FEBRUARY. 65 



The improvements being completed, there is not a person 

 with a painter's eye, who would not be shocked and diverted 

 at the black spots and the white spots, the naked water, the 

 naked buildings, the scattered, unconnected groups of trees, 

 and all the gross and glaring violations of every principle of 

 the art. Yet, alluding to the modern style of landscape 

 gardening, this is truly the method in which many scenes, 

 worthy of Claude's pencil, have been improved. The author 

 cqncludes that it is impossible that the beauties of imitation 

 should be so distinct from those of reality, that what dis- 

 graces and makes a picture ridiculous should become orna- 

 mental when applied to nature. 



It seemed to Mr. Price, that the neglect which prevails 

 in the works of modern improvers of all that is picturesque, 

 is owing to their exclusive attention to high polish and flow- 

 ing lines, causing them to overlook two of the most fruitful 

 sources of human pleasure — the one, variety, the other intri- 

 cacy, qualities that are almost inseparable from one another. 

 Intricacy in landscape may be defined " that disposition of 

 objects which, by a partial and uncertain concealment, ex- 

 cites and nourishes curiosity. ^^ Upon the whole, it appears 

 that, as intricacy in the disposition, and variety in the forms, 

 the tints, and the lights and shadows of objects, are the great 

 characteristics of picturesque scenery, so monotony and bald- 

 ness are the greatest defects of improved places. All painters 

 who have imitated the more confined scenes of nature have 

 been fond of making studies from old neglected by-roads 

 and hidden ways : and perhaps there are few spots that have 

 a greater variety of that sort of beauty called picturesque. 

 These are the scenes that form studies for the painter ; but 

 seldom or never do they copy a scene from a gentleman's 

 walk or drive, or from any place that has been improved. 



Perhaps what is most immediately striking in a lane of 

 this kind is its intricacy. Any winding road must neces- 

 sarily have some degree of intricacy ; but in a dressed lane, 

 every effort of art seems directed against that disposition of 

 the ground; the sides are so regularly sloped, so regularly 

 planted ; and the space between them and the road so uni- 



VOL. XXII. NO. II. 9 



