen. Such a grove, of full-grown flourifhing trees, that have . had t H4 ] had room to extend their heads and branches, is defervedly called beautiful 5 and if a gravel road winds eafily through it> the whole will be in charadter. But whoever has been among foreflsi and has attentively obferved the oppofite charad:er of thofe parts, where wild tangled thickets open into glades, half feen acrofs the ftems of old flag -headed oaks, and twiftcd beeches — has remarked the irregu- lar tracks of wheels, and the foot-paths of men and animals, how they feem to have been feeking and forcing their way, in every direftion — mufh have felt hov/ differently the flimulus of curiofity is excited in two fuch fcenes ; and the effect of the lights and fhadows, is exadly in proportion to the intricacy of the objects. From all this it appears, that as a cer- tain degree of ftimulus or irritation is ne- ceffary to the pi(Surefque, fo, on the other hand. t HS ] hand, a foft and pleafing repofe, is equally the efFed, and the charaderiftic, of the beautiful. The peculiar excellence of the painter, who moft ftudied the beautiful in landfcape, is charadlerifed by // ripofo di Claudio ; and when the mind of man is in the delightful ftate of repofe, of which Claude's pid:ures are the image, — when he feels that mild and equal funfhine of the foul, which warms and cheers, but neither inflames nor irri- tates, — his heart feems to dilate with hap* pinefs, he is difpofed to every adt of kind- nefs and benevolence, to love and cherifh all around him. Thefe are the fcnfatlons, which beauty, confidered geneially, and without any diflind:ion of nature, or fex, does, and ought to infpire. A mind in fuch a ftate, is like the furface of a pure and tranquil lake ; in both, the flighted impulfe excites a correfpondent motion j and the af- VoL. I. L fedtions. [ 146 ] fedions, like the waters, feem gently to ex- pand themfelves on every fide. But if the heaviefl mafs be thrown into a rapid ftream, the cffcOi is fhort-lived; if into a river tum- bling over ftones, or dafhing among rocks, it is momentary. The one is an emblem of irritation, as the other of repofe. Irritation * is indeed the fource of our moft adlive and lively pleafures ; but its na- ture, like the pleafures which fpring from it, is eager, hurrying, impetuous: and when the mind, from whatever caufe, becomes agitated, thofe mild and foft emotions which flow from beauty, and of which beauty is the genuine fource, are fcarcely perceived. Let thofe who have been ufed to obferve the * I am aware that irritation is generally ufed in a bad fenfe ; rather as a fource of pain, than of pleafure : but that is the cafe with many words and expreflions which relate to our more eager and tumultuous emo- tions, and Iccms to point out their diflind nature and origin. works [ H7 ] Works of nature, refled: on their fenfations when viewing the fmooth and tranquil fcene of a beautiful lake, — or the wild, abrupt, and noify one, of a pifturefque ri- ver : I think they will own them to have been as different as the fcenes themfelves, and that nothing but the poverty of lan- guage, makes us call two fenfatiens fo dif- tin(5t from each other, by the common name of plea fu re. ^ Having confidered the effe«5^s of repofe and irritation, as caufed by the fixed pro- perties of material objeds, I will now ex- amine how they are produced by what is immaterial and uncertain ; and how far the various accidents of light and fliadow (two oppofite though almod infeparable ideas, and which therefore in the language of painters are often combined into one) cor- refpond with the inherent qualities of objects, and with their operation on the mind. L 2 Nothing t 148 ] Nothing is more obvious, than that all ftrong and brilHant lights, and all fadden contrafts of them with deep lliadows, Si- mulate the organ of fight. It is equally obvious, that all foft quiet lights, fuch as infenfibly melt into fhadow, and emerge from it again in the fame gradual manner, give a pleafing * repofe to the eye. Thefe pofitions will be moft aptly illuftrated, and their application to the beautiful and the pidturefque moft clearly pointed out, by attending to the pradice of two painters^ whofe works are in the hi^heft efleem, and * It Is on this charm of repofe and of foftnefs, that poets lay fo much ftrefs, when they defcribe the beau- ties of moon-light; which many of them fcem to do with peculiar fondncfs. " Now reigns ■ " Full-orb'd the moon, and with more pleajhi^ light " Shadowy fets off" the face of things." And that feeling paflage in Shakefpear ; •* How fwcet tlic moon'Y\^t Jleeps upon yon bank." of [ H9 ] of which the ftyle and charad:er is efta- blifhed by general confent. The genius of Rubens was ftrongly turned to the pi(5lurefque difpoHtion of his figures, fo as often to facrifice every other confideration to the intricacy, contraft, and flriking variations of his groups. Such a dilpolition of objeds, feems to call for fbmething fimilar in the management of the light and fhade 3 and accordingly we owe fome of the moft ftriking examples of both, to his fertile invention. In point of brilli- ancy, of fuch extreme fplendour of light as is on the verge of glare *, no pi(flures can fland in competition with thole of Rubens : fometimes thofe lights are almoll * I fpeak of thofe pidlures (and they are very nume- rous) in which he aimed at great brilliancy. As no painter poflefled more entirely all the principles of his art, the folemn breadth of his light and fhade is, on fome occafions, no lefs ftriking than its force and fplendor on others. L 3 unmixed [ 150 ] unmixed with (hade ; at other times they burft from dark fhadows, they glance on the different parts of the picture, and pro- duce that flicker (as it fometimes is called) fo captivating to the eye ; but fo dangerous alfo, when attempted by inferior artifls, or by thofe who are lefs thoroughly mafters of the prmciples of harmony, than that great painter. All thefe dazzling effeds are heightened by the fpiritcd management of his pencil, by thofe (harp, animated touches *, which give life and energy to every objedt. Correggio's * Many painters, when they reprefent any ftriking effeds of light, leave the touches of the pencil more rough and ftrongly marked, than the quality of the ob- jeds themfelves feems to juftify, Rembrant, who fuc- ceeded beyond ail others in thefe forcible efFedils, carried alfo this method of creating them farther than any other mafter. Thofe who have feen his famous pi61:ure in the ftadthoufe at Amfterdam, may remember a figure highly illuminated, whofe drefs is a filver tifllie, with fringes, taflcls, and ottier ornaments nearly of the fame btilliant colour. I >si ] Correggio's principal attention (in point of form) was direded to flow of outline and gradual variation : Of this he never entirely loft fight, even in his moft capri- cious fore-fhortenings j and the ftyle of his light and fhadow is fo congenial, that the colour. It is the moft furprifing inftance I ever faw of the effedl of that rough manner of pencilling, in pro- ducing what moft nearly approaches to the glitter, and to the irritation, which is caufed by real light when ail- ing powerfully on any obje£l j and this too, with a due attention to general harmony, and with fuch a com- manding truth ofreprefentation, as no high finifhing can give. It feems to me, that this may be accounted for on the principle I have before mentioned, of roughnefs in ma- terial objecls being a caufe of irritation. Light in itfelf has nothing that bears any relation to rough or fmooth ; but when ftrong, irritates in a high degree: As painting cannot attain to the full fplendor even of refle6lcd light, and as that fplendor a6ls by ftimulating, it is natural that painters fhould have helped out the infufficiency of the art by fome other ftimulus, and by increafmg the irritating quality of the objedl: illuminated, have ftriven to make a nearer approach to that of light itfelf. L 4 one [ ^5^ ] one feems the natural confequence of th& other. He is always cited as the mofl perfedt model of thofe foft and infenfible tranfitions, of that union of effed, which, above every thing elfe, impreffes the gene- ral idea of lovelinefs. The manner of his pencilling is exadly of a piece with the reft -, all feems melted together, but with fo nice a judgment, as to avoid, by means of certain free, yet delicate touches, that laboured hard- nefs and infipidity, which arife from what is called high finifliing. Correggio's pidures are indeed as far removed from monotony, as from glare j he feems to have felt be- yond all others, the exad degree of bril- liancy which accords with the foftnefs of beauty, and to have been, with regard to figures, what Claude was in landfcape. The pidures of Claude are brilliant in a high degree j but that brilliancy is fo dif- fufed over the whole of them, fo happily balanced. [ '53 ] balanced, fo mellowed and fubdued by that almoft vifible atmofphere, which per- vades every part, and unites all. together, that nothing in particular catches the eye ; the whole is fplendor, the whole is repofe ; every thing lighted up, every thing in fweet- eft harmony. Rubens in his landfcapes dif- fers as ftrongly from Claude, as he does from Correggio in his figures ,• they are full of the peculiarities, and pid:urefque accidents in nature; of flriking contrafts of form, colour, and light and fhadow : fun-beams burfting through a fmall opening in a dark wood — a rainbow againfl a jflormy fky efFed:s of thunder and lightning — torrents rolling down trees torn up by the roots, and the dead bodies of men and animals ; with many other fublime and pidurefque cir- cumftances. Thefe fudden gleams, thefe catarads of light, thefe bold oppofitions of ^louds and darknefs, which he has fo no- bfy [ 154 ] bly introduced, would deftroy all the beauty and elegance of Claude : On the other hand, the mild and equal fun-fhine * of that * Nothing is fb captivating, or feems fo much to ac- cord with our ideas of beauty, as the fmiles of a beautiful countenance j yet they have fometimes a ftriking mix- ture of the other character. Of this kind are thofe fmilcs which break out fuddenly from a fcrious, fometimes from almoft a fevere countenance, and which, when that gleam is over, leave no trace of it behind — Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That in a fpleen unfolds both heaven and earth ; And e'er a man has time to fay, behold ! The jaws of darknefs do devour it up. This fudden efFe£l is often hinted at by the Italian poets, as appears by their allufion to the mofl fudden and dazzling of lights ; — gVifciutllla un rifo — lampcggia un - rifo — il bahriar* d'un rifo. There is another fmile, which feems in the fame de- gree to accord with the ideas of beauty only : It is that fmile wriich proceeds from a mind full of fweetnefs and fenfibility, and which, when it is over, ftill leaves on the countenance its mild and amiable impreffion ; as after the fun is fet, the mild glow of his rays is ftill diffufed over [ '55 ] that charming painter, would as ill accord with the twifted and fingular forms, and the bold and animated variety of the land- fcapes of Rubens. Thefe few inftances from the art of painting (and many more might eafily be produced) fhew in how great a degree foftnefs, fmoothnefs, gradual variation of form, infenfible tranfitions from light to fliadow, and general repofe, are the charac- teriftic marks of artifts, whofe works are mofl celebrated for their beauty j and thefe caufes operate fo powerfully when united, that notwithftanding the pure out- line, and the happy mixture of the an- tique character in Raphael ; the angelic over every objedl. This fmile, vi^ith the glow that ac- companies it, is beautifully painted by ivlilton, as moft becoming an inhabitant of heaven : To whom the angel, with a fmile that glow'd Celeflial rofy red, love's proper hue, Thus anfwer'd. 9 air [ iS6 1 air of Guldo ; and the peculiar and feparate beauties of other painters, I believe that if a variety of perfons converfant in paint- ing, v/QTt afked what pidures (taking every circumftance together) appeared to them moft beautiful, and had left the fofteft, and moft pleafing impreffion — the majority of them v^ould fix upon Correggio. In beauty of landfcape, Claude ftands quite alone, vv^ithout a competitor. CHAP. [ ^S7 ] CHAPTER VIL THESE efPeds of harmony and re- pofe naturally lead me to that great principle of the art of * painting (for it is the great conned:ing, and harmonizing principle of nature) breadth of light and fhadow. What is called breadth, feems to bear nearly the fame relation to light and (ha- * Or rather (in a more juft and comprehenfive view) of that art, which chiefly by means of light and fhadow, bodies forth the forms of things from a plain furface,'and which, being independent of colours, includes every fpe* cies of drawing and engraving. dow. [ IS8 ] dow, as fmoothnefs docs to material ob- jeds ; for as all uneven furfaces caufe more irritation than thofe which are fmooth, and thofe moft of all which are broken into little inequalities ; fo thofe lights and Sha- dows which are fcattered and broken, are infinitely more irritating than thofe which are broad and continued. Every perfon of the leaft obfervation, muft have remarked how Irroad the lights and {hadows are on a fine evening in nature, or (what is al- mofi: the fame thing) in a pidure of Claude. He muft equally have remark- ed the extreme difference between fuch lights and fhadows, and thofe meagre and frittered ones, that fometimes difgrace the works of painters, in other refpedts of great excellence ; and which prevail in nature, when the fun-beams, refradted and difperfed in every diredlion by a number of white fliclcering clouds, create a perpetual (liifting glare. [ 159 ] glare, and keep the eye in a ftate of conflant irritation. All fuch accidental efFecfts arif- ing from clouds, though they flrongly (hew the general principle, and are highly proper to be fludied by all lovers of painting or of nature, yet not being fubjedt to our con- troul, are of lefs ufe to improvers ; a great deal however is fubje(ft to our con troul, and I believe we may lay it down as a very general maxim, that in proportion as the objedts are fcattered, unconnedted, and in patches, the lights and fhadows will be fo too ; and vice verfa. If, for inftance, we fuppofe a continued fweep of hills, either entirely wooded, or entirely bare, and under the influence of a low cloudlefs fun — whatever parts are ex- pofed to that fun, will have one broad light upon them ; whatever are hid from it, one broad fhade. If we again fuppofe this wood to have been thinned in fuch a man- ner. [ «6o ] ner, as to have left malTes, groups, arid fingle trees fo difpofed, as to prefent a plealing and conned:ed whole, though with detached parts j or, if we fuppofe the bare hills to have been planted in the fame ftyle — the variety of light and fhadow will be greatly increafed, and the general breadth flill be preferved. Nor would that breadth be injured if an old ruin, a cottage, or any building of a quiet tint, was difcovered among the trees. But if the wood were fo thinned, as to have a poor, fcattered, un- conneded appearance -, or the hills planted in clumps, patches and detached trees — the lights and fliadows would have the fame broken and disjointed effect as the objeds themfelves. If to this were added any harili contrail (fuch as clumps of firs and white buildings) the irritation would be greatly increafed. In all thefe cafes, the eye, indead of repofing on one broad, coa- nedcd [ i6i I fte6ted whole, is ftopt and haralTed by lit- tle difunited, difcordant parts : I of courfe fUppofe the fun to ad on thefe different ob- jects with equal fplendour j for there are fomc days, when the whole fky is fo full of jarring lights, that the fliadieft groves and avenues hardly preferve their folemnity; and there are others, when tlie atmofphere (like the laft glazing of a picture) foftens into mellownefs, whatever is crude through- out the landfcape. This is peculiarly the effedl: of* twilight; for * Milton, whofe eyes feem to have been moft fcn- fibly afFefted by every accident, and gradation of light, (and that pofiibly in a great degree from the weaknefs, and confequently the irritability of thofe organs) fpeaks always of tw^ilight with peculiar pleafure. He has even reverfed what Socrates did by philofophy j he has called up twilight from earth, and placed it in heaven : From that high mount of God whence light and fhade Spring forth, the face of brighteft heaven had chang*d To grateful twilight. Vol. I. M What for at that delightful time, even artificial water, however naked, edgy, and tame its banks, will often receive a momentary charm ; when all that is fcattered and cut- ting, all that difgufts a painter's eye, is blended together in one broad and footh- ing harmony of light and fhadow. I have more than once, at fuch a moment, happened to arrive at a place entirely new to me, and have been flruck in the higheft degree with the appearance of wood, wa- ter, and buildings, that feemed to accom- pany and fet off each other, in the happiefl What is alfo fingular, he has in this paflage made fliade an efTcnce equally with light, not merely a priva- tion of it ; a compliment, never, I believe, paid to Iha- dow before, but which might be expedled from his averfion to glare, fo frequently, and fo ftrongly expreffed ; Hide me from day's garijh eye. When the fun begins to fling H\s faring beams, manner; i 163 ] manner 5 and I have felt quite impatient to examine all thefe beauties by day-light : *' At length the morii, and cold indifFerence came.** The charm which held them together, and made them adl fo powerfully as a whole, was gone. It may, perhaps, be faid, that the imagi- nation, from a few imperfed: hints, may form beauties which have no exiftence, and that indifference may naturally arife, from thofe phantoms not being realized, I am far from denying the power of par- tial concealment and obfcurity on the ima- gination ; but in thefe cafes, the fame fet of objeds, when feen by twilight, is often beautiful as a pidure, and would appear highly fo, if exadtly reprefented on the can- vafs ; but in full day-light, the fun, as it were, decompounds what had been £6 happily mixed together, and feparates a M 2 flriking [ '64 ] iliriklng whole, into detached unimpreffive parts. Nothing, I believe, would be of more fervice in forming a tafte for general effect, and general compofition, than to examine the famvC fcenes, in the full diftindnefs of day, and again after fun-fet. In fa6t, twi- light does, what an improver ought to do ; it connecfls what was before fcattered ; it fills up flaring, meagre vacancies ; it deflroys edglnefs ; and by giving fhadow as well as light to water, at once increafes both its brilliancy and foftnefs. It muft however be obferved, that twilight, while it takes off the edginefs of thofe objeds which are l)e/ow the horizon, more fenfibly marks tlie outline of thofe which are oppofed to the fky ', and confequently difcovers the defects, as well as the beauties of their forms. From this circumftance, improvers may learn a very ufeful lelTon, that the outline againfl [ i65 ] againfl the Iky fliould be particularly at- tended to, fo that nothing lumpy, meagre, or difcordant fhould be there ; for at all times, in fuch a fituation, the form is made out, but moft of all when twilight has melted the other parts together. At that time many varied groups, and elegant fhapes of trees, which were fcarcely noticed in the more general difFufion of hght, diftindly appear; then too the ftubborn clump (which before w^as but too plainly fcen) makes a flill fouler blot on the horizon : while there is a glim- mering of light he maintains his pofl, nor yields, till even his blacknefs is at laft con- founded in the general blacknefs of night. Thefe are the powers and effeits of that breadth I have been defcribing, and which may juftly be confidered as a fource of vifual pleafure diftind: from all others ; for objedls, which in themfelves are neither beautiful, nor fublime, nor pidurefque, are inciden- M 3 tally [ i66 ] tally made to delight the eye, from their be- being produdive of breadth. This feems to account for the pleafure we receive from many maflive, heavy objects, which, when deprived of the efFe6l of that harmonizing principle, and confidered fmgly, are even pofitively ugly. Such, indeed, is the efftO: of breadth, that pictures or drawings eminently polTefTed of it (though they fhould have no other merit) will always attradl the atten- tion of a cultivated eye ; while others, where the detail is admirable, but where this mafter-principle is wanting, will often, at the firil view, be pafled by without notice. The mind, however, requires to be ftimu- lated as well as foothed, and there is in this, as in fo many other inflances, a Urong ana- logy between painting and mufic: the firfl effedl of mere breadth of light and fhadow is to the eye, what that of mere harmony of founds is to the ear ; both produce a pleafing repofe, a calm fober delight, which, if not re- lieved [ «67 ] lieved by fomething lefs uniform, foon finks into diftafte and wearinefs : for repofe and fleep, which are often ufed as fynonymous terms, are always nearly allied. But as the principle of harmony muft be preferved in the wiidefl and moft eccentric pieces of mufic, in thofe where fudden, and quickly varying emotions of the foul are expreffed; fo muft that of breadth be equally attended to in fcenes of buftle, and feeming confufion, in thofe where the wildeft fcenery, or moft vio- lent agitations of nature are reprefented; and I am here tempted to parody that fre- quently quoted paflagc of Shakefpeare, " in the very torrent, tempeft, and whirlwind of the elements, the artift, in painting them, muft acquire a breadth that will give them fmoothnefs." There is, however, no fmall difficulty in uniting breadth, with the detail, the fplendid variety, and marked charadier of M 4 nature. [ i68 ] nature. Claude is admirable in this, as in al- mofl