EOCKS. 



It is not necessary that an object should be intrinsi- 

 cally beautiful, like a collection of water, to add a pleas- 

 ing feature to the landscape. Though rocks considered 

 apart from Nature are unsightly, no scenery is complete 

 without them. To a prospect they afford variety which 

 it would be difficult to obtain from any other objects. 

 Without them there is a want of those sudden transitions 

 from the smooth to the rough, from the level to the pre- 

 cipitous, from the beautiful to the wild, and from the 

 tame to the expressive, which are essential to a perfect 

 landscape. It is only among rocks that the evergreen 

 ferns, those beautiful accompaniments of a rustic retreat, 

 are found growing abundantly. There is no more beauti- 

 ful sight than a series of almost perpendicular rocks cov- 

 ered on all sides by ferns, with their peculiarly gi'aceful 

 foliage, and here and there a rill trickling dowm their sur- 

 face and forming channels through the evergreen mosses. 

 The solitary glens formed by these rocks could not be imi- 

 tated by any artifice ; and their jutting precipices afford 

 prospects unequalled by the gentle elevations of a rolling 

 landscape. In a country where rocks are wanting, tlie 

 land rises and sinks in gradual declivities, and prospects 

 are difficult to be obtained except from lofty elevations. 



There is so much that is attractive in the abruptness 

 of rocky scenery, especially when half covered by trees 

 and other vegetation, that some authors have attributed 

 its picturesque character to its rudeness and roughness. 

 I should attribute this interesting expression to the mani- 



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