326 AX AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLVEL 



The Deceit of Descriptions of Scenery The Soul of a Landscape The 

 Isle of Wight, its Characteristics Appropriate Domestic Architecture 

 Genial Climate Tropical Verdure The Cliffs of Albion Osborne 

 The Royal Villa Country Life of the Royal Family Agricultural In- 

 clination and Rural Tastes The Royal Tenantry 



HPHERE is always a strong temptation upon the traveler to en- 

 * deavor to so describe fine scenery, and the feelings -which it 

 has occasioned him, that they may be reproduced to the imagina- 

 tion of his friends. Judging from my own experience, this pur- 

 pose always fails. I have never yet seen anything celebrated in 

 scenery, of which I had previously obtained a correct conception. 

 Certain striking, prominent points, that the power of language 

 has been most directed to the painting of, almost invariably dis- 

 appoint, and seem little and commonplace, after the exaggerated 

 forms which have been brought before the mind's eye. Beauty, 

 grandeur, impressiveness in any M'ay, from scenery, is not often 

 to be found in a few prominent, distinguishable features, but in 

 the manner and the unobserved materials with which these are 

 connected and combined. Clouds, lights, states of the atmos- 

 phere, and circumstances that we cannot always detect, affect all 

 landscapes, and especially landscapes in which the vicinity of a 