every other refped. With the greateft accuracy of detail, and trpth of character, his pi»3:ures have the breadth of the fim- pleft waflied drawing, or aquatinta print ; where little clfe is exprefled, or intended. In a ilrong light, they are full of intereiling ^f}d, entertaining particulars ; and as twi- light comes on (an effe and the effect in proper* Voj,. L N tiJi:: [ -78 ] tion } but when this pitiful taftc is employ-, ed upon fome antient caftle-like manfion^ pr the * mofTy weather-ftained tower of an old church, it becomes a fort of facrilege. Such a building, daubed over and plaillered, is, next to a painted old woman, the moft difgufting of all attempts at improvement ; on both, when left in their natural ftatc, time often llamps a pleafmg and venera- ble impreffion j but when thus fophiftir cated, they have neither the frefhnefs of youth, nor the mellow pidurefque char rader of age ; and inftead of becoming * I muft here beg leave to remind the reader, that when I mentioned the great and immediate improvement of giving to a brick builclingj the colour of ftone, it was to a fiery brick. When brick becomes weather ftained 'and mofly, it harmonifes with the colours that ufually accompa ly it, and has often a richnefs, mcllowncfs, and variety of tint, infinitely pleafmg to a painter's eyej for the cool colour of the greenifli mofs lowers all the fiery quality, while the fubdued fire beneath, gives a glow to what without it would be cold and infipid. attradivc. s » [ 179 ] attra87 J deed, is of all others the moft unlverfally acknowledged; Co much fo, that from them every comparifon and illuftration of beauty is taken. The earlier trees, beiides the frefhnefs of their colour, have a remarkable light- nefs and tranfparency, without nakednefs ; their new foliage ferves as a decoration, not as a concealment, and through it the forms of their limbs are fccn, as thofe of the human body under a thin drapery : while a thoufand quivering lights, play around and amidft their branches in every diredtion, even into the innermoft parts of the woods. The circum fiances which moft peculiarly diftino-uiili trees at this feafon are charac- terifed by Mr. Gray, in two lines of ht$ beautiful lyric fragment : And lightly o'er the living fcene Scatters his tendereft, frefheft green. It t 188 ] It feems to me, that from thefe twd lines, in which the beauties of the early foliage have been feled:ed with fuch ad- mirable tafte and accuracy, may alfo bd collected the reafons why thofe beauties are ~ in general lefs happily adapted to paint- ing. In order to produce a whole, painters deal very much in broad maffes ; thefe are rarely compatible with a general air of lightnefs j ftill lefs with what is fcattered. It might naturally be fuppofed that frefh and tender greens, which are fo pleafing in nature to every eye, would be equally fo on the canvas 3 and fo they often are when balanced by other tints, but not when fcattered lightly, and over the ge-^ neral fcene. Frelhnefs, in one fenfe, is fimply coolnefs, and I believe that idea: in fomte degree almofl always accompa- nies [ '89 ] nles it ', and though in nature real funfhine (poffibly from its real warmth as well as its fplendor) may give a glow and animation to a landfcape entirely green, yet nothing is more difficult in painting, or more rarely attempted ; for who would confine himfelf to cold monotony, when all nature is full of icxamples of the greateft variety, with the ynoft perfed: harmony ? As the green of fpring, from its compa- rative coldnefs, is lefs favourable to land- fcape than the warm and mellow tints of autumn ; in like manner its flowers and bloffoms, from their too diflind: and fplen- did variety, are apt to produce a glare and a fpottinefs, deftrudlive of that union and harmony, which is the very efTence of a picture, either in nature, or imitation. Whatever objects moft ftrongly attradl the eye, are of courfe moft apt to create fpots ; and confequently none more fo § than [ 190 ] than * white objeds ; and it is greatly on that account, that water fo particularly re- quires the accompaniment of trees, as they take off from the glare of its whitenefs. I therefore have often thought that the cxpreffion of a finefieet of water, which is always meant and taken as a compliment, is a very juft fatire on thofe naked, glaring imitations (if they be fo called) of lakes and rivers. A tree or bufh covered with white bloft- foms, fuggefts the fame idea of a white flieet thrown over them ; and white fheet? * I muft beg leave to refer the reader to fome remarks on this fubjeft by Mr, Lock in Mr. Gilpin's Tour down the Wye, page 97, which I ftiould have inferted here, were not that book in every perfon's hands. It is impofTible to read thofe remarks without regret- ting, that the obfervations of a mind fo capable of en- lightening the public, fhould be v/ithheld from it ; a re- gret which thofe who have enjoyed the pleafure and ad- vantage of his converfation, feci in a much higher de- gree, fcattered [ »9I 1 fcattered about a landfcape, would not very readily unite with other objeds. The apple blolToms, whofc colours when feen near, and when their different fliades and gradations can be diftinguiflied, are fo beautiful, at a diflance lofe all their rich- nefs and variety : they appear only red, glaring, and fpotty ; and the effed: of a great number of pear, apple, and cherry trees in full blow, ftrongly proves that red and white ought never to predominate in the * general landfcape. In the opening of fpring alfo, the early Kees rn all their frefhnefs of leaves, and * Having heard that at the time of the blow the whole county of Hereford looked like a garden, I many years ago came down at that feafon expedling to be in rap- tures. Mydifappointment was equal to my expe6lation, when I crofTed the Malvern hills, and faw the country fpread out before me ; it anfwered indeed to the defcrip- tion, apd did look like a garden j but frorn that time I have never wiflied to fee a garden of feveral hundred iicrcs. gaiety [ 19* 1 gaiety of blolToms, form too flrong a eon* traft with the lifelefs boughs of the oak or afh ; and no painter, I believe, has ever deferved to have it faid of him, that Hke Mezentius, Mortua quinetlam jungebat corpora vivis. It mufl not however be concluded, that the painter has no pleafure in any fet of obje6ts, unlefs they make a pidure ; the charms of fpring are univerliUly felt, and he enjoys them in common with all mankind, unlefs he has narrowed his mind by that art, which ought moll to have enlarged it. But then his enjoyment is greatly heightened and varied, when the bloiibms and flowers of fpring are fo mixed in, and grouped with the earlier decidu- ous trees, with ever-greens, with build- ings, and other objedls, that the glare and gaudlnefs is taken away, while the gaiety remains, [ ^n 1 j«mains» All fuch combinations as form pidures (that is, in other words, where the forms and colours are moft happily balanced and connedled) are only new fources of pleafure added to thofe which are more ge- neral * ; they are alfo plealures which may be dwelt upon, and returned to, after the firft enchanting, but vague delight of fpring is diminifhed. Such indeed are the charms of reviving nature, that he who does not feel them, and feel them with rapture, becaufe in many cafes they are lefs fuited to pictures, muft have a very pedantic love of painting. The profufion of frefli, gay, and beautiful colours, and of fweets, united with the ideas * This is precifely the cafe with regard to profpe£ls : the painter adds thofe new fources of pleafure to the ge- neral and vague delight he feels in common with the fuperficial obferver. — For a farther dlfcuflion of that fubjcgs upon them as appear like knobs or bumps ; or when any improver has imitated thofe knobs and knotches, by means of patches, and clumps, they are then both ugly and deformed. The fame diftindions hold gcod in trees; the uglieft forms, are not thofe whofe branches make fudden angles, (for 6 they [ 211 ] they are often highly pidurefque,) but fuch fliapelefs ones as we fee in trees which have been prefTed by others, or in ftripped or pollard ones that have juft begun to re- cover ; in thefe laft (while the marks of the axe are ftill vifible) that moft horrid of all deformity, ocafioned by mangled limbs, added to uglinefs, makes them the moft difgufting of all inanimate objedts; they bring to our mind the ihocking fpedre of Deiphobus : Priatniden toto laniatum corpore vidi. The uglieft ground is that which has neither the beauty of fmoothnefs) verdure, and gentk undulation, nor the pidiurefque- nefs of bold and fudden breaks, and varied tints of foil : of fuch kind is ground that has been difturbed, and left in that unfi- nifhed ftate, as in a rough ploughed field run to fward. Such alfo are the llimy Chores of P 2 a flat [ ^^2 ] a flat tide river, or the ftony ones of ^ mountain torrent when it defcends into the plain. The fteep fhores of rivers, where the tide rifes at times to a great height, and leaves promontories and caves of flime ; and thofe on which torrents among the mountains leave huge fhapelefs heaps of flones, may certainly lay claim to fome mixture of deformity ; which is often miftaken for another charadler. Nothing, indeed, is more common than to hear per- fons who come from a tame cultivated country (and not thofe only) miftake bar- rennefs, defolation, and deformity, for gran- deur and picture fquenefs *. Deformity ♦ It might be fuppofed, on the other hand, that the being continually among pidlurefque fcenes, would of itfelf, and without any afilftance from pi(Slures, lead to a diftinguiftiing tafte for them. Unfortunately it often leads to a perfeiil on the contrary much lefs fo, why fhouM they have a power, which is denied to mine ? It has been argued by fome, that the fuh- lime, as well as the pi6turefque, is included in the beautiful; that fuch diflindions as Mr* Burke and myfelf have made are too minute, and refined ; and that the pidurefque efpe- <:ially, is only a mode of beauty*. What them are envy, and revenge ? are they in a lefs degree modes of hatred ? are they not fo ia a much clofer degree ? are they not nmck ii;iore nearly allied to that general title of ill-will towards our fellow-creatures, and £0 each other, than any of the three chai* radiers, whofe diitindion has been fo qucjf-? * The diiFerence between the general, and the con- fined fenfe of beauty, is difcufled in my letter to Mr. Repton, page 135- tjoned ? [ 238 ] tioned ? I muft here alfo obferve, (and it will greatly corroborate what I have before advanced) that hatred, from being general, an not referring, like the others, to any determinate caufe, is a lefs familiar per- fonification, lefs diftinguifhed by peculiar attributes, lefs in fliort of a diftind: cha- rader; and if reprefented in allegorical painting, might eafily be miftaken for fome other charad:er. It may here very naturally be afked, how it could happen that certain diftindions of charadlers, vv^hich, according to my flate- ment, are plain and manifeft, (liould fo long have been very inaccurately made out, and fliould ftill by many be called in queftion ; when a number of others, which, as I have afferted, are feparated by very thin partitions, have for ages been univerfally acknowledged. This may eafily be ac- counted [ 239 ] counted for, and the caufes of accurate dif^ tindion, and of general agreement in the one cafe, will lead to thofe of inaccuracy and doubt in the other. All that concerns our fpeculative ideas and amufements, all objedls of tafte, and the principles belonging to them, are thought of by a fmall part of mankind; the great mafs never think of them at all. They are ftudied in one age, negleded in another, fometimes totally loft; but the variety of human paffions and affedions, all their moft general and manifeft efFeds, and their minuteft difcriminations, have never ceafed to be the involuntary fludy of all nations and ages. They have, indeed, at various times been inveftigated by fpecula- tive minds, but every man has occafion to feel but too ftrongly, the truth of their fcparate caufes and efFeds, either from his own [ 240 1 own experience, 3r that of pcrfons near and dear to him; nor arc we in any cafe unconcerned fpedators where they operate. Had it in the nature of things been pof- fible, that the fame eager, conftant, and general intereft, fhould have prevailed with refped: to objects of tafle — the difcrimina- tions might have been hardly lefs nume^ rous, or lefs generally underftood and ac- knowledged ; and it is by no means im- polTible, fliould the diftincflions in queftioiv continue for a long time together the fub- jed: of eager difcuflion, and likewife of practical application, that new difcrimina- tions, and new terms for them, may take place. The pidurefque might not only be diftinguiflied from the fublime, and from the beautiful, but its mixture, when nearly balanced with either of them, or (what na lefs [ HI ] lefs frequently occurs) with uglinefs, might have an appropriate term. At prefcnt, when we talk of a pidturefque figure, no one ean guefs, by that expreffion alone, to which of the other charavSlers it may be allied ; whether it be very handfome, or very ugly; in gauze and feathers, or in rags. Again, if we fpeak of a pidurefque fcene, or building, it is equally uncertain, whether it be a bit of a hollow lane, or heathy common ; an old mill, or hovel: Or, on the other hand, a fcene of rocks and mountains, or the ruin of fome ancient caftle or tem- ple. We can, indeed, explain what we mean by a few more words ; but whatever en- ables us to convey our ideas with greater precifion and facility, mufl be a real im- provement to language. The Italians do mark the union of beauty, with greatnefs of fize or character, in a picture or any R other [ 242 ] Other bbjeft, by calling it, un^ gf-an-htilsL cofa ; I do not mean to fay that the term is always very accurately applied, but it {hews a ftrong tendency to fuch a diftindtion* But in Englifh, were we to add any part of the word pidlurefque to handfome, or ugly, or grand, though fuch compofed words would not be more uncouth than many which are received into the language, they would be fufficiently fo, to place a very formidable barrier of ridicule between them and common ufe : To invent new terms (fuppofing the objed: of fufficient confequence) is perhaps ftill more open ta ridicule. Mr. Burke decided in favour of the word delight^ to exprefs a peculiar fenfc of pleafure arifing from a peculiar caufe ; but the fenfc we are accuflomed to is perpetually recurring during his effay,. and out of it, the word of courfe returns t© [ 243 ] to its general meaning ; had he rifqued an entirely new word, and had it got over the firft inevitable onfet of ridicule, and grown into ufe, the Englifh language would have owed one more obligation to one of it's greatcft benefa as well as on his own art, were thofe of a ftrong original mind, and his language, both in fpeaking and writing, gave them their fuii value. In his converfation, there was a peculiar mildnefs, and a fimplicity, highly interefting, but which promifed little elfe; and I have often been ftruck with the con- traft, between that fimplicity of manner, and tjie vigour ©f his thoughts and expreffions. Some of our commoit friends have made the fame reflexion, and indeed many parts of his difcourfes, (and thofe not the lealfc impreir i 'iGve) appeared like tranfcripts of what he had fpoken. ideas \ I 261 ] ideas and execu*-.ioii *, and wiflies to confine within that ciixle all the reil of mankind. Before I enter into any particulars, I will make a few obfervations on what I look upon as the great general defect of the pre- fent fyftem ; not as oppofed to the old ilyle (though I believe the latter to have h^e.n infinitely more free from it) but con- fidered by itfelf fingly, and without com- parifon. That defed:, the greateft of all, and the moft oppofite to the principles of paint- ing, is want of connexion — a pafiion for making every thing diftindt and feparate. All the particular defeds I fhall have occa- * I remember a gentleman, who played very prettily on the flute, abufing all Handel's mufic, and to give me €very advantage, like a generous adverfary, he defied me to name one good chorus of his writing. It may well be fuppofed that I did not accept the challenge ; c'etoit bien Tembarras des richefles ; and indeed he was right in his own way of confidering them, for there is not one jhat would do well for his inftrument. S 3 {ton [ 262 ] fion to notice, in fome degree arife from this original fin, and tend towards it. The new creations, and the alterations of what was already in exiftence, have been all condud:ed on ihe fame plan of diftindinefs y and in confequence of that ruling princi- ple, thofe numberlefs ties, thofe bonds of union (as they may be called) by which the different parts of landfcape are fo happily connedled with each other, are un thought of in what is newly planned, and where they do exifl, are deftroyed. Yet thofe are the ties, (minute and trifling as they may often ap- pear) by which trees, in all their different arrangements, are reciprocally combined, and on which their balance, and even their contrail, depends; by which water, when accompanied by trees thus varioufly ar- ranged, is often fo imperceptibly united with land, that in many places the eye can- not difcover the perfed: fpot and time of their [ a63 ] dieir union ; yet is no lefs delighted with that myflery, than with the thoufand re- flexions and intricacies which attend it. What is the eifed:, when thofs ties are not fiiffered to exift ? You trace every where the exadl Hne of reparation -, the ^ water is bounded by a diilindl and uniform edge of grafs ; the grafs by a fimilar edge of wood ; the trees, and often the houfe, are diftindly placed upon the grafs ; all feparated from whatever might group with them, or take off from their folitary infulated appear- ance : in every thing you trace the hand of a mechanic, not the mind of a liberal artift. I will now proceed to the particulars, and will beg the reader to keep in his mind the ruling principle I have juft defcribed, and of which I fliall difplay the different proofs and examples. No profeffor of high reputation, feems for fome time to have appeared after Kent, till, S4 at [ 264 ] at length, that the fyftem might be carried to its ne plus ultra (no very diflant point), arofe the famous Mr. Brown ; who has io fixed and determined the forms and hnes of clumps, belts, and Terpentine canals, and has. been fo fteadily imitated by his followers, that had the improvers been incorporated, their common feal, with a clump, a belt, and a piece of made water, would have fully cxprefled the whole of their fcience, and have ferved for a model as well as a feal *. It is very unfortunate, that this great ♦ What Ariofto fays of a grove of cyprefles, has al- ways ftruck me in looking at made places, — che parean 6^\xn^.JIampa tutte imprefTc. They feem " caft in one mould, made in one frame ;". fo much fo, that I have feen places on which large fums had been lavifhed, unite fo little with the landfcape around them, that they gave me the idea of having bee.i made by contrail in London, and then fent down i.i pieces, and put together on the fpot, legillatcr • [ 265 ] le<^l{lator of our national tafte, whofe laws ftill remain in force, fliculd not have re- ceived from nature, or have acquired by- education, more enlarged ideas. Claude Lorraine was bred a paftry-cookj but in every thing that regards his art as a painter, he had an elevated and comprehenfive mind ; nor in any part of his works can we trace the meannefs of his original occupation. Mr. Brown was bred a gardener, and hav- ing nothing of the mind, or the eye of a painter, he formed his flyle (or rather his plan) upon the model of a parterre j and transferred its minute beauties, its little clumps, knots, and pi^tches of flowers, the oval belt that furrounds it, and all its twifts and crincum crancums, to the great fcale of nature *. We * This ingenious device of magnifying a parterre, calls to my mind a ftory I heard many years ago. A country [ 266 ] We have, indeed, made but a poor pro- grefs by changing the formal, but fimplc country parfon, in the county where I live, fpeaking of a gentleman of low ftature, but of extremely pom- pous manners, who had juft left the company, exclaim- ed, in the fimplicity and admiration of his heart, " quite grandeur in miniature, I proteft." This compliment reverfcd, would perfedlly fuit the fhreds and pa ches that are fo often ftuck about by Mr. Brown and his followers, amidft the nsble fcenes they disfigure j where they are as contemptible, and as much out of character, as Claude's firft edifices in paftry would appear, :n the dignified landfcapes he has painted. I muft obferve, however, that when I blame Mr. Brown for having transferred the minuti* of a parterre to the great fcale of nature, it is not becaufe they aie little in fize, but in chara6ler. There is indeed no more common error, than that of miftaking greatnefs of fize, for greatnefs of manner ; it continually happens that the fmalleft clafs of rocks, mountains, cafcades, lakes, Sec. have infinitely more grandeur of ftile, and afford more ■ dignified fubjeds to a painter, than others of three times their magnitude. Indeed, if a certain elevation of chara61:er is wanting, mere magnitude, in many cafes, only creates difguft; nothing is more contemptible than a tame giant. — « Bulk without fpirit vaft." [ 267 ] and majeflic avenue, for the thin circular verge called a belt ; and the unpretending uglinefs of the flrait, for the afFedled fame- nefs of the ferpentine canal : But the great diftingui/hing feature of modern improve- ment, is the clump ; whofe name, if the iirft letter was taken away, would moft accu- .