MISCELLANEOUS. 185 



As, however, all places have not the ad- 

 vantage of blue* distance, we must seek 

 for other causes to enliven such scenes. A 

 hamlet or village partially seen through the 

 accompanying trees, presenting a variety of 

 form and colour to the eye, and suggesting 

 many a pleasing reflection to the mind, will 

 imperceptibly spread a cheerful hue on all 

 around. Even the curling smoke rising from 

 the lonely cottage, and slowly floating across 

 the darkenino- wood below it, markinoj the 

 preparation for the labourer's evening meal, 

 cannot but awake a kindly social feeling, 

 and impart a conscious cheerfulness to the 

 mind of the beholder. 



I lately met with a m^ost striking instance 

 of excluding; such rural circumstances. A 

 mansion of the manorial character, com- 

 manding a rocky gorge, fringed with wood, 

 throuMi which a river forces its a^jjitated 

 course, presents to the library window a truly 

 romantic scene, of which a group of trees, on 

 a precipitous bank, about fifty feet from the 

 house, forms the foreground. 



At the mouth of the gorge stands a pic- 



* This term is used to signify that distance which melts 

 into the horizon. 



