fcotace Walpole 263 



specific garden ; but that it might not draw 

 too obvious a line of distinction between the 

 neat and the rude, the contiguous out-lying 

 parts came to be included in a kind of general 

 design : and when nature was taken into the 

 plan, under improvements, every step that was 

 made pointed out new beauties and inspired 

 new ideas. At that moment appeared Kent, 

 painter enough to taste the charms of landscape, 

 bold and opinionative enough to dare and to 

 dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a 

 great system from the twilight of imperfect 

 essays. He leaped the fence and saw that all 

 nature was a garden. He felt the delicious 

 contrast of hill and valley changing imper- 

 ceptibly into each other, tasted the beauty of 

 the gentle swell or concave swoop, and re- 

 marked how loose groves crowned an easy 

 eminence with happy ornament ; and while 

 they called in the distant view between their 

 graceful stems, removed and extended the 

 perspective by delusive comparison. 



Thus the pencil of his imagination bestowed 

 all the arts of landscape on the scenes he 

 handled. The great principles on which he 

 worked were perspective, and light and shade. 

 Groups of trees broke too uniform or too ex- 

 tensive a lawn ; evergreens and woods were 

 opposed to the glare of the champaign ; and 



