194 



3. A Dialogue on the distinct Characters of the Pictu- 

 resque and the Beautiful, in answer to the objections of Mr, 

 Knight, 1801, 8vo.* 



A general review of Sir Uvedale's ideas on this subject, is 

 candidly given by Mr. Loudon at p. 78 of his Encyclop. 

 after a mature study of all the modern writers who have en- 

 deavoured to form " a taste for the harmony and connection 

 of natural scenery." Mr. Loudon farther calls him " the 

 great reformer of landscape gardening." 



We have to regret, that though so many springs must 

 have cheered the long life of Sir Uvedale Price, (and which 

 he calls the dolce prima vera, gloventu delV anno, and whose 

 blossoms, flowers, and " profusion of fresh, gay, and beauti- 

 ful colours and sweets," he so warmly dwelt on in many of 

 his pages,) and though the number of these springs must 

 have nearly equalled those which gilded the days of Lord 

 Kames, of the honourable Horace Walpole, of Mr. Gilpin, 

 and of Joseph Cradock, Esq. yet we have to regret that his 

 classic pen has presented to the public no other efforts of his 

 genius and cultivated taste, than the few respectable ones 

 above stated. Had he chose to have indulged his own 

 powers in describing what has been done towards " embel- 



* Sir Uvedale, about fifty years ago, translated Pansanias from the 

 Greek. One may judge of the feeling with which he dwelt on the pages 

 of this book, by what he says of that nation in vol. i. p. 65 of his Essays, 

 where he speaks of being struck with the extreme richness of some of the 

 windows of our cathedrals and ruined abbeys : " I hope it will not be sup- 

 posed, that by admiring the picturesque circumstances of the Gothic, I 

 mean to undervalue the symmetry and beauty of Grecian buildings : what- 

 ever comes to us from the Greeks, has an irresistible claim to our admira- 

 tion ; that distinguished people seized on the true points both of beauty and 

 grandeur in all the arts, and their architecture has justly obtained the same 

 high pre-eminence as their sculpture, poetry, and eloquence." 