-rately defcribe its form and efFcd:. Were it made the objed of fludy, how to con- trive fomething which, under the name of . ornament, fliould disfigure whole diftrids, nothing could be imagined that would an- fwer that purpofe like a clump. Natural groups, being formed by trees of differ- ent ages and fizes, and at different diftances from each other, often too of a mixture of timber trees with thorns, hollies, and others of inferior growth, are full of variety in their outhnes ; and from the fame caufes, no two groups are exactly alike. But clumps. [ 268 ] dumps, from the trees being generally of the fame age and growth, planted nearly at the fame diftance in a circular form, and from each tree being equally preffed by his neighbour, are as like each other as fo many puddings turned out of one com- rnon mould. Natural groups, from the caufeb I have mentioned, are full of open- ings and hollows ; of trees advancing be- fore, or retiring behind ieach other ; all produdive of intricacy, and of variety of deep fliadows, and brilliant lights. The others are lumps. In walking about a natural group, the form of it changes at each ftep j new combinations, new lights and (hades, new inlets prefent themfelves in fucceffion. But clumps, like compaA bodies of foldiers, refift attacks from dl quarters : examine them in every point of yiew y walk round and round them ; no opening [ 269 ] opening, no vacancy, no ftragglers* ! but in the true military charader. Us font face fartout. The next leading feature to the clump in this circular fyftem (and one which, in romantic fituations, rivals it in the pow^r of creating deformity) is the belt. Its fphere, however, is more contracted : Clumps, placed like beacons on the fum- mits of hills, alarm the pidurefque tra- veller many miles off, and warn him of bis approach to the enemy y the belt lies more in ambufcade, and the wretch who * I remember hearing, that when Mr. Brown was high-ftierifF, fome facetious perfon obferving his at- tendants ftraggling, called out tt) him, " Clump your javelin men." What was intended merely as a piece of ridicule, might have ferved as a very inftru6live lef- fon to the objedl of it, and have taught Mr. Brown, that fuch figures ftiould be confined to bodies of men drilled for the purpofes of formal parade, and not extended to the loofe and airy fliapes of vegetation. X fall [ 270 ] falls into It, and is obliged to walk the "wliole round in company with the im- prover, will allow that a fnake with its tail in its mouth is, comparatively, but a faint emblem of eternity. It has, indeed, all the famenefs and formality of the ave- nue, to which it has fucceeded, without any of its fimple grandeur; for though in an avenue you fee the fame objedis from beginning to end, and in the belt a new fet every twenty yards, yet each fuc- ceffive part of this iniipid circle is fo like the preceding, that though really different, the difference is fcarcely felt ; and there is nothing that fo dulls, and at the fame time fo irritates the mind, as perpetual change without variety. The avenue has a mod ftriking efFe«fl, from the very circumflance of its being ftrait i no other figure can give that image of a grand gothic aille with its natural [ 27' ] natural * columns and vaulted roof, whofe general mafs fills the eye, while the par- ticular parts infenfibly fleal from it in a long gradation "f of perfpedive. The broad folemn iliade adds a twilight calm to the whole, and makes it, Jtbove al] other places, moft fuited to meditation. To that alfo its ftraitnefs contributes ; for when the mind is difpofed to turn in- wardly on itfelf, any ferpentine line would diftrad: the attention. All the chara(5teriftic beauties of the ave- nue, its folemn ftillnefs, the religious awe it infpires, are greatly heightened by moon- light. This I once very ftrongly experienced * Mr. Burke's Sublime and Beautiful, page 270. t By long gradation I do not mean a great length of avenue j I perfectly agree with Air. Burke, " that cclo- nades and avenues of trees, of a moderate length, are without comparifon far grander, than when they arc fuffcred to run to immenfe diftanccs." — Sublin;ie and Beautiful, feci:, x. p. 136, in [ 272 ] in approaching a venerable, caftlc-like manfion, built in the beginning of the 1 5th century ; a few gleams had pierced the deep gloom of the avenue ; a large maflive tower at the end of it, {ecn through a long perfpedive, and half lighted by the uncertain beams of the moon, had a grand myfterious efFedt. Suddenly a light ap- peared in this tower — then as fuddenly its twinkling vanifhed — and only the quiet, filvery rays of the moon prevailed ; again, more lights quickly fhifted to different parts of the building, and the whole fcene mofl forcibly bi'ought to my fancy the times of fairies and chivalry. I was much hurt to learn from the mafter of the place, that I might take my leave of the avenue and its romantic effeds, for that a death warrant was figned. The deftrudion of fo many of thefe ve- ^aerable approaches, is a fatal confequence of t 273 ] iof the prefcnt exceflive horror of flrait lines. Sometimes, indeed, avenues do cut through the middle of very beautiful and varied ground, with which the ftiffnefs of their form but ill accords, and where it were greatly to be wilhed they had never been planted, as other trees, in various po- fitions and groups, would probably have fprung up, in, and near the place they occupy : But being there, it may often be doubtful whether they ought to be de- Itroyed ; for whenever fuch a line of trees is taken away, there mufl be a long vacant fpace that will feparate the grounds, with their old original trees, on each fide of it| and young trees planted in the vacancy, will not in half a century conned: the whole •together. As to faving a few trees of the line itfelf for that purpofe, I own I never faw it done, that it did not produce a con- trary effed, and that the fpot was not t T haunted [ 274 ] haunted by the ghoft of the departed ave- nue. They are, however, not unfrequently where a boundary of wood approaching to a ilrait hne would be proper *, and in fuch places they furnillT a walk ef more perfedt and continued fhade than any other difpo- fition of trees, without interfering with the reft of the place. When you turn from it cither to the I'ight or to the left, the whole country, with all its intricacies and varie- ties, is open before you ; hut there is no efcaping from the belt ; it hems you in on all fides, and if you pleafe yourfelf with having difcovered fome wild fequeftered part (if fuch there ever be when a belt- maker has been admitted) or fome new * At a gentleman's place in Chtfliire, there is an avenue of oaks fituated much in the manner 1 have de- Icribed'; Mr. Brown abfolutely condemned it; but it now ftands, a noble monument of the triumph of the na- tural feelings of the owner, over the narrow and fyflemk- uc ideas of a profelTed' improver, pathway. [ ^75 1 pathway, and are in the pleafing uncer- tainty whereabouts you are, and whither it will lead you, the belt foon appears, and the charm of expedlation is over. If you turn to either fide, it keeps winding round you ; if you break through it, it catches you at your return; and the idea of this diilindt, unavoidable line of feparation, damps all fearch after noveLy, Far different from thofe magic circles of fairies and enchanters, that gave birth to fuch potent and fpleirdid illufions, the pa- laces and gardens of Alcina and Ar~ mida, this, like the ring of Angelica, in- flantly diflipates every illufion, every en- chantment. If ever a belt be allowable, it is where the houfe is fituated in a dead flat, and in a naked ugly country; there at leafl it can- not injure any variety of ground, or of dif- tant profped; it will aifo be the real T 2 boundary [ 276 3 boundary to the eye, however unvaned, and any cxclufion in fuch cafes is a bene- fit J but where there is variety of ground, and a defcent from the houfe, it more completely disfigures the place than any other improvement. What moil delights us in the intricacy of varied ground, of fwelling knolls, and of vallies between them, retiring from the fight in different dire<5tions amidft trees or thickets, is, that it leads the eye (according to Hogarth's exprefiion) a kind of v/anton chace; this is what he calls the beauty of intricacy, and is that which di'ringuifhes what is produced by foft winding fhapes, from the more fud- den and quickly- varying kind, v^hich arifes from broken and rugged forms. All this wanton chace, as well as the effeds of more wild and piclurefque intricacy, are im- mediately checked by any circular planta- tion; which never appears to retire from the { '^11 ] the eye, and lofe itfelf in the diftance, nor ever admits of partial conceahnents. What- ever varieties of hills and dales there may be, fach a plantation mail: ftiffly cut acrofs them, and the undulations, and what in feamcn's language may be called the trending of the ground, cannot in that cafe be humoured; nor can its playful character be marked by that ftyle of planting, w^hich at once points out, and adds to its beautiful intricacy. This may ferve to fhew hov^ impoiTible it is to plan any forms of plantations that will fuit all places *, however convenient it * In the alt pf medicine, ^fter general principles are acquired, the judgment lies in the application; and every cafe (as an eminent phyfician obrerved to me) mull be confidered as a fpecial cafe. Thjs holds precifely in improving, and in both art the quacks are alike ; they have no principles, but •only a fevv noftrums which they apply indifcriminately to all fituations and all cpnftitutions. Clumps and belt?, X ? pills [ 278 ] it may be to the profelFor to eftablifh Aich a dodlrine. I have perhaps cxpreffed myfclf more flrongly, and more at length than I other- wife fhould have done, on the fubjed: of this paltry invention, from the extreme dif- guft I felt at feeing its efFedl in a place, the general features of which are among the noblefl in the kingdom. In front, the fea embayed amidfl; ifjands, mountains, and promontories ; a hanging defcent of un- equal ground from the houfe to the fhore; on which defcent, different mafles of wood, groups, and fmgle trees, more or lefs dii- perfed or conneded together, with lawns pills and Hrops, are diftributed with equal flcill ; the one plants tiie right, and clears the left, as the other bleeds the eaO, and purg-s the weft ward. The beft improver or phyfician is he v/ho leaves moft to nature, who v/atches and tnlces advantage of thofe indications which fhe points out when left to exert her own powers, but which, when once deftroyed or fuppreffed by an empyric of either Jcind, prefent tiiemlcivcs no more. 2 and [ 279 ] and glades between them, gently leading tMic eye among their Intricacies to the fhore, might have been planted, or left if grow^ ijig there : this would have formed a rich and varied foreground to the magnificent diftance ; and in the approach to the fea- fide, which ever way you- took, would have broken that diftance, and have formed, in conjunct ion with it, a number of new and beautiful compofitlons. One of Mr. Brown's fucceflbrs has thought differently, and this uncommon difplay of fcenery is difgraced by a belt. I do not remember this place in its un- improved ftate; but I was told that there was a great quantity of v;^ood between the houfe and the fea, and that the vefTels appeared (as at that wonderful place. Mount hdge* cumbe) as if failing over the tops, and gliding among the ftems of the trees ; if fo, this profefTor " Has left fad marks of his deftrudlive fway.'* T 4 The [ 280 ] The method of thinning trees, which (under the idea of improvement) has been adopted by layers out of ground, perfedly correfponds with their method of planting; for in both cafes they totally negled: what (in the general fenfe of the word) may be called pidurefquc effeds. Trees of re- markable fize, indeed, ufually efcape; but it is not fufficient to attend to the giant fons of the foreft ; often the lofs of a few- trees, nay of a fmgle tree of middling fize, is of infinite confequence to the general effed: of the place, by making an irrepara- ble breach in the outline of a principal v/ood ', often fome of the moil beautiful groups owe the playful variety of their form, and their happy conne(^l:ion with other groups, to fome apparently infignificant, and (to common obfervers) even ugly trees*. * Vide Sir Jofliua Reynolds's Notes to Mafon's Du Frefnoy, page 89. Ta [ 28, ] To attend to all thefe niceties of outline, conned:ion, and grouping, would require much time as well as fkiU, and therefore a more eafy and compendious method has heen adopted : the different groups are to be cleared round, till they become as clump- like as their untrained natures will allow ; and even many of thofe outfide trees that belong to the groups themfelves (and to which they owe, not only their beauty, but their fecurity againfl wind and froft) are cut down without pity, if they will not range according to their model ; till mangled, ftarved, and cut off from all connexion, thefe unhappy newly drilled corps ** Stand bare and naked, trembling at themfelves *." Even * Mr. Walpole mentions, that " where the plumage of an ancient wood extended wide its undulating ca- nopy, and flood venerable in darknefs — Kent thinned the foremoft ranks." It [ 2S2 ] Even the old avenue, whofe branches had intertwined with each ether for ages, irjufl undergo this fafhionable metamor- phofis. The object of the improver is to break its regularity, but fo far from his pro- ducing that effedl by dividing it into clumps, he could fcarcely invent a method by which its regularity would be made fo apparent from every point. When entire, its ftraitnefs can only be ken when you look up or down it ', viewed fideways, it has the appearance of a thick mafs of wood ; if other trees are planted before it, to them it gives confe- qucncc, and they give it lightnefs and va- riety : But when it is clumpt, and you can fee through it, and compare each of the feparate clumps with the objeds before and behind them, the flrait line is apparent from It is impoflible to read A'Ir. Walpole's defcription, without feeling how much the charadler of fuch woods, muft be deftroyed by fueh Tijyjlern of improvement. whatever t 283 ] whatever point you view it. In its clofe ^rray the avenue is Uke the Grecian pha- lanx : each tree, like each loldier, is firmly wedged in between its companions ; its branches, like their fpears, prefent a front impenetrable to all attacks ; but the mo- ment this compadl order is broken, their ^des become naked and expofed. Mr. Brown, like another Paulas ^Emilius, has broken the firm embodied ranks of many a noble phalanx of trees *, and in this, per- haps, more than in any other inftance, he has fhewn how far the perverfion of tafte may be carried ; for at the very time when he deprived the avenue of its fliade and * I do not know a more interefting account of a battle than Plutarch's defcription of that between Per- feus and Paulus ^milius, in which, after repeated efForts, the Roman legions at length completely broke and van- quifhed the famous Macedonian phalanx. It is in his life of P. /Emilias, which, if any of my readers {hould not be acquainted with^ and ftiould be tempted to read from this allunon, I think they will feel highly obliged to me. its [ 284 ] its folemn grandeur, he encreafed its for- mality *. * I will take this opportunity of meationlng a very flriking exu-nplcjof an obvious, but inofb material diftl^c-. tion between painting and improving. When an avenue is broken into clumps, the painter may fclecS: a view be- tween two of them, which will form a very pleafing cpm- pofition ; for as he takes in only a part of each clump, ancj as they are the boundaries of his landfcape, their fepara- tion from all other objedts, is not perceived. No one could fufpelicate. Ground, rocks, and buildings, if the parts are much broken, become flmtadic and trifling; befides, they have not that loofe pliant texture fo well adapted to partial concealment ; a tree, therefore, is perhaps the only object where a grand whole (or at leaft what is moil confpicuous in it) is chiefly compofed of innumerable minute and diftind; parts. To fliew how much thofe who ought to be the beft judges, confider the qualities I have mentioned, no tree, however large and vigorous, however luxuriant the fo- liage, will be admired by the painter, if it prefent one uniform unbroken mafs of leaves ; while others, not only inferior ia U fize. [ 290 ] fize, and in thicknefs of foliage, but of forms which would induce many improvers to cut them down, will attradl and fix their attention. The reafons of this preference are obvious -, but as on thcfe reafons, accord- ing to the ideas I have formed, the whole fyllem of planting, pruning, and thinning, for the purpofe of beauty (in its moft ge- neral acceptation) depends, I mull: be al- lowed to well a little longer on them. In a tree whofe foliage is every where full and unbroken, there can be but little variety of form : then as the fun ftrikes only on the furface, neither can there be much variety of lig/ji and fia(Ie : and as the apparent colour of objeds changes according to the different degrees of light or of fhade in which they are placed, there can be as little * variety of iint : and laft- * Lux varium vivumque dabit, nullum umbra co- lorem. Du Frefnoy. [ 291 ] ly, as there are none of thofe openings that excite and nourifli curioiity, but the eye can be every where oppofed by one uniform leafy fkreen, there be as little intricacy as variety. What is here faid of 2^ Jingle tree is equally true of all combinations of them, and appears to me to account perfedly for the bad effed: of clumps, and of all plan- tations and woods where the trees grow clofe together : Indeed, in all thefe cafes the effed; is in one refpedt much worfe ; we are difpofed to admire the bulk of a fmgle tree, the ipfe nemus, though its ioxmjhould be heavy ; but there is a mean- nefs, as well as a heavinefs, in feeing a lumpy mafs, produced by a multitude of lit'tle ftems. What the qualities are that painters do admire in fingle trees, groups, and woods, may eaRJy be concluded from what they do not; the detail would be infinite, for U 2 luckily [ 292 ] luckily where art does not interfere, the- abfolute exclufions are few. If their tafte is to be preferred to that of gardeners* it is dear (hat there is fomething radically bad in the uf.ial method of making and managing plantations ; it otherwife would never happen, that the woods, and arrange- ments of trees, which they are leaft dif- pofed to admire, lliould be thofe made for the exprefs purpofe of ornament. Under that idea, the fpontaneous trees of the coun- try are often excluded as too common, or admitted in fmall proportions -, whiift others of peculiar form and colour, take place of oak and beech. But of what- ever trees the ef.ablijhed woods of the coun- try are compofed, the fame, I think, fhould prevail in the new ones, or thofe two grand principles, harmony and unity of charac- ter, will be deftroyed. It is very ufual, however, when there happens to be a va- cant [ 293 ] cant fpace between two woods, to fill it up with firs, larches, &c. ; if this be done with ihe idea of couriering thofe woods (and thatyZ'W^be the object) nothing can be more oppofite than the effed: : even plantations of the fame fpecies, require time to make them accord with the old growths; but fuch harfli and fudden con- trafts of form and colour, make thefe in- fertions for ever appear like fo many awk- ward pieces of patch-work * ; and furely if * It is not enough that trees fliould be naturalized to the climate, they muft alfo be naturalized to the landfcape, and mixed and incorporated with the natives. A patch of foreign trees planted by thenifelves in the out-fkirts of a wood, or in fome open corner of it, mix with the natives, much like a group of young Englifh- men at an Italian converfazione : But when fome plant of foreign growth appears to fpring up by acci- dent, and (hoots out its beautiful, but lefs familiar fo- liage among our natural trees, it has the fame pleafing efFed, as when a beautiful and amiable foreigner has U 3 acquired [ 294 ] if a man were reduced to the neceflity of having his coat pieced, he would wiih to have the joinings concealed, and the co- lour matched, and not to be made a harlequin. Thefe dark fhades, and fpire-Uke forms, which when planted in patches, have fuch a motley appearance, may be fo grouped with the prevailing trees of the country as to produce infinite richnefs and variety, and yet feem part of the original defign -, but I imagine it to be an eftablifhed rule, that plantations made for ornament, fhould, both in form and fubftance, be as diftind: as pofTible from the woods of the country ; fo that no one may doubt an inftant what are the parts which have been improv- ed. Inftead, therefore, of giving to na- acquired our language and manners fo as to converfe with the freedom of a native, yet retains enough of original accent and character, to give a peculiar grace and zeft to all her words and anions. 