141 



break, every cove, every projection, is au 

 indication, where some tree, shrub, chmb- 

 inu^, or traihng plant, may be placed with 

 immediate etiect :* whereas in a bank sloped 

 by art, there is no motive of preference, 

 nothing to determine the choice; and there- 

 fore in such banks, it is very natural that 

 the plantations should have the same mo- 

 notony as the ground on which they are 

 planted. Tiiis holds in an equal degree in 

 all smooth and levelled ground, and this 

 one cause of the general monotony of mo- 

 dern improvements acts doubly ; for in all 

 broken picturesque banks, whatever their 

 scale, each variety that is destroyed is not 

 only a loss in itself, but it is also a loss 

 considered as an indication, how other cor- 



* The use of such indications even to men of high 

 invention^ and the assistance which they give to that in- 

 vention, may be learned from the practice and recom- 

 mendation of no less a man than Leonardo de V inci, who 

 advises artists to attend to the stains in old walls ; and 

 indeed the singular and capricious forms as well as tints 

 which they exhibit, would assist the most fruitful painter's 

 imaginatioD. This is the principle on which that ingenious 

 artist, M. Cozens, practised and recommended the making 

 of compositions from blots. 



