176 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



moved by the zephyr, and wanders from distance 

 to distance over clustering groves, and classical 

 ruins, amidst the quiet lapse of waters, and all the 

 pastoral beauty that poets have delighted to feign. 



" Directly opposite to the blandishments of this 

 great master, but true to itself, is the genius of 

 Salvator Rosa. Little recked he of Arcadian 

 scenes. Mysterious and elevated in thought, he 

 delighted to stalk over the wilds of Calabria ; and 

 there, in regions desolate and dolorous, by the side 

 of some impending rock, amidst the din of torrents 

 plunging down to the horrid gulf below him, he 

 formed a style original, savage, and indomitable. 

 Nothing entered into his pictures that was 

 commonplace or mean. His figures were banditti, 

 forlorn travellers, or wrecked mariners. His trees 

 the monarch chestnut, forming impenetrable forests, 

 or blasted and riven by the thunderbolt. All his 

 forms were grand ; even his winged clouds had a 

 stern aspect, and partook of the general character. 

 Titian, Claude, Poussin, Salvator Rosa, these, and 

 some others of the good old times, drew the poetry 

 and soul of landscape, and not its mere dead image 

 and this is the triumph of art." 



I fancy my new friend the artist paid very little 

 attention to my remarks, which I am not at all 

 surprised at ; for he began to soliloquise in an 

 absent manner about Poussin, whom he said I 

 should have placed between Claude and Rosa ; and 

 as he seemed to threaten rather a long encomium, 

 I pretended to see a fish rise, and glided away 

 quietly : for I thought enough had been said on 

 the subject of painting already. As I stole off, 



