OCTOBER. 



447 



The author's general views are well expressed in the fol- 

 lowing verses from the first book of his poem : — 



" Great nature scorns control ; she will not bear 

 One beauty foreign to the spot or soil 

 She gives thee to adorn : 'tis thine alone 

 To mend, not change her features. Does her hand 

 Stretch forth a level lawn ? Ah, hope not then 

 To lift the mountain there. Do mountains frown 

 Around ? Ah, wish not there the level lawn. 

 Yet she permits thy art, discreetly used. 

 To smooth or scoop the rugged or the plain. 

 But dare with caution. Else expect, bold man, 

 The injured genius of the place to rise, 

 In self-defence, and, like some giant fiend, 

 That frowns in Gothic story, swift destroy, 

 By night, the puny labors of thy day." 



If it be asked what he must do " whom niggard fate has 

 fixed in such an inauspicious spot as bears no trace of beauty," 

 the author replies, that a spot cannot be found so inauspicious 

 or so destitute of charms as not to admit of improvements 

 that would satisfy the most sanguine hopes. 



" The seeds of grace are sown, profusely sown. 

 Even where we least may hope ; the desert hills 

 Will hear the call of art ; the valleys dank 

 Obey her just behests, and smile with charms 

 Congenial to the soil, and all its own." — [Book I. 



Like almost all other English authors on rural ornaments, 

 except Repton, our author lays too much stress on the im- 

 portance of studying the works of the great painters. Repton, 

 who certainly viewed these subjects with less prejudice than 

 his predecessors, while he admitted that the great masters 

 were worthy of study, believed that their example often led 

 to whimsical and impracticable attempts to carry out their 

 ideas in the creation or improvement of real landscapes. 

 Many of our author's remarks, however, are judicious and 

 happy : — 



" If then thou still art dubious how to treat 

 Nature's neglected features, turn thine eye 

 To those, the masters of correct design, 

 Who, from her vast variety, have culled 



