366 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



already intimated, it fails in interest when represented on 

 canvas, because, with all the pleasing images connected with 

 it, it savors of the vanity of fashionable or rather of town life. 

 After witnessing one of these scenes, while journeying 

 leisurely in a chaise on a pleasant day in October, I chanced 

 to see a group of little country girls, in the simplest apparel, 

 gathering nuts under a tree. What a crowd of pleasant rec- 

 ollections of the past was immediately awakened by the 

 sight ! •' There (exclaimed my companion) is a scene for a 

 painter. Such a little group, in a picture, would afford us 

 inexpressible delight. Yet were I to join either party, I 

 should prefer to be one of the other company at the picnic." 

 '' For the very plain reason," I replied, " that in the latter 

 company you would expect to find some intelligent persons 

 who would be interesting companions. But this is not what 

 we look for in a picture M^hich pleases in proportion to the 

 simplicity of its characters." 



These remarks might be indefinitely extended ; but each 

 new example would serve only to repeat the illustration of 

 the same principle. In no other engravings do we see the 

 picturesque more clearly exemplified than in the vignettes 

 which are found in books published early in the last century. 

 Since luxury has extended into the circle of the middle and 

 industrious classes, the simplicity of their habits has been 

 destroyed, and artists, when drawing their designs from the 

 manners of these classes, have failed in producing pictures 

 equal in picturesque expression to those which were made one 

 hundred years ago. It is apparent, for example, that the 

 ancient straw beehive, surrounded by its swarm, formerly 

 introduced into vignettes as emblematical of industry, is de- 

 cidedly picturesque ; while the modern patent structures, con- 

 structed for purposes of economy, would, in fanciful engravings, 

 excite ideas no more poetical than we should find in a modern 

 revolving churn. Even this little picturesque insect, when 

 flitting round one of these patent beehives, loses all its poetical 

 character. Modern customs and improvements are rapidly 

 sweeping away from the face of the earth everything that is 

 poetic or picturesque. It may be urged, however, that the 



