64 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



finest composition of Claude comparatively rude and im- 

 perfect. 



We will suppose, for the illustration of this point, that one 

 was anxious to show to the world what a picture of Claude 

 might have been, had it been executed according to the prin- 

 ciples of Mr. Brown. What would immediately strike him 

 in one of Claude's pictures, would be the total want of that 

 leading feature of all modern improvements, the clump : un- 

 derstanding by a clump, any close mass of trees of the same 

 age and growth, detached from all others. To improve the 

 picture, he would order several clumps to be placed in the 

 most conspicuous spots, with here and there a patch of 

 larches, to contrast with the firs. His eye being trained in 

 the Brown school, would be shocked to see the natural 

 groups of trees in Claude, some with their stems half con- 

 cealed by bushes and thickets ; others standing alone, but 

 by means of those thickets, or of detached trees, connected 

 with other groups of various sizes and shapes. All this rub- 

 bish must be cleared away by the improver, and the ground 

 made everywhere quite smooth and level, and each group 

 left upon the grass perfectly distinct and separate. Similar 

 alterations are made of buildings. The last finishing, both to 

 places and pictures, is water. In Claude, it partakes of the 

 general softness and dressed appearance of his scenes, and 

 the accompaniments have perhaps less of rudeness than in 

 any other master. Yet compared with those of a piece of 

 artificial water, or an improved river, his banks are perfectly 

 savage ; parts of them covered with trees and bushes that 

 hang over the water; and near the edge of it tussocks of 

 rushes, large stones and stumps ; the ground sometimes 

 smooth, sometimes broken and abrupt, and seldom keep- 

 ing, for a long space, the same level from the water. A few 

 strokes of the painter's brush would reduce the bank on 

 each side to one level green ; would make curve answer to 

 curve, without bush or tree to hinder the eye from enjoying 

 the uniform smoothness and verdure, and from pursuing, 

 without interruption, the continued sweep of these serpen- 

 tine lines. 



