( 8 ) 



ing boughs, and dying branches, fhall you fee 

 every where !"* 



Now all thefe maladies, which our difbrefled 

 naturalift bemoans with fo much feeling, 

 are often capital fources of piclurefque beauty, 

 both in the wild fcenes of nature, and in arti- 

 ficial landfcape. 



What is more beautiful, for inftance, on a 

 rugged foreground, than an old tree with a 

 bellow trunk ? or with a dead arm, a drooping 

 bougb^ or a dying branch ? all which phrafes, I 

 apprehend are nearly fynonymous. 



From the 'withered top alfo great ufe, and 

 beauty may refult in the compofition of land^ 

 fcape ; when we wii A to break the regularity 

 of fome continued line, which we would not 

 entirely hide. 



By the curtailed trunk I fuppofe Mr. Lawfoi\ 

 means a tree, whofe principal ftem has been 

 fhattered by winds, or fome other accident ; 

 while the lower part of it is left in vigour. 

 This is alfo a beautiful circumftance ; and 

 its application equally ufeful in landfcape. 

 The withered top juft breaks the lines of an 



* See Lawfon's Orchard. 



eminence : 



