adapted to North America. 425 



shut in on two or more sides by steep rocky banks, partially concealed and 

 overhung by clustering vines and tangled thickets of deep foliage. Against 

 the sky outline, breaks the wild and irregular form of some old half-decayed 

 tree near bj', or the horizontal and unique branches of the larch or the pine, 

 with tlieir strongly marked forms. Rough and irregular stems and trunks, 

 rocks half-covered with mosses and flowering plants, open glades of bright 

 verdure opposed to dark masses of shadowy foliage, form prominent objects 

 in the foreground. If water enliven the scene, we shall hear the murmur of 

 the noisy brook, or the cool dashing of the cascade, as it leaps over the rocky 

 barrier. Let the stream turn the ancient and well-worn wheel of the old 

 mill in the middle ground, and we shall have an illustration of picturesque 

 beauty, not the less striking from its familiarity to every one. 



" To the lover of the fine arts, the name of Claude Lorraine cannot fail to 

 suggest examples of beauty in its purest and most elegant forms. In the 

 inimitable landscapes which are the works of this great master, we see por- 

 trayed all those graceful and flowing forms, and all that harmonious colouring, 

 which delight so much the mind of genuine taste and sensibility, and which, 

 based upon a study of beautiful nature and art, in the finest portion of the 

 globe, have never since, and may, perhaps, never again, be equalled. 



" On the other hand, where shall we find all the elements of the picturesque 

 more graphically combined than in the vigorous landscapes of Salvator Rosa. 

 In those rugged scenes, even the lawless aspects of his favourite robbers and 

 banditti are not more spirited than the bold rocks and wild passes by which 

 they are surrounded. And in the productions of his pencil, we see the in- 

 fluence of a romantic and vigorous imagination, nursed amid scenes teeming 

 with the grand as well as the picturesque — both of which he embodied in the 

 most striking manner. 



'* In giving these illustrations of general, or natural, and of picturesque 

 beauty, we have not intended them to be understood in the light of exact 

 models for imitation in landscape-gardening — only as striking examples of 

 expression in natural scenery. Although in nature many landscapes partake 

 in a certain degree of both these kinds of beauty, yet it is no doubt true that 

 the effect is more satisfactory where either the one or the other character 

 predominates. The accomplished amateur should be able to seize at once 

 upon the characteristics of these two species of beauty in all scenery. To 

 assist the reader in this kind of discrimination, we shall keep these expres- 

 sions constantly in view, and we hope we shall be able fully to illustrate the 

 difference in the expression of even single trees, in this respect. A few 

 strongly marked objects, either picturesque or simply beautiful, will often 

 confer their character upon a whole landscape, as the destruction of a single 

 group of bold rocks covered with wood may render a scene, once picturesque, 

 completely insipid. 



" A question that may not be unlikely to occur to the novice in these 

 matters is, which is the superior character of landscape, considered in refer- 

 ence to the art now before us ? To answer this question directly, would be 

 to side with one or the other of the two schools or parties in landscape-gar- 

 dening, which waged battle so fiercely in England during the last century, — 

 viz. the Picturesque School, at the head of which were Price and Knight, 

 and the more formal school, whose champions were Brown and Repton ; the 

 former desiring to see all country residences highly picturesque, and the latter, 

 perhaps, verging too much into the rules of an unvarying art. 



" There can, however, be little doubt that it is requisite to possess a greater 

 degree of imagination, and perhaps more of that vigour of mind termed genius, 

 fully to appreciate the beauty of the more picturesque forms of nature. Even 

 among artists, v/hile there are many who are able to feel and portray nature 

 in her ordinary developements, how few can make the canvass glow with the 

 expression of her grander and more picturesque beauties ! And among mere 

 admirers, it is the multitude that see and feel the power of beauty in her 

 graceful and flowing forms ; but only the imaginative and cultivated few, who 



