^57 



the broken tragments of rocks, would no 

 less forcibly liave marked those of ruins ; 

 and we niiglit expect, from a general idea 

 of his style, that they would form a distin- 

 guished part of many of his pictures : as 

 they do not, and as his rejection of them, 

 and almost of buildino-s altoffether from his 

 landscapes, could not arise from ignorance 

 of their fonns, or from inability to represent 

 them, it must have been founded upon prin- 

 ciple ; and the reasonings and feelings of 

 such a mind as his in all that respects his 

 own art, are well worth attendirig to.* 



Having mentioned what seem to me the 

 most characteristic marks of the grand, and 



* These remarks must be confined to those pictures 

 where the landscape is prlucipal, and the scenery such 

 as he usually painted, wild and romantic. In the fa- 

 mous picture at Lord To\vnsend*s, there is a column, 

 with fragments of architectural ornaments ; for the subject, 

 if it be Marius amidst the ruins of Carthage, required such 

 an accompaniment. In one or two of his etchings, there are 

 also bits of architecture Introduced with equal propriety • 

 and instead of his broken trees, they are accompanied with 

 cypresses. All these instances prove that he did tiot wfrk 

 capriciously, but on settled principle:*. 

 VOL. II. S 