6 ture t 295 ] ture * that " rich, ample, and flowing robe which {he fiould wear on her throned eminence," inftead of " hill united to hill with fweeping train of foreft, with prodi- gality of fhade," fhe is curtailed of her fair proportions, pinched and fqueezed into fhape ; and the prim fquat clump is perked up exadlly on the top of every eminence. Sometimes, however, the extent is fo great, that common fized clumps would make no figure, unlefs they were exceffively multi- plied ; in that cafe, it has been very inge- nloufly contrived to confolidate (and I am fare the word is not improperly ufed) a number of them in one great lump, and * Mr. Mafon's Poem on Modern Gardening, is fo well known to all who have any tafte for the fubjedl', or for poetry in general, that it is hardly neceflary to fay, that the words between the inverted commas are chiefly taken from it. In the part from which I have taken thefe two paflages, he has pointed out the nobleft ftyle of planting, in a ftyle of poetry no lefs noble and elevated, U 4 thefc [ 296 ] thefe condenfed, unv/ieldly maiTes, are, without much choice, ftuck about the grounds. I have fcen two places, on a very large fcale, laid out in this manner by a pro- fe fled improver of high reputation*. The trees which principally {hewed themfelves were f larches, and from the multitude of * Some perfons have imagined, that by a profcfTor of fhigh reputation I muft have meant Mr. Repton ; but thefe two places, which were laid out before he took to the profefiion, clearly prove that it did not then require his talents to gain a high reputation : I hope in future it will be lefs eafily acquired. f Wherever larches are mixed (though in fmall pro" portions) over the v.h -le of a new plantation, the quicknefs of their growth, their pointed tops, and the peculiarity of their colour, make them fo confpicuous, that the whole wood feems to confift of nothing elfc. The fummits cf all round-headed trees (efpecially oak) vary in each tree; but there can be but one fum- mit to all pointed trees. Linea redla vclut fola eft, & mille recurvse. Du Frefnoy. their [ 297 1 their fliarp points, the whole country ap- peared en herijfony and had much the fame degree of refemblance to natural fcenery, that one of the old military plans, with fcattered platoons of fpearmen, has to a print after Claude or Pouffin. With all my admiration of trees, I had rather be Without them, than have them fo difpof- ed ; indeed, I have often feen hills, the outline of which, — the fwellings, — and the deep hollows were fo fbriking -, and whofe furface was fo varied by the mixture of fmooth, clofe-bitten turf, with the rich, though fliort cloathing of fern, heath, or furze, and by the different openings and flieep tracks among them, that I fliould have been forry to have had the whole covered with the fineft wood ; nay, I could hardly have wiflied for trees the moft hap- pily difpofed, and of cou rfv^ fliould have dreaded, in the fame proportion, thofe which [ 298 ] which are ufually placed there by arf. An improver has rarely fuch dread; m general the firft idea that ftrikes him, is that of diftinguifhing his property, nor is he eafy till he has put his pitch-mark on all the fummits*. Indeed this grati- fies • Vanity is a general enemy to all improvement, xnd there is no fuch enemy to the real improvement of the beauty of grounds, as the foolifli vanity of making a parade of their extent, and of exhibiting various unin- terefting marks of the owner's property, under the title of " Appropriation.'* Where there are any noble features, that are debafed by meaner objects — where greater extent would flicw a rich and varied boundary, and that boundary proportioned to that extent — what- ever choaks up, or degrades fuch fcenes, fliould of courfe be removed ; but where there are no fuch features, no fuch boundaries — to appropriate, by deftroying many a pleafant meadow, and by {hewing you, when they are laid into one great common, green enough to furfeit a man in a calenture ; to appropriate, by clumping their naked hedge-rows, and planting other clumps and patches of exotics which feem to ftare about them, and wonder how they came there ; to appropriate, by demolifhing many [ 299 ] fies his defire of celebrity by exciting the curiofity and admiration of the vulgar ; and travellers of tafte vviil naturally be provoked to enquire, though from another motive, to whom thofe unfortunate hills belong. It is melancholy to compare the flow progrefs of beauty, with the upftart growth of deformity ; trees and woods planted in the nobleft ftyle, will not for years flrongly attract the painter's notice, though luckily for their prefervation, the planter is like a fond * mother, who feels the greateft ten- many a cheerful retired cottage, that interfered with no- thing but the dcfpotic love of exclufion (and make amends, perhaps, by building a village regularly pi6lu- refque) is to appropriate by difgufting all v/hofe tafte is not infenfible or depraved, in the fame (enic that an alderman appropriates a plate of turtle, by fiieezing over it. * Madame de Sevigne, whofe maternal tendernefs feems to have extended itfelf to her plantations, fays, *' Je fais jetter a bas. de grands arbres, parce qu'ils font ombrage, ou qu'ils incommodent mcs jeunes enfants.*' dernefs [ 300 ] dernefs for her children, at the time they are leaft interefting to others. But to the deformcr (a name too often fynonymous to the improver) it is not ne- ceffary that his trees fliould have attained their full growth ; as foon as he has made his round fences, and planted thern, his principal work is done ; the eye which ufed to follow with delight the bold fweep of outline, and all the playful undulation of ground, finds itfelf fudJenly checked, and its progrefs flopt, even by thefe em- bryo clumps. They have the fame effed on the great features of nature, as an ex- crefcencc on thofe of the human fice; in which, though the proportion of one fea- ture to another greatly varies in different perfons, yet thefe differences (like fimilar ones in inanimate nature) give variety of charader, without diflurbing the general ac- cord of the parts : But let there be a wart, or [ 301 ] or a pimple, on any prominent feature — ^no dignity or beauty of countenance can detach the attention from it ; that little, round, diftind: lump, while it difgufls the eye, has a fafcinating power of fixing it on its own deformity. This is precifely the ef- fedl of clumps ; the beauty or grandeur of the furrounding parts only ferve to make them more horribly confpicuous ; and the dark tint of the Scotch fir (of which they are generally compofed) as it feparates them by colour, as well as by form, from every other objed:, adds the laft finifh. But even large plantations of firs, when they are not the natural trees of the coun- try, and when (as it ufually happens) they are left too thick, have, in my mind, a harfli look, and that on the fame principle of their not harmonizing with the reft of the landfcape. A planter very naturally wiflies to produce fome appearance of wood as 3 ^00^ t 3^ 3 fbofi as poffible j he therefore fets his trees very clofe together, and fo they generally remain, for his paternal fondnefs will feldom allow him to thin them fufficiently. They are confequently all drawn up together^ nearly to the fame height ; and as their heads touch each other, no variety, no dif- tindlion of form can exift, but the whole is one enormous, unbroken, unvaried mafs of black. Its appearance is fo uniformly dead and heavy, that inftcad of thofe cheer- ing ideas which arife from the frefh and luxuriant * foliage, and the lighter tints * Perhaps, in ftrift propriety, the term of foliage fhould never be applied to firs, as they have no leaves ; and, I believe, it is partly to that circumftancc, that they ovi^e their want of chcerfulnefs. Thofe among the \avrcx evergreens that have leaves, fuch as holly, laurel, arbutus, are much more chearful than the juniper, cy- prefs, arbor vitae, &c. The leaves (if one may fo call them) of the yew, kave much the fame charadler as fome of the firs, of t 3<^3 ] of deciduous Jrees, it has fomething of that dreary image — that extinction of form and colouFj, which Milton felt from blindnefs ; when he, who had viewed objed;s with a painter's eye, as he defcribed them with a poet's fire, was Prefented with an univerfal blank Of nature's works. It muft be confidered alfo, that the eye feels an impreflion from objeds analogous to that of weight, as appears from the ex- preffion, a heavy colour, a hearuy form^ hence arifes the neceffity in all landfcapes of preferving a proper balance of both, and this is a very principal part of the art of painting. If in a pidure the one half were to be hght and airy, both in the forms and in the tints, and the other half one black heavy lump, the moft ignorant perfon would probably be difpleafed (though he might [ 304 ] might not know upon wh^.t principle) with the want oi balance, and of harmony ^ for thofe harfh difcordant effcds, not only ad more forcibly from being brought to- gether within a fmall compafs, but alfo becaufe in painting they are not autho- rized by fa(hion, or rendered familiar by cuftom. The infide of thefe plantations fully anfwers to the dreary appearance of the * outfide : Of all difmal fcenes it feems to me * I have known perfons who ackiaowledged that the infide of a clofe wood (either evergreen or deciduous) was poor and (habby, yet thought that at fome diftance its outfide looked as v/ell as that of a more open one. The defeds of all objeds are of courfe diminiflied as they are more removed from the eye, but as far as form can be diftinguifhed (and that includes a large circuit) the difference is very perceptible between a wood where the trees have been cramped by each other, and one where their heads have had full room to extend themfelves. If two fuch woods, even at the extremity of [ 305 ] ine the moft likely for a man to 1 ng hlm- felf in; he would, however, li.id Ibme difficulty in the execution, for, am'dfl: the endlefs multitude of ftems, there is rarely a lingle fide branch to which a rope could be faftened. The whole wood is a col- le(ftion of tall naked poles, with a few ragged boughs near the top ; above — one uniform rufty cope, feen through decayed and decaying fprays and branches; below ■ — the foil parched and blafted with the baleful droppings ; hardly a plant or a blade of grafs, nothing that can give an idea of life, or vegetation. Even its glooin is without folemnity ; it is only dull and difmal ; and what light there is, like that of hell, of an extenfive view, are lighted up by a gleam of Tna-^ fliine, the depth of fliadow, and the fuhiefs and richnefs of the one, would clearly diftinguifh it from the uniform heavinefs of the other. X " Serves t 306 ] <* Serves only to difcover fcenes of woe. Regions of forrow, doleful (hades." In a grove where the trees have had room to fpread (and in that cafe I by no means ex- clude the * Scotch fir or any of the pines) the gloom has a charad:cr of folemn grandeur j that grandeur arifesfrom the broad and varied canopy over head, from the fmall number and great fize of the trunks by which that canopy is fupported -f, and from the large undiflarbed fpaces between tliem: but a clofe wood of firs, is, perhaps, the only one from which the oppofite qualities of * Mr. Gilpin has admirably pointed out the pi£lu- refque charadter of the Scotch fir (where it has had room to fpread) in his remarks on foreft fcenery; and he as juftly condemns the ufual method of planting and leaving them in clofe array. f This circumftance feems to have ftruck Virgil in the cafe of a fingle tree ; Media ipfa ingentem fuftinct umbram. cheerfulnefs [ 3^7 ] cheerfalnefs and grandeur, of fymmetry and variety, are equally excluded i and in which, though the fight is perplexed and harallcd by the confufion of petty ob- jed:s, there is not the fmallell: degree of intricacy. Firs, planted and left in the fame clofe array, are very commonly made ufe cf as fcreens and boundaries ; but as the lower part is of moft confequence where con- cealment is the objedl, they are, for the reafons I mentioned before, the moft improper trees for that purpofe. I will, however, fuppofe them exadly in the condition the planter would wifli ; that the outer boughs (on which alone they depend) were preferved from ani- mals; and that though planted along the brow of a hill, they had efcaped from wind and fnow, and the many accidents to which they are expofed in bleak fitua- X 2 tions ; [ 3o8 ] tions J they would then exacflly anfwcr to that admirable defcription of Mr. Mafon : « The Scottifh fir In murky file rears his inglorious head And blots the fair horizon." Nothing can be more accurately, or more forcibly exprefled, or raife a jufter image in the mind. Every thick unbroken mafs of black (efpecially when it can be com- pared with fofter tints) is a Iflot ; and has the fame effed on the horizon in nature, as if a dab of ink were thrown upon that of a Claude. This, however, is viewing it in its moft favourable ftate, when at leafl it anfwers the purpofe of a fcreen, though a heavy one j but it happens full as often, that the outer boughs do not reach above half way down; and then, befides the long, black, even line which cuts the horizon at the top, there is at bottom a ilreak of glaring light that pierces every where [ 3^9 ] where through the meagre and naked poles (ftill more wretchedly meagre when op- pofed to fuch a back ground) and fhews diflindtly the poverty and thinnefs of the boundary. Many a common hedge that has been fufFered to grow wild, with a few trees in it, is a much more varied and effec- tual fcreen j but there are hedges, where yews and hollies are mixed with trees and thorns, — fo thick from the ground upwards, — fo diverfified in their outline, — in the tints, and in the light and fhade, — that the eye, which dwells on them with pleafure, is perfe<5tly deceived ; and can neither fee through them, nor difcover (hardly even fufpedt) their want of depth. This flriking contraft between a mere hedge, and trees planted for the exprefs purpofe of concealment and beauty, affords a very ufeful hint, not only for fcreens and boundaries^ but for every fort of orna- X 3 mental [ 310 ] mental plantation. It feems to point out, that concealment cannot well be produced without a mixture of the fmaller growths, fuch as thorns and hollies, which, being naturally bufhy, fill up the lower parts where the larger trees are apt to be bare ^ that fuch a mixture muft produce great va- riety of outline, as thefe fmaller growths will not hinder the larger from extending their heads j while, at the fame time, by reafon of their different heights, more or lefs approaching to thofe of the timber trees, they accompany and group with them, and prevent that fet formal appear- ance, which trees generally have when there are large fpaces between them, even though they fhould not be planted at regu- lar diflances. It feems to me, that if this method ^ere followed in all ornamental planta- tions, it would, in a great meafure, obviate the [ 3" ] the bad effecfls of their being left too clofe, cither from foolifh fondnefs, or negled. Suppofe, for inftance, that inftead of the ufual method of making an evergreen plan- tation of firs only, and thofe ftuck clofe to- gether, the firs were planted eight, twelve, or more yards afijnder (of courfe varying the diftances) and that the fpaces between them were filled with the lower ever- greens *. All thefe would for fome years * I believe there are only three forts natural to this country, holly, box, and juniper; to which, on account of the flownefs of its growth, and its doing fo well un- der the drip of other trees, may be added the yew. There is, however, a great variety of exotics which are per- fedlly hardy, and many others that will fucceed in Ihcl- tered fpots ; and the moft fcrupulous perfon will allow, that among firs (the greateft part of which are exotics) they are perfetStly in chara6ler. — Whoever has been at Mount Edgcumbe, and remembers the mixture of the arbutus. Sec. with the fpreading pines, will wai«*. ro far- ther recommendation of this method ; I muft own, that amidft all the grand features of that noble place, it made BO flight inapreflion on me. X 4 grow [ 312 ] grow up together, till at length the firs would ihoot above them all, and find no- thing afterwards to check their growth in any diredion. Suppofe fuch a wood, upon the largeft fcale, to be left to itfelf, and not a bough cut for twenty, thirty, any number of years ; and that then it came into the hands of a perfon who wifhed to give va- riety to this rich, but uniform mafs. He might in fome parts choofe to have an * open grove of firs only; in that cafe he would only have to clear aAvay all the lower evergreens, and the firs which remained, from their free unconfttained manner of * A grove of large fprcading pines is very folemn, but that folemnity might occafionally be varied, and in fome refpcds heightened, by a mixture of yews and cy- prefles, which at the fame time would give an idea of ex- treme retirement, and of fepulchral melancholy. In other parts a very pleafing contraft in winter might be formed by hollies, arbutus, laurudinus, and others that bear ber- rjes and flowers at that feafon, growing. [ 3^3 ] growing, would appear as if they had been planted with that defign. In other parts he might make that beautiful foreft-likc mixture of open grove, with thickets and loofely fcattered trees -, of lawns and glades of various fhapes and dimenlions, varioufly bounded. Sometimes he might find the ground fcooped out into a dtep hollow, forming a fort of amphitheatre ; and there, in order to fhew its general {hape, and yet preferve its fequeftered ch iradter, he might only make a partial clearings vyhen all that can give intricacy, variety, and retirement to a fpot of this kind, would be ready to his hands. It may indeed be obje(3:ed, (and not without reafon) that this evergreen under- wood will have grown fo clofe, that, when thinned, the plants which are left will look bare ; and bare they will look, for fuch piuft necelTarily be the effed:. of leaving any [ 3H ) any trees too clofe. There are, however, feveral reafons why it is of lefs confequence in this cafe : The firft and moft material is, that the great outUrie of the wood, formed by the hight?ft trees, would not be afFedted ; another is, that tht^fe lower trees being of various growths, fome will have outftrlpped their fellows in the fame pro- portion as the firs outftripped them j and; confequently, their heads will have had room to fpread, and form a gradation from the higheft firs, to the loweft underwood. Again, many of thefe evergreens of lower growth, fucceed well under the drip of taller tr^es, and alio (to ufe the figurative expreffion of nurfery-men) love the knife : by the pruning of fome, therefore, and cutting down of others, the bare parts of the taller ones would in a fliort time be covered ; and the whole of fuch a wood might be divided at pleafure into openings and [ 315 ] and groups, differing in form, in fize, and in degrees of concealment j from fkiftings of the looi'eft texture, to the clofeft and moft impenetrable thickets. This method is equally good in making plantations of deciduous trees, though not in the fame degree necelTary as in thoi^ of firs ; and though I have only mentioned ornamental plantations, yet, I believe, if thorns were always mixed with oak, beech, &c, befides their ufe in preventing the fo- reft trees from being planted too clofe to each other, they would by no means be un- profitable. If they were taken out before they were too large to hi moved eafiiy, their ufe for hedges, and their rea y f-le for that purpofe, is well known ; if left longer, they are particularly uielul for planting in gaps, where fniaikr ones would be ftifled ; and if they rem me^', they would always make excellent hedge-wood, and an^ fwer [ 3>6 ] fwer all the common purpofes of under- wood. For ornament, a great variety of lower growths might be added; and, among tlie reft, of thorns of different fpecies, the maple leaved, &c. &:c. It is not meant, that the largeft growths fhould never be planted near each other -, fome of the moft beautiful groups are often formed by fuch a clofe jun(5lion, but not when they have all been planted at the fame time, and drawn up together. A judicious improver will know when, and how, to deviate from any method, however gene- rally good. There are few operations in improvement more pleafant, than that of opening gradually a fcene, where the materials are only too abundant ; but in which they are not abfo- lutely fpoiled, as they are in a thick wood of firs. In that, there is no room for feledion ; no exercife of the judgment in arranging the groups, [ 3^7 3 groups, mafTes, or fingle trees ; no power' of renewing vegetation by pruning or cut- ting down; no hope of producing the fmall- eft intricacy or variety. If one bare pole be removed, that behind differs from it fo little, that one might exclaim with Mac* beth, " Thy :ur «' Is like the firft — a third is like the former—* « Horrible fight!"