THE BUET 191 



' His end thus answered, he brought back fourteen sketches, which 

 those who are pleased with these subjects, as well foreigners as natives, 

 have judged worthy the attention of the curious. 



' He takes upon him to assure the public that not only the larger 

 masses are designed in these views, but that he has made out even 

 the smaller, and that nothing is added from imagination only, as in 

 almost l all the drawings of these places he has had an opportunity 

 of seeing. That he had examined the print from a plate of Mr. Vivare 

 in London, representing the icy valley of Montanvert, of which he 

 affirms there is hardly as much as one stroke taken from nature ; 

 and that another of the valley of Chamonix is equally false (he means 

 the thirteenth plate in the account of the glaciers of Switzerland, by 

 Mr. Grouner) ; all which will not appear extraordinary, when we are 

 informed that those gentlemen who had hitherto gone over the glaciers 

 were rather men of taste than draftsmen. He has experienced besides 

 that one journey is insufficient to render drawings of this sort perfect. 

 That he found it highly necessary to attend to the peculiar state and 

 condition of the air and weather, of which we never can be secure, 

 and which may prove very unfavourable to the designer upon a single 

 visit or in one season only, though the completion of his sketches must 

 depend upon their clearness and serenity. We go to the valleys are 

 struck with admiration trace out some loose lines in haste add a 

 few revising touches by way of memoranda, and at our return imagina- 

 tion does the rest.' 



Book illustrations are at the present day the chief material we 

 have from which to judge of Bourrit's art. As might be expected 

 from a miniaturist, the plates of his own book are laboured, and 

 the foreground to the Lac de Chede (beside which he desired to 

 be buried) is beautified in the landscape gardener's style with 

 ' bosquets.' He would seem to have had a failing for painting 

 reflections in water, and in several instances could not refrain 

 from turning the Arve into a glassy stream. But the mountain 

 outlines are, as a rule, firm and fairly correct. For the period 

 this is no slight praise, as may be seen by contrasting Bourrit's 

 plates with the more ambitious illustrations to Albanis Beau- 

 mont's folio The Pennine Alps. When we turn to the plates which 

 Bourrit furnished to de Saussure we are often agreeably surprised 



1 The author has excepted from this censure two views of Chamonix drawn 

 with great care and exactness by Mr. Jalabert. (Original note.) Jalabert waa 

 de Saussure's companion in his first tour of Mont Blanc. 



