262 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



His woodland-glades, through which the timid 

 deer wander, are so true in lovingly recorded 

 detail that we seem to be ourselves wandering 

 through them, enjoying their alternations of 

 light and shade, and wondering what delightful 

 view there will be if we climb to the top of a 

 bank, or what new vista along the woodland- 

 aisles we shall get when we have passed 

 through the narrow opening before us ; and 

 always, we are admiring, I may put it, the 

 strength and grace of the woodland-architecture 

 and the varied beauty of its leafy adornment — 

 or, if so be that it is a winter-scene, it is then 

 as if we were in some roofless choir, beautiful 

 though bare. It is notable also that Cotman, 

 who renders with such rare truth and sympathy 

 the mingled strength and delicacy of tree- 

 structure, shows no less appreciation of the 

 same qualities in Gothic architecture and no 

 less skill in their portrayal. A drawing of a 

 Norman arch in Norwich Cathedral, filled with 

 a screen of late Gothic mullions and tracery, 

 is like the strength of the oak mingled with 

 the grace of the ash. In this also he re- 

 sembled Turner. 



The woods, as Cotman drew and painted 