— and fo they would unvarledly go on, " tho' their line " Stretch'd out to the crack of doom/' In defcribing thefe two woods, I do not think I have at all exaggerated the uglinefs, and the incorrigible famenefs of the one, and the variety and beauty of which the other is capable. I mean, however, that variety which arifes from the manner in which thefe evergreens may be difpofed, not from the number of diftind fpecies. \ have r 3'8 3 have indeed often obferved in forefts^ (thofe great ftorehoufes of pidturefque dif- politions of trees) that merely from oak, beech, thorns, and holHes, arofe fo many combinations, fuch different effeds from thofe which are gained by ever fo great a diverfity of trees lumped together, that one could hardly wilh for more variety j it put me in mind of what is mentioned of the more ancient Greek painters ; that with only four colours, they did, what, in the more degenerate days of the art, could not be performed with all the aid of che- miflry. The true end of variety is to relieve the eye, not to perplex it j it does not con- fifl in the diverfitv of feparate objedsj but in the diverfitv of their effedls when com- bined together ; in diverfity of compofi- tion, and of charader. Many think, how- ever, they have obtained that grand .objed:, Z when [ 3^9 ] when they have exhibited in one body all the hard names of the Linn^an fyftem*; but when as great a diverfity of plants, as can well be got together, is exhibited in every flirubbery, or in every plantation, the refult is a famenefs of a different kind, but not lefs truly a famenefs than would arife from there being no diverfity at all; for there is no having variety of character, without a certain diflindnefs, without cer- tain marked features on which the eye can dwell. In forefls and woody commons we ♦ In a botanical light, fuch a coUedlion is extremely curious and entertaining ; but it is about as good a fpe- cimen of variety in landfcape, as a line of Lilly's gram- mar would be of variety in poetry : Et poftis, veftis, vermis focietur et axis. A coUedion of hardy exotics may alfo be confidered as a very valuable part of the improver's palet, and may fug- geft many new and harmonious combinations of colours i but then he muft not call the palet a pi and of all that is mofl attradiive in natural fcenery, the two great fources are accident and negled: "f, * In the Liber Verltatis, confiding of above three hundred drawings by Claude, I believe there are not more than three fingle trees. This is one ftrong proof (and I imagine the vi'orks of other painters would fully confirm it) that thofe who moft ftudied the efFedt of vifible obje6ls, attended infinitely more to eonneftion, than to feparate forms. The pradtice of improvers is diredlly the reverfe. f I remember hearing what I thought a very juft cri- ticifm on a part of Mr. Crab's poem of the Library. He has there perfonlfied NegteH-, and given her the a6iive employment of fprcading duft* on books of an- cient chivalry. But in producing piclurefque efFedls, 1 begin to think her vis inertiae is in many cafes a very powerful agent. Should this criticifm induce any perfon who had not read the Library^ to look at the part I have mentioned, he will foon forget his motive for lookmg at it, in his admiration of one of the moft animated, and highly poe- tical defcriptions I ever read, Y In In forejis and in old parks j- the rough bufhes nurfe up young trees, and grow up with them ; and thence arlfes that infinite variety of openings, of inlets, of glades, of forms of trees, 6cc. The eiftdl of all thefe might be preferved, and rendered more beautiful J by a judicious ftyle and degree of clearing and polilhing, and might be fuc- cefsfuUy imitated in other parts. Lawns are very commonly made by laying together a number of fields and meadows, the infides of which are gene- rally cleared of buflics : when thofe hedges are taken away, it muft be a great piece of luck if the trees that v/ere in them, and thofe which were fcattered about the open parts, fhould fo combine together as to form a conne6led whole. The cafe is much more defperate, when a layer out of grounds has perfuaded the owner. To improve an old family feat, By lazvnifig a hundred good acres of wheat ; for [ 3^3 } for the infides of arai^Ie grounds have fel- dom -any trees in them, and the hedges but few ; and then clumps and behs are the ufual refources. Such an improvement, however, is great- ly admired ; and I have frequently heard it wondered at, that a green lawn, which is fo charming in nature, fliould look fo ill when painted. It muft be owned, that it does look miferably flat and infipid in a piclure j but that is not entirely the fault of the painter * j for it is hardly poflible to * It is, I believe, out of the power of the art to make a long extent of fmooth, unbroken green interefting j but it muft alfo be allowed, that it might be made Jefs bad, than the reprefentations of lawns that I have hap- pened to fee. Mr. Gilpin obferves, that " were a lake « fpread out on the canvafs in one Ample hue, it v/ould « be a dull fatiguing objedl j" he might have added, a very unnatural one : it would then bear the fame fort of rcfemblance to a lake, as fome portraits of gentlemen's feats do to a lawn, which, though in general a fufR- y 2 ciently [ S24 ] t6 invent any thing more infipid than one uniform, green furface, dotted with clumps, and furrounded by a belt. If you will fuppofe a lawn, with trees of every growth difperfed in the happiefi: manner, and with as much intricacy and variety as mere grafs and trees can give to a lawn, without de- ftroying its character, — fuch a fcene, paint- ed by a Claude, would be a foft pleafing pidlure ; but it would want precifely what it wants in nature, — that happy union of warm and cool, of fmooth and rough, of pid'urefque and beautiful, which makes the charm of his beft compofitions. Were two fuch pictures (both equally well painted) hung up by each other, the defed:s of the fmooth green landfcape would be felt im- mediately; and were it pofTihle to bring two cicntly dull and fatiguing objecfl, yet has tints, and lights and fhadows, but ill reprefcnted by one fimple hue of green fpread upon the canvas. fuch [ 325 ] fiich fcenes In nature into as immediate a comparifon, he mufl be a flurdy improver who would hefitate between the two. But though fuch fcenes, as the great mafters made choice of, are much more varied and animated than one of mere grafs can be, yet I am very far from wiihing the peculiar charadter of lawns to be deftroyed. The ftudy of the principles of painting- would be very ill applied by an improver, who fhould endeavour to give to each fcene, every variety that might pleafe in a pidure feparately confidered, inftead of fuch varie- ties as are conllflent with its own peculiar charader and fituation, and with the con- nea:ions and dependencies it has on other objeds. Smoothnefs, verdure, and undula- tion, are the moil charaderiftic beauties of a lawn, but they are in their nature clofely allied to monotony; improvers, inflead of endeavouring to remedy that defed:, v/hich Y 3 is [ 3^6 ] is inherent in thofe elTential qualities of beauty, have, on the contrary, added to it, and made it much more ftriking, by the dif- polition of their trees, and their method of forming the banks of artificial rivers : nor have they confined this fyftem of levelling and turfing, to thofc fcenes where fmooth- nefs and verdure ought to be the grounds work of improvement, but have made it the fundamental principle of their art. With refpedt to thofe things, in which a very different art is concerned, our fenfa- tions are alfo very different : a perfedlly flat fquare meadow, furrounded by a neat hedge, and neither tree nor bufh in it, is looked upon not only without difgufl:, but with pleafurc ; for it pretends only to neatnefs and utility : the fame may be faid of a piece pf arable of excellent hufbandry. But when a dozen pieces are laid together, and called a lawn, or a pleafure- ground, w^ith manifeft pretenfions [ 1^7 ] pretenfions to beauty, the eye grows fadi- dious, and has not the fame indulgence for taile, as for agriculture. Men of property, who either from falfe tafte, or from a fordid defire of gain, disfigure fuch fcenes or build- ings as painters admire, provoke our indig- nation ; not fo when agriculture. In Its ge- neral progrefs (as is often unfortunately the cafe) interferes with pidurefquenefs, or beauty. The painter may indeed lament; but that fcience, which of all others mod bene- fits mankind, has a right to more than his forgivenefs, when wild thickets are con- verted into fcenes cf plenty and induftry, and when gypfies and vagrants give way to the lefs pidurefque figures of hufbandmen, and their attendants. I believe the idea, that fmoothnefs and verdure will make amends for the want of variety and pidurefquenefs, arifes from our not diftinguifhing thofe qualities that are Y 4 grateful [ 328 ] grateful to the mere organ of fight, frond j thofe various combinations, which, through the progreflive cultivation of that (enfe, have produced inexhauftible fources of de- light and admiration. Mr. Mafon obferves, that green is to the eye what harmony is to the ear j the comparifon holds throughout, for a long continuance of either, without fome rehef, is equally tirefome to both fenfes. Soft and fmooth founds, are thofe which are mofl grateful to the mere fenfe ; the leaft artful combination (even that of a third below fung by another voice) at firft diftrads the attention from the tune ; when that is got over, a Venetian duet appears the perfedion of melody and harmony. By degrees however the ear, like the eye, tires of a repetition of the fame flowing ftrain ; it requires fome marks of invention, of ori- ginal and ftriking charader, as well as of fweetnefs, in the melodies of a compofer ; it [ 3^9 ] it takes In more and more Intricate combi- nations of harmony and oppofition of parts, not only without confufion but with de- light ; and with that delight (the only lafl- ing one) which is produced both frcm the effed: of the whole, and the detail of the parts *. At the fame time the having ac- quired a relifli for fuch artful combinations, fo far from excluding (except in narrow pedantic minds) a tarte for fimple melo- dies, or fimple fcenes, heightens the enjoy- * This I take to be the reafon why thofe who are real connoiflcurs in any art, can give the moft unwea- ried attention to what the general lover is foon tired of. Both are ftrucic (though not in the fame manner or de- gree) with the whole of a fcene ; but the painter is alfa eagerly employed in examining the pariSy and all the artifice of nature in compofnig fucii a whole. The ge- neral lover flops at the firft gaze, and I have heard it faid by thofe, who in other purfuits (hewed the moft difcrimi- nating tafte ; " Why fhould we look at thefe things any more — we have feen them." Non piu parlar di lor', ma guarda & pafla, ment [ 330 1 ment of them. It is only by fuch ac- quirements, that we learn to diftinguifli what is fimple, from what is bald and com- mon-place ; what is varied and intricate, from what is only perplexed. CHAP- [ 331 ] CHAPTER III. OF all the efFed:s in landfcape, the moft brilhant and captivating are thofe produced by water, on the management of which, (as I have been told,) Mr. Brown particularly piqued himfelf. If thofe beau- ties in natural rivers and lakes which arc imitable by art, and the feledlions of them in the works of great painters, are the beft guides in forming artificial ones, Mr. Brown grolHy miflook his talent ; for among all his tame produdions, his pieces of made water are perhaps the mod fo. One of the mofl flriking properties of water, and that which mofl dillinguiilies it [ 332 ] It from the grofler elenient of earth, is its being a mirror, and a mirror that gives a peculiar freflinefs and tendernefs to the colours it refled:s ; it foftens the flronger lights, though the lucid veil it throws over thi^m feems hardly to diminifli their brilliancy ; it gives breadth to the fhadows, and in many cafes a greater depth, w^hile its glaffy furface preferves, and feems even to encreafe their tranfparency. Thefe beautiful and varied effeds, however, are chiefly produced by the near objeds -, by trees, and bufhes immediately on the banks ; ^y thofe which hang over the water, and form dark coves beneath, their branches ; by various tints of the foil where the ground is broken ; by roots, and old trunks of trees ; by tuilucks of rufhes, and by large flones that are partly whitened by the air, and partly covered with moffes, lychens, and vveathcr-flains ; while the foft tufts of L 333 J of o-rafs. and the fmooth verdure of mea- dows with which they are intermixed, ap- pear a thoufand times more foft, fmooth, and verdant by fuch contrafts *. ■ But to produce jefledions there muft be objeds ; for according to a maxim I have heard quoted from the old law of France (a maxim that hardly required the fandlion of fuch venerable authority) on il ny a rien le roi perd fes droits j and this is generally a cafe in point with rc- fpe6t to Mr. Brown's artificial rivers -j-. Even * If a man really wifiies to form a juft and unpreju- Jiced comparifon, between a beautiful natural river, aiul an artific'al onCj as they have hitherto been made — let him obfervc the circumftances I have jull mentioned, at different times of the day, and in different degrees of Uglit and (hadow ; and afterwards, while all their varied eifcdls . are frefh in his recolleftion, as attentively examine an artificial river; then let him judge hov/ far mere green- nefs and fmoothnefs, make amends for the total abfencc of every thing elfe. f I confider Mr. Brown as the Hercules, to whom ths [ 334 ] Even when, according to Mr.- Walpole*s * defcription, " a few trees, fcattered here the labours of the IcfTer ones are to be attributed, and when 1 fpeak of his artificial water, I mean to include all that has been done by his followers after his model, for they have fucceeded, and without any difliculty, in copy- ing that model cxaftly. Natural rivers, indeed, can only be imitated by the eye either in painting or reality; but his may be furvcyed, and an exa6t plan taken of them by admeafurement y and though a reprefentation of them would not accord with a Claude or a Gafpar, it might with great propriety be hung up with a map of the de- mcfne lands. * The pafHige I have quoted is in his treatife on Modern Gardening. The general tenor of that part, is in commendation of the prefent ftyle of made water, but this paflage contains more juft, and pointed fatirc, than ever v.'as conveyed in the fame number of words : a fevj trecs^fccitL'racihcre zndthcrz on its cdges^fprinklei\\c tame bank. It fcems to me that in the midft of praifes, his natural taile breaks out into criticifm, perhaps unin- tended, and which, on that account, may well fting the improver who reads them j for the fting is alw.^ys much Iharper when Medio dc fonte leporun> Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipfis floribus angat. A and [ 335 ] and there on its edges, fprinkle the tame bank that accompanies its masanders," the refledlions would not have any great variety, or briliiancy. The maeanders of a river, which at every turn prefent fcenes of a different charader, make us flrongly feel the ufe, and the charm of them ; but when the fame fweeps return as regularly as the fteps of a mi- nuet, the eye is quite weaned with fol- lowing them over and over again. What makes the Aveeps much more formal, is their extreme nakednefs: The fprinkling of a few, fcattercd trees on their edges, will not do ; there muH: be rnafles, and groups, and various degrees of openings, and con- cealment ; II nd by fuch means, fome little variety may be given even to thefe tame banks, for tame they always will remain : and it may here be obferved, that the fame objedts [ 336 ] objeds which., produce refledions, product alio variety of outline, of tints, of lights and jQiadows, as well as intricacy. So in- timate is the connedion between all thefe different beauties ; fo often does the ab- fence of one of them, imply the abfence of the others. In the turns of a beautiful river, the lines are fo varied with projedions, coves, and inlets ; with fmooth, and broken ground — with open parts, and with others fringed and overhung with trees and bufhes— with peeping rocks, large mofTy ftones, and all their foft and brilliant refledions — that the eye lingers upon them ; the two banks fee mas it were to protrad their meet- ing, and to form their jundion infenfibly, they fo blend, and unite with each other. In Mr. Brown's na,ked canals, nothing de- tains the eye a moment j and the two bare fliarp [ 337 ] iharp extremities appear to cut Into each other *. If a near approach to mathema- tical exadtnefs were a merit inftead of a defed, the fweeps of Mr. Brown's water would be admirable; for many of them feem not to have been formed by degrees with fpades, but fcooped out at once by an immenfe iron crefcent, which, after cutting out the indented part on one fide, was ap- plied to the oppofite fide, and then reverfed * ** When we look at a naked wall, from the even- nefs of the objeil the eye runs along its whole fpace, and arrives quickly at its termination." Mr. Burke's Sublime and Beautiful, p. 27. — This accounts for the total want of all that is pi6lurefque, and of all intereft whatfoever, in a continuation of naked, edgy lines j for where there is nothing to detain the eye, there is nothing to amufe it. I may add, that wherever ground is cut with a fliarp inftrument, it has that ideal effeSt on the eye ; it is a qjetaphor which naturally prevails in many languages, where lines (from whatever caufe) are hard and edgy. When A. Caracci fpeaks of the edginefs of Raphael compared with Correggio, he ufes the expref- iion, cofi duro, & /tf^//V«^^— couleurs tranchanteSf &c. Z to t 338 ] tb niakc the fweeps j fo that in each fweep, the indented, and the projedling parts, if they could be (lioved together, would fit like the pieces of a diffedted map. Where thefe pieces of water are made, if there happen to be any fudden breaks or inequalities in the ground ; any thickets or buflies i any thing, in iliort, that might cover the rawnefs and formality of new work — inftead of taking advantage of fuch accidents, all muft be made level and bare ; and, by a ftrangc perverfion of terms, drip- ping nature ftark-naked, is called dreffing her. A piece of llagnant water, with that thin, uniform, grafiy edge, which always remains after the operation of levelling, is much more like a temporary overflowing in a meadow or pafture, than what it profeiTes to imi- tate — a lake or a river : for the principal diftindion between the outline of fuch an overflowing. I 339 ] overflowing, and that of a permanent piece of water, neither formed nor improved by art, is, that the flood-water is in general every where even with the grafs — that there are no banks to it — nothing that ap- pears flnnly to contain it. In order, there^ fore, to imprefs on the whole of any artifi- cial water a charafter of age, permanency, capacity, and above all, of naturalnefs as well as variety, fome degree of height, and of abruptnefs in the banks, is required, and diff^erent degrees of both ; fome appearance of their having been in parts gradually worn, and undermined by the fucceflive adlion of rain, and frofl:, and even by that of the wa- ter, when put in motion by winds : for the tsanksof a mill-pond, (which is proverbial for ftillnefs,) are generally undermined in parts by a fucceffion of fuch accidental circum- ftances. All this diverfity of rough, broken ground, varying in height and form, and Z 2 accompanied [ 340 J accompanied with projecting trees and bufhes, will readily be acknowledged to have more painter-like effeds, than one bare, uniform, flope of grafs ; that acknow- ledgment is quite fufficient, and the ob- jedions, which are eafily forefeen, are eafily anfwered; for there are various ways in which rudenefs may be corredled and dif- guifed, as well as blended with what is fmooth and polifhed, without deftroying the marked charader of nature on the one hand, or a drefTed appearance on the other ; of this I have already given fome few in- flances *. But as artificial lakes and rivers are ufually made, the water appears in every part fo nearly on the fame level with the land, and fo totally without banks, that were it not for the regularity of the curves, a ftranger might often fuppofe, that when dry weather came the flood would go off, * Vide my Letter to Mr. Repton, page 142. and [ 341 ] and the meadow be reftored to its natural ftate. Indeed, it not unfrequently happens, that the bottoms of meadows and paftures fubjed: to floods, are in fome places bound- ed by natural banks againfl: which the water lies ; where it takes a very na- tural and varied form, and might eafily from many, and thofe not diftant points, be miftaken for part of a river : I of courfe do not mean to allude to fuch overflowings : the comparifon would do a great deal too much honour to thole pieces of water whofe banks Mr. Brown had formed -, for it is impoflible to fee any part of fuch artificial rivers, without knowing them to be artificial. Among the various ways in which the prefent fl:yle of artificial water has been de- fended, certain paflfages from the poets have been quoted*, to fhew that it is a great beauty * Eflay on Defign in Gardening, page 203. Z3 '» [ 342 ] in a river to have the water clofe to the edge of the grafs : May thy brimmed waves for this Their full tribute never mifs. Vivo de pumice fontes Rofcida mobilibus lambebant gramina rivis *. To which might be added the vi^ell known paflage : ' Without o'erflowing full. I have fuch refped: for the feehng which moft poets have fhewn for natural beauties, and think they have fo often, and fo happily exprcfled what is, and ought to be, the ge- neral feeling of mankind, that wherever they were clearly and uniformly againil: me, I fhould certainly (as far as that general fejifation was concerned) allow myfelf to be in the wrong. In this cafe, however, I can fafely agree with the poets, and yet condemn Mr. Brown. With refped to ♦ Claudian de raptu Proferpinae. the [ 343 3 the firft inftance, I might fay, that, without thinking of beauty, it is a very natural com- pliment to a river-god or goddefs, to wi(h their ftreams always full; but I am ready to admit, that by brimmed waves the poet meant as full as the river could be without . overflowing, and that it were to be widicd, for the fake of beauty, that rivers could always be kept in that flate. All this is clearly in favour of an equal height of the water-, but can it be inferred from this, or, I will venture to fay, from any pallage whatever, that Milton, or any other poet, were of opinion that the 6anh * ought every where to * It is clifEcuIt to define, with any precifion, what may properly be called the bank of a river : in its moft ex- tended acceptation, it may mean whatever is feen from the water j I wifb it to be taken here in its moft con- fined fenfe,as that which immediately rifes above the water till another level begins, or fome diftinft termination. This, in certain inflances, will be very clear ; as where a Z4 flat [ 344 ] to be of an equal height above the water, and the ground equally floped down to it. If it be allowed (as 1 prefume it muft) that no fuch idea is to be found amongft the poets, I am fure it can as little be juf- tified by natural fcenery : for let us ima- gine the river to be brimful, like a canal, for a certain diftance from any given point, and then (as it perpetually happens) the bank to rife fuddenly to a confiderable height : the iioater muft remain on the fame level, flat meadow (but not floped down to the water by art) joins the river. It will be equally clear, where the ge- neral bank is fteep, if a road be carried near the bot- tom J for fuch an artificial level will form a diftinit near bank, and which would be diftindly marked in a pic- ture. The higheft part to which the flood generally reaches, is alfo a very ufual boundary, and in moft places there is