36 



rieties which appear to me most capable of 

 being imitated by art, I will consider some 

 of the different characters of the banks of 

 natural rivers. The most uninteresting 

 parts of any river, are those, of which the 

 immediate banks are flat, green, naked, 

 and of equal height. T have said uninte- 

 resting; for they are merely insipid, not 

 ugly: no one liowever, I believe, calls them 

 beautiful, or thinks of carrying a stranger 

 to see them. But should the same kind 

 of banks be fringed with flourishing trees 

 and underwood, th^re is not a person who 

 would not be much pleased at looking 

 down such a reach, and seeing "such a 

 fring-e reflected in the clear mirror. If, a 

 httle farther on, instead of this pleasing, 

 but uniform fringe, the immediate banks 

 were higher in some places, and suddenly 

 projecting; if, on some of these projections, 

 groups of trees stood on the grass only; 

 on others, a mixture of them with fern and 

 underwood ; and between tliem the turf 

 alone came down almost to the water edge, 

 and let in the view towards the more dis- 