fomething which feparates the immediate bank, from the general fcenery that enclofes the river. This near bank being in the foreground, is of the greatefl con- fcquence : wherever that is regularly floped and fmooth- ed, whatever beauty or grandeur there may be abovC't the charader of the river is gone. but I 345 ] but the brhn would be changed, and inr ftead of being brimful, according to an idea taken from Mr. Brow:i, not from Mdton, the river though full, would in that place be deep withiii its banks. But ftill, it has been argued, when the water rifes to the upper edge of the banks, the figns of be- ing worn in them cannot appear : certainly not in Mr. Brown's canals, where monotony is fo carefully guarded, that the full ftream of a real river would, for a long time, hardly produce any variety : but do rivers, in their natural ftate, never fwell with rain or fnow, and, before they difcharge themfelves over the hweji parts, tear and undermine their higher banks ? two diftind:ions which do not exift in what are called imitations of rivers. Do not the marks of fuch floods on the higher banks, remain after the river has retired into its proper channel, that is, nearly to the height of the lower banks ? But [ 346 ] But even on a fuppofition of it's never over- Mowing, and never finking, the fame thing would happen in fome degree ; for it does Iiappen in flagnant water, and mufl: where- ever there are any fleep banks expofed to rain and froft, and unfccured by art. The image in Claudian is extremely poetical, and no lefs pkafing in reahty ; the paiiage relates, however, to a fmall rivulet, not to a river ; but fuppofing it did relate to a river, are we thence to infer that, ac- cording to the poet's meaning, nothing but grafs ought any where to be in contact with the water, and that the turf muft every where be regularly floped down to it ? that there mufl: be no other image ? When trees from a fteep and broken bank, form an arch over the water, and dip their foliage in the flream — when the clear mirror beneath refleds their branching roots, the coves un- der them, the jutting rocks they have \ faftened r 347 ] failened upon, and feem to hold in their embrace — the bright and mellow tints of large mofs-crowned flones, that have their foundation below the water, and rifmg out of it fupport and form a part of the bank— would the poet figh for grafs only, and wifh to deftroy, level, and cover with turf, thefe and a thoufand other beautiful and pidturefque circumftances ? Would he ob- jed: to the river, becaufe it was not every where brimful to the top oialliis banks, and did not every where kifs the grafs ? And are we to conclude, that when poets mention one beauty, they mean to exclude all the reft ? It may poflibly be fliid, that there are natural rivers wh^fe banks, like thofe of Mr. Brown's, keep for a long time together the fame level above the water -, there cer- tainly are fuch rivers, but I never heard of their being admired, or frequented for their beauty. It is poffible alfo, that there may 6 be f 348 1 found fome lake or meer, with a uniform grafiy edge all round it : I can only fay, that fuch an in (lance of complete natural monotony, though it may be admired for its rarity, cannot be a proper object of imita- tion. But if an improver happens to be placed in a level country, (hould he not even there confult the genius loci F without doubt, and therefore be will not attempt hanging rocks and precipices ; but he may furely be allowed to fteal from the better genius of fome other fcene, a few circum- ftances of beauty and variety that will not be incompatible with his own. By fuch methods, many pleafing effects may be given to an artificial ri^er, even in a dead flat; but where there is any natural va- riety in the ground, with a tendency to wood, and other vegetation, nothing but art fyftematically abfurd, and diligently em- ployed in countera^ing the efforts of na- ture. [ 349 ] ture, can create and preferve perfed: mono- tony in the banks of water. And yet, however fond of art, and even of the appearance of it, fome improvers feem to be, I fancy, if a ftranger were to miftake one of their pieces of made water for the Thames, fuch an error would not only be forgiven, but confidered as the higheft compliment; notwithflanding Mr. Brown's modeft * apoflrophe to that river. But though an imitation of the moH flriking varieties of nature, fo fkilfully ar- ranged as to pafs for nature herfelf, would be acknowledged as the higheft attainment of art ; yet no one feems to have thought of copying thofe circumftances, which might occafion fo flattering a deception. * ** Thames ! Thames ! Thou wilt never forgive me."— A well known exclamation of Mr. Brown, when he was looking with rapture and exultation at one of his «wn canals. If If it were propofed to any of thefe profef-^ fors to make an artificial river without re- gular curves*, dopes, and levelled banks, but with thofe charaderiftic beauties, and negligencies, which give a certain air of naturalnefs, as well as variety to real rivers, and which diftinguilh them from what is univerfally done by art, they would, in Briggs's language, " flare like ftuck pigs— ** do no fuch thing." Their talent lies an- other way I and if you have a real river, and will let them improve it, you will be furprifed to find how foon they will make * The lines in natural rivers^ in bye roads^ ill the Ikirtings of glades of forefts, have fometimes the appear- ance of regular curves, and feem to juftify the ufe of them in artificial fceneryj but fomething alw^ays faves them from fuch a crude degree of it. If, on a fubjed fo very unmathematical, I might venture to ufe any al- lufion to that fcience, or any term drawn from it, fuch lines might be called pidturefque afymptotes ; however they may approach to regular curves, they never fall into tbem* It [ 3S« ] it like an artificial one ; (o much fo, that the mod critical eye could fcarcely difcover that It had not been planned by Mr. Brown, and formed by the fpade and the wheel- barrow. All thefe defeats in the banks of made water, may, I am perfuaded, be got over by judicious management*; but there is another * Mr. Repton (who is defervecfly at the head of his profeflion) might efFeilually correct the errors of his predecefTors, if to his tafte and facility in drawing (an advantage they did not poflefs) to his quicknefs of ob- fervation, and to his experieiKe in the pradlical part, he were to add an attentive lludy of what the higher artlfls have done, both in their piiflures and drawings : Their (elections and arrangements would point out many beau- tiful compoQtions and effeils in nature, which, without fuch a ftudy, may efcape the moft experienced ob- ferver. The fatal rock on which all profefled improvers are likely to fplit, Is that of fyftem ; tliey become mannerifts, both from getting fond of what they have done before, and from the eafe of repeating what thcv have fo often pradifed j but to be reckoned a mannerift, is at leafl: as great f 352 ] another confideration on this fubjed: that deferves to be weighed by every improver. To make an artificial river, you muft ne- ceflarily begin by deflroying one of the greatefl: charms of a natural one ; and mo- tion is fuch a charm, fo fuited to all tailes, that before a running brook, is forced into flagnant water, the advantages of fuch an alteration ought to be very apparent : if it %e determined, nothing that may compen- fate for fuch a lofs fhould be negleded -, and as the water itfelf can have but one uni- form furface, every variety of which banks are capable, fhould be ftudied both from nature and painting, and thofe feledled, which will beft accord with the general great a reproach to the improver as to the painter. Mr. Brown feems to have been perfedily fatisfied, when he had made a natural river look like an artificial one; I hope Mr. Repton will have a nobler ambition — that of hav- ing his artificial rivers and lakes miftaken for natirral •nes. fcenery. [ 353 1 fccnery. Objeds of reflexion, feem pecu- liarly fuited to ftill water, for, befides their diflina beauty, they foften the cold, white xrlare, of what is ufually called a fine fheet* of water. This expreffion, as I before ob- lerved (and I believe it is the cafe with other common forms of compliment) con- tains a very juft criticifm, on what it feems to commend, and the origin of fuch mix- tures of praife, and cenfure may, I think, be eafily Accounted for. The perfon who iirft makes ufe of fuch a form, and brings it into vogue, only expreffes a fudden idea that ftrikes him, v^^ithout examining it ac- * Collins, in his Ode to Evening, has ufed this kind of expreffion very juftly : Where fome fheety lake, ■*' Cheers the lone heath." Water upon a heath, from the want of refleclions, will have a Jl^eety appearance ; but at that time of the day, to which Collins has addrtfled his ode, its foftened white- nefs (and particularly when twilight has rendered other obje<5\s dulky) will cheer the lone heath. A a curately. f 354 ] curatcly. Any perfon, for inflance, who was iheWn, for the firft time, a piece of naade water, would probably be ilruck with the white glare of the water itfelf, and with the uniform greennefs, and exad: level of its banks, or rather its border^ the idea of linen fpread upon grafs might thence very naturally occur to him, which, in civil language, he would exprefs by a fine flieet of water; and this is always meant, and taken as a flattering expreffion, though no* thing can more pointedly dcfcribe the de- feds of fuch a fcene * : had there been any * I happened to be at a gentleman's houfe, the ar- chitect of which (to ufe Colin Campbell's expreffion) « had not preferved the raajefty of the front from the ill efFe£l of crowded apertures." A neighbour of his, meaning to pay him a compliment on the number and clofenefs of his windows, exclaimed, " What a charm- ing houfe you have ! upon my word it is quite like a lanthorn." I muft own I think the two compliments equally flattering ; but a charming lanthorn has not yet had the fuccefs of a fine flicet. variety i [ 3i5 ] variety in the banks, with deep fliades, brilliant lights, and refledlioiis^ the idea of a fheet would hardly have fuggeiled itfelf, or if it had, he who made fuch a compa- rifon would have made a very bad one ; « And liken'd things that are not like at all;" But in the other cafe, nothing can be more like than a (heet of water^ and a real fheet; and wherever there is a large blanching ground^ the moft exadt imitations of Mr. Brown's lakes and rivers might be made in linen j and they would be juft as proper objed:s of jealoufy to the Thames, as any of his performances. - I am aware that Mr. Brown's admirers, with one voice will quote the great water at Blenheim, as a complete anfwer to all I have faid againfl him on this fubjed:. No one can admire more highly than I do that moft princely of all places; btit it A a 2 would [ 3S6 ] would be doing great injuftlce to nature and Vanbrugh, not to diftinguifti their merits in forming it, from thofe of Mr. Brown. If there be an improvement more obvi- ous than all others, it is that of damming up a flream, which flows gently through a valley * ; and it required no effort of genius to place the head in the narroweft, and moft concealed part ; this is all that Mr. Brown has done. He has, indeed, the negative merit (and to which he is not always en- titled) of having left the oppofite bank of wood in its natural ftatcf ; and had he profited * I will not go quite fo far as a friend of mine, well known for his love of maintaining Angular opinions. When we were talking, upon the fpot, of the great water» and of Mr. Brown's merit in conceiving it, he de- clared he was quite certain, that there was not a houfe- maid in Blenheim to whom it would not immediately have occurred. t I am convinced; however, that a Mn Brown,^ though [ 357 I profited by fo excellent a model — had he formed and planted the other more diftant banks, fo as to have continued fomething of the fame %le and character round the lake, (though with thofe diverfities which would naturally have occurred to a man of the leaft invention) he would, in my opinion, though he may not often venture on fo flagrant a piece of mifchief as clumping and (having fuch a bank of wood as that at Blenheim, yet feldom, if ever, feels and diftin- guifhcs the peculiar beauties of its unimproved ftate. A profefled improver is in all refpe(as like a profefled pic- ture-cleaner ; the one is always occupied with grounds, and the other with pidures ; but the eyes and tafte of both are fo vitiated by their pradice, that they fee nothing in either, but fubjedts for fmoothing and policing j and they work on, till they have (kinned and flead every thing they meddle with. Thofe charafteriftic, and fpirited roughnefles, together with that patina, the varnifli of time, which time only can give (and which in pictures may fometimes hide crudities which efcape even the laft glazing of the painterj immediately difappear ; and pic- tures and places are fcoured as bright as Scnblerus's fliield, and with as little remorfe on the part of the fcourers. A a 3 have [ 3S8 ] have had fome claim to a title created fincc his time -, a title of no fmall pretenfion, that of landfcape gardener. But if the banks above, and near the bridge were formed, or even approved of by him, his tafte ha4 more of the engineer than the painter ; for they have fo llrong a refeniblance to the glacis of a fortification, that it might v^^eU be fuppofed, that fhape had been given thctn in compliment to the firil duke of Marl- borough's campaigns in Flanders. The bank near the houfe, which is op- pofite to the wooded one, and which forms part of the pleafure-ground, is extremely well done ; for that required a high degree of polifh, and there the gardener was at home. Without meaning to detrad: from }iis real merit in that part (but at the fame time to reduce it to what appears to mc its jufl value) I mufl obferve, that two things have contributed to give it a rich . 5 effed: [ 359 ] efFcd; at a diflance, as well as a varied and drefled look tvithin itfelf ; in both refpefls very different from his other plantations. In the firft place, there were feveral old trees there, before he began his works ; and their high, and fpreading tops, would unavoidably prevent that dead flatnefs of outline, cet air ecras}, which his own clofe *, lumpy • It may perhaps be thought unjuft to make Mr. Brown anfwerablc for the neglect of gardeners ; it may be faid, that an improver's bufinefs is to fornty not to thin plantations. But a phyfician would defer ve very ill of his patient, who, after prefciibing for the moment, fhould abandon him to the care of his nurfe j and who in his fu- ture vifits fliould concern himfelf no farther, but let the diforder take its courfe, till the patient was irrecoverably emaciated, and exhaufted. Mr. Brown, during a long pradicc, frequently repeated his vifits ; but as far as I have obferyed, the trees in his plantations bear no mark of his atterition : indeed, his clumps ftrongly prove his love of compa(5lnefs. There is another circumftance in his plantations, which deferves to be remarked: A favou- rite mixture of his was that of beech, and Scotch firs, and in nearly equal proportion : but if unity and fimplicity A a 4 of [ 3^0 ] lumpy plantations of trees always exhibit. In the next place, the fituation of this fpot called for a large proportion of fhrubs, with exotick trees of various heights ; thefe flirubs and plants of lower growth, though chiefly put in clumps, the edgy borders of of charafter in a wood is to be given up. It fhould be for the faice of a variety that will harmonize; which two trees, fo equal in fize and in numbers, and fo ftrongly contrafted in form and colour, can never do. This puts me in mind of an anecdote I heard of a per- fon, very much ufed to look at objects with a painter's eye : — He had three cows ; when his wife, with a very proper oeconomy, obferved, th^t two were quite fufficient for their family, and defired him to part with one of them, « Lord, my dear," faid he, " twQ cows you know will never group." A third tree (like a third cow) might have connecled and blended the difcordant forms and colours of the beech and Scotch firj but every thing I have fecn of Mr. Brown's works, have convinced me that he had, in a figurative fenfe, no eye ; and if he had had none in the literal fenfe, it woi;ld have only been a private misfor- tune. And partial evil, univerfal good, which [ 3^1 ] which have a degree of formality *, yet being fubordinate, and not interfering with the higher growths, or with the original trees, have, from the oppofite bank, the appearance of a rich underwood ; and the beauty, and comparative variety of that * All fuch ed^es are no lefs adverfe to the beautiful, than to the pidurefque: they are hard, cutting, and formal j they deftroy all play of outline — all beauty of intricacy. Digging, with the edges it occafions, is a blemifti, which is endured at firft (and with great reafon) for the fake of luxuriant vegetation j and in fome cafes, as for Inftance, where the plants are very fmall, or where flowers are cultivated, muft always be continued ; but when the end is anfwered, why continue the blemifh ? No one, I believe, would think it right to dig a circle or an oval, and keep its edges pared, round a group of kal- meas, azaleas, rhododendrons, &c. that grew luxuriantly in their own natural foil and climate, in order to make the whole look more beautiful. Why then continue to dig round them, or any other foreign plants in this coun- try, after they have begun to grow as freely as our own ? Why not fuffer them to appear, without the marks of culture, As glowing in their native bed I garden [ 362 ] garden fcene, from all points, are ilrongly in favour of the method of planting I de- fcribed in a former part. It is clear to me, however, that Mr. Brown did not make ufe of this method from principle -, for in that cafe, he would fometimes at lead have tried it in h£$ poliihed fcenes, by fub- ftituting thorns, hollies, 6cc. in the place of ihrubs. Of the rich, airy, and even dreffed efFed of fuch mixtures, he mufl have feen numberlefs examples in forefts, in parks, on the banks of rivers ; and from them he might have drawn the mofl: ufe- ful inftrudtion, were it to be expeded that thofe who profefs to improve nature, "Ihould ever deign to become her fcho- lars. But to judge properly of Mr. Brown's tafte and invention in the accompaniments of water, we mufl obferve thofe which he has formed entirely himfelf ; and that we may [ 363 ] may do without quitting Blenheim * : Be- low the cafcade all is his own, and a more complete piece of monotony could hardly be furniflied even from his own works. When he was no longer among (hrubs and gravel walks, the gardener was quite at a lofs } for his mind had never been prepared by a ftudy of the great mafters * As Blenheim is the only place I have critlcifed by name, an apology is due to the noble poflefTor of it (to whom, on many accounts, I fhould be particularly forify to give offence) for the freedom I have taken. I truft, however, that the liberality of mind, which naturally ac- companies that love and knowledge of the fine arts for w'hich he is fo diftinguifhed, will make him feel that in criticifing modern gardening, it would have been unfair (o Mr. Brown, not to have mentioned his moft famous work ; and that my filence on that head, would have been attributed to other motives than thofe of delicacy and refpeft. I muft alfo add in my defence, that I can hardly look upon Blenheim in the light of common pri- vate property j it has the glorious and fingular diftinc- tion, of being a national reward, for great national fer- vices ; and the public has a more than common interefl-, in all that concerns fo noble a monument. of [ 364 ] of landfcape, for a more enlarged one of nature. Finding, therefore, no inven- tion, no refources within himfelf — he copied what he had moft feen, and moft admired — his own little works ; and in the fame fpirit in which he had magnified a parterre, he planned a gigantic gravel walk. When it was dug out, he filled it with another element, called ic a river, and thought the nobleft in this kingdom muft be jealous of fuch a rival *. ♦ Mr. Brown and his followers are great ccconomifts of their invention: with them walks, roads, brooks, and rivers are, as it were, convertible works. Dry one of their rivers, it is a large walk or road — flood a walk or a road, it is a little brook or river— and the ac- companiments (like the drone of a bagpipe) always re- main the fame. A brook, indeed, is not always damned up; it fome- times (though rarely) is allowed its liberty; but, like animals that are fuffered by the owner to run loofe, it is marked as private property by being mutilated. No operation in improvement has fuch an appearance of barbarity, as that of deftroying the modeft, retired cha- [ 365 ] ' rafter of a brook : I remember fome burlefque lines on the treatment of Regulus by the Carthaginians, which perfedly defcribe the efFe£l of that operation : His eyelids they pared. Good God ! how he ftared ! Juft fo do thefe improvers torture a brook, by widening it, cutting away its beautiful fringe, and expofing it to day's garifh eye. If, inftead of being always turned into regular pieces of water, brooks were fometimes flopped partially^ and to different degrees of height (particularly where there appeared to be natural beds, and where natural banks with trees or with thickets, would then hang over them) there would be a mixture, and a fucceflion of ftill and of running-water ; of quick motion, and of clear re- fle(S^ion. I HAVE t 366 3 I HAVE now gone through the principal points of modern gardening ; but the obfervations I have made relate almofl entirely to the grounds, and not to what may properly be called the garden *. The embellifhments near the houfe, and thofe decorations which would belt accord with architedure, and with buildings of every kind, deferve to be treated feparately, and more at large ; as lii^ewife the different charaders and eifeds of buildings, as con- * A gentleman, whofe tafte and feeling, both for art and nature, rank as high as any man's, was lamenting to me the extent of Mr. Brown's operations : — " Former improvers," faid he, « at leaft kept near the houfe ; but this fellow crawls like a fnail all over the grounds, and leaves his curfed flime behind him wherever he goes;" neded [ 3^7 ] neded with landlcape, whether real, or imitated. It was my intention to have faid fomething on thefe two fubjefts in this edition, but I found that they would carry me much farther than I at iirft conceived, and that they would almoft furnifh a vo- lume by themfelves. I have therefore laid them a fide for the prefent, in hopes of of- fering my ideas to the public at fome future period, more fully prepared and digefted. As the art of gardening, in its extended fenfe, vies with that of painting, and has been thought likely to form a new fchool of painters; I think I am juftified in hav- ing compared its operations and effbas, with thofe of the art it pretends to rival, nay, to inftrud:. Thefe two rivals (whom I am fo defirous of reconciling) have hi- therto been guided by very oppofite princi- ples, and the character of their produdions have been as oppofite; but the cold flat monotony [ 368 ] monotony of the new favourite, has been preferred by many (" aye, and thofe great ones too") to the fpirlted variety of her elder filler j fhe has, indeed, been fo puffed up by this high favour, that fhe has hardly deigned to acknowledge the relationfliip, and has even treated her with contempt : Thofe alfo, who from their fituation and influence were befl qualified to have brought about an union between them, have, on the contrary, contributed to keep up her vanity, and to widen the breach ; for I have heard an eminent profeflbr treat the idea of judg- ing, in any degree, of places as of pidlures, or of comparing them at all together, as quite abfurd. In real life, the nobleft part a man can ad — the part which mofl conciliates the efleem and good- will of all mankind — is that of promoting union and harmony wherever occafion offers : In the prefent cafe, though a breach between thefe figura- tive [ 369 ] tive perfons, is not of ferious confequence to fociety, yet I fhall feel no fmall pleafure and pride, fhould my endeavours be fuc- cefsful. I have (hewn, to the beft of my power, how much it is their mutual in- tereft to a(5t cordially together, and have offered every motive for fuch an union; and I hope that prejudices, however Prongly rooted — however enforced by thofe who may be interefted in the feparation, will at laft give, way. I may, perhaps, be thought fomewhat cauftick for a peace-maker, and, I muft own, " My teal flows warm and eager from my bofom." But if war be to be made for the fake of peace (however the wifdom of the expe- dient may be doubted) all will agree, that it ought to be profecuted with vigour if once begun. I never was in company with Mr. B b Brown, [ 370 1 Brown, nor even knew him by fight, and therefore can have no pcrfonal diflike to him; but I have heard numberlefs in- ftances of his arrogance and defpotifm, and fuch high pretenfions feem to me Uttle juftified by his works. Arrogance and imperious manners, which, even joined to the truefl merit, and the mofl fplendid talents, create difguft and oppofition, when they are the offspring of a Httle narrow mind, elated with temporary favour, pro- voke ridicule, and deferve to meet with it. Mr. Mafon's poem on Modern Garden* ing, is as real an attack on Mr. Brown's fyftem, as what I have written. He has as ftrongly guarded the reader againft the infipid formality of clumps, &c. and has equally recommended the ftudy of paint- ing, as the beft guide to improvers ; but the praife he has bellowed on Mr. Brown [ 17^ ] Brown himfelf (however generally convey- ed) has fpoiled the effedl of fo powerful an antidote. Mofl people, from a very natural indolence, are more inclined to copy an eftablillicd and approved prac- tice; than to corred: its defeds, or to form a new one from theory j Mr. Mafon's eulogium has therefore fandiloned Mr. Brown's practice more eiFedually, than his precepts have guarded againfl it. That eulogium, however, (if I may be allowed to make a fuggeftion which I think is au- thorized by the tenor of the poem) has been given from the moft amiable motive — the fear of hurting thofe with whom he lived on the moft friendly terms, and who had very much employed and ad- mired Mr. Brown. Silence would, in fuch a work, have been a tacit condemnation ; ftill worfe to have " damned with faint praife :" my idea may poflibly be taken B b 2 upon [ 372 ] upon wrong grounds, but I have often admired Mr. Mafon's addrefs in fo delicate a fituation. Had Mr. Brown transfufed into his works any thing of the taile and fpirit, which prevail in Mr. Mafon's pre- cepts and defcriptions, he would have de- ferved (and might pofllbly have enjoyed) the hi2:h honour of having thofe works celebrated by him and Mr. \¥alpole -, and not have had them referred, as they have been by both, to future poets and hifto- rians. It may, perhaps, be thought prefumptuous in an invididual, who has never diftinguilhed himfelf by any work that might give au- thority to his opinion, fo boldly to con- demn, what has been admired and prid:Ifed by men of the moft liberal tade and edu- cation : but the force of failiion and exam- ple are v/cll known, and it requires no little eneri^y of mind, and confiderice in one's [ 373 ] one's own principles, to think and ad for one's fclf, in oppofition to general opinion and practice. SoiPie French writer (I do not recollecft who) ventures to exprefs a doubt, whether a tree waving in the wind, with all its branches free and untouched, may not pofiibly be an objedt more worthy of admiration, than one cut into form in the gardens of Verfailles.— This bold fccp- tic in theory, had mod probably his trees fliorn like thofe of his fovereign. It is equally probable, that many an Englifh gentleman may have felt deep re- gret, when Mr. Brown had improved fome charming trout flream, into a piece of water ; and that many a time afterwai-ds, when difgufted with its glare and formality, he has been heavily plodding along its naked banks, he may have thoupht how beautifully fringed thofe of his little brook once had been ; how it fometimes ran ra- B b 3 pidly [ 374 ] pidly over the ftones and (hallo u'S; and fometimes in a narrower channel, ftole filently beneath the over-hanging boughs. Many rich natural groups of trees he might remember — now thinned and rounded into clumps ; many fequeilered and fhady fpots which he had loved when a boy — now all open and expofed, without {hide or variety ; and all thefe facrifices made, not to his own tafte, but to the fafliion of the day, and againft his natural feelings. It feems to me, that there is fomething of patriotifm in the praifes which Mr. Wal- pole and Mr. Mafon have beftowed on Englifh gardening ; and that zeal for the honour of their country, has made them (in the general view of the fubjed) over- look defeats, v^hich they have themfelves condemned. My love for my country, is, I truft, not lefs ardent than theirs, but it has taken a different turn ; and I feel anxi- ous r 375 ] ous to free it from the difgrace of propa- gating a fyilem, which, fhould it become univerfal, would disfigure the face of all Europe. I wifli a more liberal and ex- tended idea of improvement to prevail ; that inftead of the narrow, mechanical pradtice of a few Englifh gardeners ^ — the noble and varied works of the eminent painters of every age, and of every coun- try, and thofe of their fupreme miftrefs. Nature, fliould be the great models of imitation. If a tafte for drawing and painting, and a knowledge of their principles, made a part of every gentleman's education; if, inftead of hiring a profefTed improver to torture their grounds after an eftabliflied model, each improved his own place, ac- cording to general conceptions drawn from nature and pidlures, or from hints that favourite mailers in painting, or favourite B b 4 parts [ 376 ] parts of nature fuggefted to him — there might in time be a great variety in the flyles of improvement, and all of them with peculiar excellencies. No two pain- ters ever faw nature with the fame eyes j they tended to one point, by a thoufand different routes, and that makes the charm of an acquaintance with their various modes of conception and execution : but any of Mr. Brown's followers migiit fay, with great truth, we have but one idea among us, I have always underftood, that Mr. Ha- milton, who created Painfliill, not only had ftudied pidures, but had ftudied them for the exprefs purpofe of improving real landfcape. The place he created (a talk of quite another difficulty from correcting, or from adding to natural fcenery) fully proves the ufe of fuch a iludy. Among many circumftances of more ftriking effedt, I was C 377 ] I *\'as highly pleafed with a walk, which leads through a bottom fkirted with wood; and I .vas pleafed with it, not from what had^ but from what had not, been done; it had no edges, no borders, no diftin6t lines of fcparation ; nothing was done, ex- cept keeping the ground properly neat, and the communication free from any ob- flruiftion. The eye and the footfteps were equally unconfined; and if it is a high com- mendation to a writer or a paiCier, that he knows when to leave off, it is not iefs fo to an improver. In a place begun (I believe) by Kent, and fmiflied by Brown, a wood, with many old trees covered with u'y, mixed with thickets of hollies, yews, and thorns; a wood, which Roufleau might have dedi- cated a la reverie — is io interfe(fted by walks and green alleys, all edged and bor- dered, that there is no efcaping from them ; they [ 378 ] they adt like flappers in Laputa, and in- ilantly wake you from any dream of re- tirement. The borders of thefe walks (and it is a very common cafe) are fo thickly planted, and the reft of the wood fo im- pra<5ticable, that it feems as if the improver faid, " You lliall never wander from my walks — never exercife your own tafte and judgment — never form your own compofi- tions ; neither your eyes nor your feet fhall be allowed to flray from the boundaries I have traced" — a fpecies of thraldom unfit for a free country. There is, indeed, fomething defpotic in the general fyftem of improvement ; all mull be laid open — all that obftrudls, level- led to the ground — houfes, orchards, gar- dens, all fvvept away. Pamting, on the contrary, tends to humanize the mind ; where a defpot thinks every perfon an in- truder who enters his domain, and willies to [ 379 ] to deftroy cottages and pathways, and to reign alone ; the lover of painting, confi- ders the dwellings, the inhabitants, and the marks of their intercourfe, as ornaments to the landfcape *. For the honour of humanity, there an' minds, which require no other motive than what pafles within. And here I cannot refift paying a tribute to the memory of a beloved uncle, and recording a benevo- lence towards all the inhabitants around him, that ftruck me from my earlieft re- * Sir Jofhua Reynolds told me, that when he and Wilfon the landfcape painter were looking at the view from Richmond terrace, Wilfon was pointing out fome particular part; and in order to dire6l his eye to it, " There," faid he " near thofe houfcs — there ! where the figures are." — Though a painter, faid Sir Jofhua, I was puzzled. I thought he meant ftatues, and was looking upon the tops of the houfcs ; for I did not at firft conceive that the men and women we plainly faw walking about, were by him only thought of as figures in the landfcape. membrance; [ 38o ] membrance ; and it is an impreffion I wlfh always to cherifli. It feemed as if he had made his extenfive walks, as much for them as for himfelf; they ufed them as freely, and their enjoyment was his. The village bore as ftrong marks of his and of his brother's attentions (for in that refped: they appeared to have but one mind) to the comforts and pleafures of its inhabi- tants. Such attentive kindneifes, are am- ply repaid by affedionate regard and reve- rence ; and were they general throughout tiie kingdom, they would do much more towards guarding us againft democratical opinions, " Than twenty thoufand foldiers arm'd in proof." The chcerfulnefs of the fcenc I have m.entioned, and all the interefting circum- ftances attending it (fo different from thofe of folitary grandeur) have convinced me, that [ 38i ] that he who deftroys dwellings, gardens, and inclofures, for the fake of mere extent, and parade of property, only extends the bounds of monotony, and of dreary, felfifh pride ; but contrails thofe of variety, amufe- ment, and humanity. I own it does furprife me, that in an age and in a country where the arts are fo highly cultivated, one fingie plan (and that but moderate) fhould have been fo gene- rally adopted; and that even the love of peculiarity, fliould not fometimes have checked this method of levelling all dif- tindions, of making all places alike * ; all equally tame and infipid. Few pcrfons have been fo lucky as ne- ver to have feen, or heard the true proftr ; * A perfon well known for his taftc and abilities, be- ing at a gentleman's houfc v/here A4r. Brown was ex- pcvSted, drew a plan by anticipation ; whicii proved fo exa£t, that I believe the ridicule it threw on the ferious plan, helped to prevent its execution. r fmiling. t 382 ] fmiling, and diftindly uttering his flowino- common - place nothings, with the iiime placid countenance, the fame even-- toned voice : he is the very emblem of Terpentine walks, belts, and rivers, and all Mr. Brown's works ; like him they are fmooth, flov/ing, even, and diilin6t * j and like him they wear one's foul out. There * The language (if it may be fo called) by which objects of fight make themfelves intelligible, is exaClly like that of fpeech. To a man who is ufcd to look at nature, pictures, or drawings, with a painter's eye, tlie fiighteft hijVc, on the flighted: infpedlion, conveys a per- fe61 and intelligible meaning ; juil as the flighted found, with the moft negligent articulation, conveys meaning to an ear that is well acquainted with the language of the fpeaker : But to a perfon little verfed in that language, fuch a found is quite unintelligible ; he muft have e\'ery word pronounced diftin6lly and articulately. Then again, as thefe flight hints, and flurred articula- tions, have often a grace and fpirit in language which is loft when words are diftincStly pronounced ; fo many of thefe flight and expreflive touches, both* in art and in na- ture, give moft pleafure to thofe who are thoroughly verfed in the language. This may, perhaps, in fome de- gree [ 383 ] There is a very different being, of a much rarer kind, and who hardly appears to be of the fame fpecies -, full of un- exped:ed turns, — of flaflies of light : ob- jeAs the moft familiar, are placed by him in fuch (ingular, yet natural points of view, — he ftrikes out fuch unthought of agree- ments and contrails, — fuch combinations, fo little obvious, yet never forced or af- feded, that the attention cannot flag ; but from the delight of what is paifed, we eagerly liften for what is to come. This Is the true pid:urefque, and the propriety of that term will be more felt, if we attend to what correfponds to the beautiful in con- verfation. How different is the effed of ( grce account for the plainly marked diftindions in im- provement J for as in order to convey any idea to a man unufed to a language in one fenfe, you mufl mark every zmrd'y fo to a man unufed to it in another fenfe you muft mark every obje6l \ muft cut (harp lines, muft whiten, redden, blacken, &c, &c. X that [ 3B4 ] that foft infinuating llyle, of thofe gentle tranfitions, which, without dazzling or fur- priiing, keep up an increafing intereft, and infenfibly wind round the heart. It requires a mind of feme fenfibility, and habit of obfervation, to diflingnifli what is really beautiful and interefting, from what is merely fmooth, flowing, and iniipid, and to give a decided preference to the former. It is not more conimon to have a true rcliili for plfturefque fccnery 5 and even the quick turns and intrica- cies of convcrfition are not relifhed by all. I have fometimes iten a pf^ofer quite for- lorn in the company of a man of brilliant imagination -, he fccmled " dazzled with " excefs of light," his dull faculties to- tally unable to keep pace with the other's rapid ideas. I have afterwards obferv- cd the fame man, g^t clofe to a brother profer; and the two fnails have travelled 9 on [ 3^5 ] on Co comfortably on their own flime, that they feemed to feel no more impreflion, either of pleafure or envy, from what they had heard, than a real fnail may be fuppofed to do, at the ad:ive bounds and leaps of a ftag, or of a high-mettled courfer. This is exadtly the cafe with that prac- tical prefer, the true improver : carry him to a fcene merely picfturefque, he is bewil- dered with its variety and intricacy, the charms of which he neither reli flies, nor comprehends ; and longs to be crawling among his clumps, and debating about the tenth part of an inch, in the turn of a gra- vel walk* The mafs of improvers feem to forget that we are diftinguifhed from other animals, by being (as Milton de- fcribes it) « Nobler far, of look greif j'* they go about " With leaden eye that loves the ground,** C c and [ 386 ] and are Co continually occupied with turns and fweeps, and manceuvring flakes, that they never gain an idea of the firft elements of compofition. Such a mechanical fyftem of operations little deferves the name of an art. There are indeed certain words in all languages that have a good and a bad fenfe ; fuch as JimpUcity and Jiniple, art and artful, which as often exprefs our contempt as our admiration. It feems to me, that whenever art, with regard to plan or dif- pofition, is ufed in a good fenfe, it means to convey an idea of fome degree of invention j — of contrivance that is not obvious, — of fomething that raifes expecftation, — which differs, and with fuccefs, from what we re- coiled having feen before. With regard to improving, that alone I fliould call art in a good fenfe, which was employed in coUediing from the infinite varieties of ac- 3 cident [ 387 ] Cident (which is commonly called nature, in oppofition to what is called artj fach circumftances as may happily be intro- duced, according to the real capabilities of the place to be improved. This is what painters have done in their art, and thence it is, that many of thefe lucky acci- dents, being ftrongly pointed out by them, are called pidlurefque. He therefore, in my mind, will fhew moft art in improving, who leaves (a very material point) or who creates the greateft variety oi pi5lures, — of fuch different com- pofitions as painters will lead wiih to alter. Not he who begins his work by general clearing and fmoothing, that is, by deflroy- ing all thofe accidents, of which fuch ad- vantages might have been made ; but which afterwards, the moft enlightened and experienced art, can never hope to re- ftore. C c 2 When [ 388 ] When I hear how much has been done by art, in a place of large extent, — in no one part of which, where that art has been bufy, a painter would take out his iketch book ; when I fee the fickening difplay of that art, fuch as it is, and the total want of cffe6t; I am tempted to reverfe the fenfe of that famous line of TaiTo, and to fay of fuch performances : L'arte che nulla fa, tutta fi fcuopre *• * No line Is more generally known, than L'arte che tutto fa, nulla fi fcuopre ; and no precept more unlverfally received ; yet ftill it muft not be too ftriftly followed in all cafes. , N ear the houfe, artificial fcenery ought to have place in proportion to the flyle and character of the building ; and one great defecl of modern gardens (in the confined fenfe of the word) is an afFeilation of fimplicity, and what is called nature ; that eafily degenerates into a plainnefs (to fay no more) which does not accord with the rlchnefs and fplendour of architectural ornaments. In other parts the precept Ihould have its full efFedl, and the [ 389 ] the improver fhould conceal himfelf, like a j udicious au- thor ; whofets his reader's imagination at work, while he feems not to be guiding, but to be exploring new regions with him. In the fame manner, the improver fliould facilitate the means of getting at the mod ftriking parts, but feldom force the fpedlator to one fingle route, — to one fmgle point ; in many cafes he fliould even conceal, if poffible, that he has made any walk at all. There is in our nature a repugnance to defpotifm, even in trifles j and we are never fo heartily pleafed as when we fancy ourfelves unguided and unconftrained, and that we have made the difcovery ourfelves. Homer rarely appears in his own perfon. Fielding often does, and fome- times oftentatioufly : amidft all his beauties (and i>o writer has mere) j it is a ftriking dcfedl. Cc 1? APPENDIX. APPENDIX. GREAT part of my effay was written before I faw that of Mr. Gilpin on pi6turefque beauty. I had gained fo much information on that fubje6l from his other works, that I read it with great eagernefs, on account of the intereft I took in the fub- jed: itfelf, as well as from my opinion of the author. At frft I thought my work had been anticipated ; I was pleafed how- ever to find fome of my ideas confirmed, and was in hopes of feeing many new lights llruck out. hut as I advanced, that diflinc- tion between the two charaders, that line of feparation which I thought would have been accurately marked out, became lefs and lefsvifible; till at length the beautiful and the pidurefque were more than ever mixed and incorporated together, the whole fubjedt C c 4 involved [ 392 ] involved in doubt and obfcurity, and a fort of anathema denounced againft any one who fhould try to clear it up. Mad I not advanced too far to think of retreating, I might pofl'ibly have been deterred by fo ab folate a veto, fromfuch authority; but I hope I (hall not be thought prcfumptuous for having ftill continued my refearches, though fo diligent and acute an obferver had given up the enquiry himfelf, and pro- nounced it hopelefs. Mr. Gilpin's authority is defervedly fo high, that where I have the misfortune to differ from him, his opinion will of courfe be preferred to mine, unlefs I can clearly fhew that it is ill-founded: I muft there- fore endeavour to fl:ievv in what refped:s it is ill-founded as often as thefe points occur, and with the beH: of my abilities; for any thing fhort of vidtory, is in this cafe a defeat. I will firft mention, in general, the diffi- culties into which fo ingenious a writer fos been led, from lofmg fight of that genuine [ 393 ] genuine and univerfal diftindion between the beautiful and the pidurefque, which he himfelf had begun by eftablifliing, and which feparates their charadlers equally in nature and in art ; and from confining him- felf to that unfatisfadory notion of a mere general reference to art only. He has given it as his opinion, that " roughnefs forms the moft eflential point of difference betw^een the beautiful and the pidurefque, and feems to be that particular quality which makes objects chiefly pleafe in painting." He therefore has thought it neceflary, in feme inftances, to exclude fmooth objeds from painting, and to fhcw, in others, that what is fmooth in reality is rough in appearance ; fo that when we fancy ourfelves admiring the fmoothnefs, which we think we perceive (as in a calm lake) we are -n fact admiring the roughnefs which we have not obferved. I will now proceed to give the particular in fiances of thofe points in which we differ. Mr. [ 394 ] Mr, Gilpin obferves, that " a piece of Palladian architecture (which, I prefume, is only another term for regular Grecian architecture) may be elegant in the laft degree J the proportion of its parts, the propriety of its ornaments, the fymmetry of the whole, may be highly pleafing ; but, if we introduce it in a pidture, it immediately becomes a formal objedt,and ceafes to pleafe." He adds, " (liould we wifli to give it pi6tu- refque beauty, we muft, from a fmooth building, turn it into a rough ruin." Mr. Gilpin's iirft point was, to ihew that a building, to be picturefque, mull: neither be fmooth nor regular ; and fo far we agree. But then, to fhew how much picturefque beauty (to ufe his expreffion) is preferred by painters to all other beauty, nay, how unfit beauty alone is for a pic- ture, he makes the two aifertions I have quoted, viz. that a piece of regular and finiftied architecture becomes a formal ob- jeCt, and ceafes to pleafe when introduced in [ 395 1 in a pi(fture ; and that no painter, who had his choice, would hefitate a moment be- tween that and a ruin. Were this really the cafe, we mart give up Claude as a landfcape painter ; for he* not only has introduced a number of perfect, regular, and fmooth pieces of architedure into his pictures, but they frequently oc- cupy the moft confpicuous parts of them. I fhould even doubt whether he may not have painted more entire buildings, as principal objeds, than he has ruins, though many more of the latter 2.^ fub ordinate ones. Claude delighted in reprefenting fcenes of feftive pomp and magnificence, as well as of paftoral life and retirement; but if we fuppofe his temples abandoned, his pa- laces deferted and in ruins, the whole cha- racter of thofe fplendid compofitions, which have fo much contributed to raife him above the level of a mere landfcape pain- ter, would be deftroyed. Mr. Gilpin can- not but remember that beautiful fea-port of his which did belong to Mr. Lock, and which [ 396 ] which (could piftures choofe their own pofTefTors) would never have lef: him. He muft have obferved, that the architecflure on the left hand was regular, perfedt, and as fmooth as fuch finifhed biildings ap- pear in nature. But with regard to entire luildings, in contradiftindion to ruins, the bick grounds and landfcapes of all the great mafters, (particularly of N. and G. louflin,) are full of them, and the ruins f;w in pro- portion ; fo much fo, that in the numer- ous fet of Gafpars, publiflied by Vivares„ there are fcarce any ruins to be iomid among numberlefs entire buildings. No painter more diligently ftudied pic- turefque difpoiition and effect than Paul Veronefe ; yet architediure of the moft re- gular and finifhed kind forms a very eflen.- tial part of his magnificent compofitions. Many of thefe fplendid edificts have the moft truly beautiful appearance in pid:ures, efpecially when they are acconpanied (as i^ Claude's) by trees of elegan: forms, and [ 397 ] byafcenery, each part of which accords with their charader. I believe indeed, that we might reverfe Mr. Gilpin's polition, and with more truth aflert, that a piece of Palladian architedture, however elegant, however well proportioned its parts, however well dif- pofed and feleded its ornaments, how per- fect foever the fymmetry of the whole, yet, in the mere elevation, or placed (as it fre- quently is in reality) at the top of a lawn, jiaked and unaccompanied, is a formal objed, and excites only a cold admiration of thear- chitedt's ability ; but, when introduced in a pidiure, becomes a highly intersfhing object, and univerfally pleafes. I of courfe mean introduced as the befl mafters have intro- duced and accompanied fuch buildings, for there can be no doubt of the ten- dency of all regular architedure to for- mality. The fkill with which that formality has been avoided by the great painters, with- out deftroying fmoothncfs or fymmetry, is. [ 398 ] is, perhaps, one of the ftrongeft arguments for fludying their works for the purpofes of improvement. I have equally the misfortune of diffc;ring from Mr. Gilpin on the fubjed of water; he fays, " * If the Jake be fpread out on the canvas [and in this cafe it cannot be different in nature! the marmoreum sequor, pure, limpid, fmooth as the poiifhsd mirror, WQ acknowledge it to be pl^urefque/* No one, I believe, will be lingular enough to deny that a lake in fuch a ftate is beauti- ful ; then either the two terms are perfectly fynonymous, or the two charaders are mix- ed : in the latter cafe I muft beg leave to quote a paffage from Mr. Locke -f, on a different fubjed indeed, but of general ap- plication. *' Thefe paffions (fear, anger, fhame, envy, &c.) are fcarce any of them limple and alone, and wholly unmixed with * Effay on Pidlurefque Beauty, page 22. t On the Human Underftandmg, odavo edit, page 208. Others, [ 399 ] others, though ufually, in difcourfe and con- templation, that carries the name which operates ftrongeft, and appears moft in the prefent ftate of the mind." Now if fmooth- nefs (as Mr. Gilpin acknowledges) is at leaft a confiderable fource of beauty; and if roughnefs (as he does not fcruple to af- fent) is that which forms the moft effential point of difference between the beautiful and the pidurefque, it furely is rather a contradidlion to his own principles to call a lake in its fmootheft ftate pitfturefque, on account of fuch interruptions to the ab fo- late fmoothnefs (or rather uniformity) of its furface, as not only accord with beauty, but are often in thcmfelves fources of beau- ty ; fuch as fliades of various kinds, undu- lations, and refled:ions. Upon the fame grounds that he aflerts the fmooth lake to be pidl:urefque, he alfo gives thatcharader to the high-fed horfe with his fmooth and fhining coat. If, however * " a play of mufcles appearing through the fine- ♦ Eflay on Pidurefque Beauty, page 22. nefs [ 400 ] nefs of the fkin, gently fwelling and fink* ing into each other — his being all over lu- bricus afpici, with reflections of light con- tinually fliifting upon him, and playing into each other," make an animal pidturefque, what then will make him beautiful ? The interruption of his fmoothnefs, by a variety of fhades and colours (not ludden and ftrong, but " pLiying into each other, fo that the eye glides up and down among their endlefs tranfitions") certainly will not fupply the room of roughnefs in fuch a de- gree as to over-balance the qualities of beauty, and abolifh (as in the prefent in- ftancc) the very name." It is true, that according to Mr. Gilpin's two definitions *, both the lake and the horfe, in their fmoothell: poffible ftate, are pidurefque ; but they are no lefs oppofite to that charader, according to his more ftridt and pointed method of defining it, by making roughnefs the moft eifcntial point of difference between that and the beau- tiful. After fo plain and natural a diftinc-* * Vide page 48. tion f 4^1 ] t'oil between the two characfters, it furdy would have been more fimple and fatisfac- tory to have named things according to their obvious and prevailing qualities; and to have allowed thit painters fometimes preferred beautiful^ fometimes pidurefque^ fometimes grand and fublime objeds, and fometimes objeds where the two or the three charaders were equally, or in differ- ent degrees, mixed with each other. Many of the examples I hare given of pidurefque animals, are taken from Mr. Gilpin's very ingenious work on foreft feenery. He there obferves, that among all the tribes of animals fcarce any one is more ornamental in landfcape than the afs. He adds " in what this pidurefque beauty con- ** fills, whether in his peculiar charadcr^ ** in his ftrong lines, in his colouring, in ** the roughnefs of his coat, or in the mix- *' ture of them, would perhaps be difficult " to afcertain." When I read this paffage I had not ken the effay on picturefque beauty, and it gave me great fatisfadion to D d ^ud [ 4<^2 ] find m/ ideas of the caufes of the pldu^- refque confirmed by fo attentive an ob- ferver as Mr. Gilpin, though he fpoke^ doubtrngly; and I could not help flattering inyielf, that as his authority had confirmed' me in my ideas, fo by tracing them through" a greater variety of objeds than his fubjed: led him to confidcr, I might fliew the juft-' liefs and accuracy of his fuppofitions. Pe- culiarity of charadter, on which Mr. Gilpin very properly lays a ftrefs, naturally arifes from flrong lines and fudden variations : What is perfedly fmooth and flowing has proportionably lefs of peculiar chara6ler> and lofes in pidurefquenefs, what it may gain in beauty. This leads me to confider a part of Mr. Gilpin's Efl^ay on Pidurefque Beauty, that I own furprifed me in the author of the lafl quoted pafiage, as well as of feveral others in the eflay juft mentioned ; all of which mark the true character and caufe of the pidu- refquc in a mafterly manner, and fhew how ojiticb and how v^ell he had obferved. If the [ 403 ] the criticifm I am going to make be jiift, Mr. Gilpin has, I think, laid himftlf open to it by his exclufive fondnefs for the picr. turefque, and by having carried, to excefs his polition, that roughne£s is that parti- cular quality which makes objedls chiefly pleafe in painting. From his partiality to this do(5lrine, he ridicules the idea of having ^^^«/y reprefented in a pi'iture, and addref- ling himfelf to the perfon he fuppofes to make fo un-painter-like arequefr, he fays*, *' The art of paintipg allows you all you " wi(h ; you defire to have a beautiful ob- *' )e6t painted -, your horfe, for inilance, is ** led out of the flable in all his pampered " beauty. The art of painting is ready to " accommodate you ; you have the beauti- ** ful form you admired in nature exadiy ^* transferred to cativafs. Be then fatisfied; " the art of painting has given you what " you wanted. It is no injury to the '^ beauty of your Arabian, if the painter * EfTay on Piclurcfqua Beauty. D d 2 " think [ 4<^4 ] *' think he could have given the graces ci* ** his art more forcibly to your cart-horfe." If a perfon ignorant of the art of paint- ing were to be told, that a painter who wiilied to give forcibly the graces of his art, would prefer a cart-horfe to an Arabian, he would be apt to think there Was fomething very prepofterous both in the art and the artifl. This will always be the cafe, when inftead of endeavouring to {hew the agree- ment between art and nature, even when they appear moft at variance, a myflerious barrier is placed between them to furprize and keep at 21 diftance the uninitiated. To me the fad feems to be what we might naturally fuppofe ; that Rubens, Vandyk, or Wovermans, when they wiOied to flicw the graces of their art, painted beautiful horfes j fuch as the general fenfe of man- kind would call beautiful : gay pampered fleeds with fine coats, and high in fleflL When they added (as they often did) a. greater {hare of pidurefquenefs to thefe beautiflil animals, it was not by degrading them [ 405 ] them to cart-horfes and beafts of burthen ; it was by means of fuch fudden and fpi- rited adtion, with fuch a correfpondent and {irongly marked exertion _of mufcles, fuch wild diforder in the mane, as might height- en the freedom and animation of their cha- rad:er, without injuring the elegance or grandeur of their form. If by giving /or- cibly the graces of his art, is to be under^ ftood the giving them v/ith powerful ini-- predion, I cannot help thinking that Ru- bens, when he was transferring from na- ture to the canvafs one of thefe noble ani- nials, in ail the fulnefs and luxuriancy of beauty, little imagined that he was throw- ing away his powers ; and that any of the rough high -boned cart-horfes he haci placed in fcenes with which they accorded, were more llriking fpecimens of the graces of his art. In Wovermans alfo, the num- ber of beautiful pampered fleeds greatly ex- ceeds that of his rough and pic^urefque ones. It would indeed be a wretched degrada- D d 3 tion [ 4o6 1 tion of the art, fliould the horfes of Ka— phael,GiuUo Romano, PoUdore, N. Pouflim, the forms and charadters of which, fuch greait artifts had ftudlcd with ahiiofl the famie attention as thofe of the human figure ; iiii which too (as in the human figure) the^y had corre6led the defedls of com.mon na- ture from their own exalted ideas of beau-.- ty, and from thofe of their great models thie ancient fculptors ; and in which they cer- tainly meant to difplay (and not feebly) thte graces of their art, — fliould fuch ennoblecd animals, not only be rivalled, but furpafiecd even in thofe graces, by a jade of Berchemi, or Paul Potter. The next and lafl point of difference be- tween us, is with refped: to the plumage o)f birds : Mr. Gilpin thinks the refult of plu- mage (and he makes no exception) is pic- turefque ; and the whole feems to me an- other ftriking inftance of his exclunve fond— nefs for th'at charafter, and of his unWil— lingnefs, on that account, to allow anjy. beauty, or merit to fmoothnefs. Indeed, a5S X hce [ 4^7 ] he fuppofes the pidii re fa ue folely to refer to painting, and that pidures can fcai-cely admit of any .objects which are not jof that charadter, and as he alfo allows (or rather afTtrts) that roughnefs is its diftinguifliing quality — it became neceilary either to allow that an objed- might be pidurefque with^ out being rough, which would contradict his ailertion, or to l]iew that there wer^ other qualities which would render it fo ia fpite of its fmoothnefs ; or, to^ ufe his owa icxpreffion, would fupply the room of rough- nefs. Speaking of the plumage of birds *, " nothing," he fays, ** can be fofter, no- thing fmoother to the touch ; yet it cer- tainly is pidurefque." He then obferves, ^* it is not the fmoothpefs of the furface which produces the efFed j it is not thit? we admire ; it is the breal^ing of the co- lours ; it is the bright green or purple,r changing perhaps into a rich a?ure or veU * Eflay on Pi(n:urerque Beauty, page 23, D 4 4 vet [ 4o8 ] vet Wack^ from thence taking a femkint^ and fo on through all the varieties of co- lours : -fir if the colour be not changeable, it is the harmony we admire in thefe ele- gant little touches of nature's pencil." It is fmgular that the colours of birds, and particularly the changeable ones, from which Mr. Burke has taken fome of his happieft illullrations of the beautiful, Ihould, by Mr. Gilpin, not only be cited as fources of the pifturefque, but as fo abounding in that quality as to beflow on.fmoothnefs the efFed: of roughnefs. He has laid it down as a maxim, that a fmooth building muft be turned into a rough one, before it can be piifturefque -, yet, in this indance, a fmooth bird may be made fo by means of colours, many of which, with their grada- tions and changes, are univerfally acknow- ledged and adm-ired as beautiful. I. cannot help repeating the fame qvef- tion on this fubjedt as on the preceding one ; if beautiful and changeable colours, with their gradations, added to (pftnefs and fmoothnefs [ 409 ] fitioothnefs of plumage, ind to the harmony of the elegant little touches of nature's pencil, make birds pidurefque, what then are the qualities which make them beau- tiful ? But Mr. Gilpin himfclf has furnifhed me with the flrongeft proof how natural it is for all men, when they delign to produce a pi(5turefque image, to avoid all idea of fmoothnefs. He has quoted Pindar's cele- brated defcription of the eagle, as equally poetical and pidlurefque, and fuch I believe it alv/ays has been thoueht. The riijfled plumage of the eagle (which Mr. Gilpin has put in Italics, as the clr- cumftance which mod ftrongly marks that charader) is both in Mr. Weft's tranflation, and Mr. Gray's imitation ; but as f^r as I can judge, there is not the leaft trace of it in the orio-inal. I have not the xiioft diilant pretenfions to any critical knowledge of the Greek language ; yet ftill I think, that by the help of thofe interpre- ters who have ftudied it critically, an un- learned [ 4IO ] learned man, if he feels the fpirit of a paf- iage, may arrive at a pretty accurate idea of the force of the expreffions. From them it appears to me, that flir from defcribing the eagle with ruffed plumes, or with any circumilance truly pidurefque, Pindar has, on the contrary, avoided every idea that might difturb the repofe, and majeftic beau- ty of his imap-e. After he has defcribed the eagle's flagging wing, he adds x^y^ov vMTov aia^et,^ v^hich is fq oppofite to ruffled, that it feems to fignify that perfed fmooth- nefs and fleeknefs given by moiilure ; that oily fupplenefs fo different from any thing crifp or rumpled ; as vy^ov bXoi.iov exprefTes the fmooth, fuppling, undrying quality of oil. The learned Chriftianus Damm in his Lexi- con, interprets y.wa-a-ccv vy^ov vmtov aico^ei, dormiens incur vatum (vel potius lave J tereum attoHit : and the adion is that of a, gentle heaving from refpiration, during a quiet repofe. In another place Damm in- terprets vy^oT'/jr, moUities ; all equally op- pofite to ru|lied. Indeed we might almofl fuppofe- [ 4'i 1 fupppfe that Pindar, having intended to prefentan image both fublitne and beauti- ful, had avoided every thing that might difturb its ilill and Iblemn grandeur; for he has throv^^n as it v^ere into (liade, the moft marked and pid:urefque feature of tliat no- ble bird : xiXocivuTTiv T stti oi vsc^bXccv a,yKvXco feature which Homer, in a fmiile full of adion and pidurefque imagery, has placed in its fuileft light : Ylirm £(p ""l/iJ/'/jAt? y^eyocXcx. yJKoLCpvTS fxa^ovrou. Having been bold enough to criticife both the tranflation and imitation of Pindar, I (hall venture one ftep farther, and try to account for the paffage having been fo rendered. I think Mr. Weil and Mr. Gray might probably have been imprefled with the fame idea as Mr. Gilpin, that the imagery in this paiTage was highly pid:u- refque, but might have felt that fmooth fea- thers would not accord with that charac- ter ; [ 412 ] ter ; and therefore perhaps (as Sir Jofliua Jleynolds obferves on Algarotti's ill-founded eulogium of a pidure of Titian) they chofe to find in Pindar, what they thought they ought to have found. With all the refpedl: I have for their abilities (and Mr. Gray's cannot be rated too high) I muft think that by one word they have changed the character of that famous paffage ; and it may be doubted whether they have imprQved it. Were their image reprefented in painting it might be more ftriking, more catching to the eve than Pindar's : and that is the true character of the pidurefque. But his would have more of that repofe, that folema breadth, that freedom from all buflle, which I believe accords more truly with the genuine unmixed charaders both of beauty and fublimity *, and with the ideas of the great original. ♦ Vide Sir Jofliua Reynolds's Notes in M^fon's Da Frefnoy, p. 86. I havQ C 413 ] 1 have prellcd ilrongly on all the points of difierence between Mr. Gilpin and me, becaiiielthink them very elTential tothechief objecfl I have had in view, — that of recom- mending the ftudy of pictures, and of the principles of painting, as the beft guide to that of nature, and to the improvement of real landfcape. Could it be fuppofed that for the purpofe of his own art, a painter would in general prefer a worn-out cart- horfe to a beautiful Arabian ;• — or that fuch pieces of architecture as were unlverlallv admired for their beautv and clearance would, if introduced in a picture, become formal, and ceafe to pleafe, — ^no man would be dif- pofed to confult an art which conlradi^ited all his natural feelings. But were he to be informed that painters have always admired and copied beauty of every kind, in animals, as well as in the human fpecies (and ftrange it Would be were it otherwife); that they lieither rejedl fmoothnefs, nor fvmmetry, but only the ill-judged and tircfomc difplay of them i that with regard to regular and perfcdt [ 414 ] perfect architediire, it made a principal ornament in pidmres of the higheft clafs; but that while its fmoothrefs, fymmetry, and regularity were preferved, its formality was avoided ; in fhort, that the ftudy of painting, far from abridging his pleafures, would open a variety of new fources of amufement, and, without cutting off the old ones, only diredt them into better channels — he might be difpofed to confult an art which promifed many frefh and un- tafted delights, without forcing him to abandon all thafe which he had enjoyed before. F I N I t ■^ t ^''"^ StU L.^ ESS AV O N THE IMCriJRKSQl U. PR I CK y^ooGo^