494 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



harshness of lines ; and, above all, it throws over the face of 

 landscape that harmonizing tint which blends the whole into 

 unity and repose. 



Mist spreads still more obscurity over the face of nature. 

 As haziness softens and adds a beauty perhaps to the most 

 correct forms of landscape, mist is adapted to those land- 

 scapes in which there is much to hide ; to soften more, and 

 to throw many parts into a greater distance than they natu- 

 rally occupy. He thinks that even the fog is not without its 

 beauty in landscape, especially in mountain scenes. But 

 these phenomena are not available to the improver of real 

 landscape ; they can only serve the purposes of the painter, 

 who can use them as he sees fit. 



Mr. Gilpin remarks that no one can describe a country 

 properly unless he has seen it in various lights. He who 

 should see any one scene as it is differently affected by a 

 lowering sky or a bright one, might probably see two very 

 different landscapes. He might not only see distances blotted 

 out or splendidly exhibited, but he might even see variations 

 produced in the objects themselves ; and that merely from 

 the different times of the day in which they were examined. 

 The summit of a mountain, for instance, which in a morning 

 appears round, may discover, Avhen enlightened by an evening 

 ray, a double top. Rocks and woods take different shapes 

 from the different directions of light, while the hues and tints 

 of objects are continually changing. Nay, we sometimes 

 see, in a mountainous country especially, a variation of light 

 alter the whole disposition of a landscape. In a warm sun- 

 shine the purple hills may skirt the horizon, and appear 

 broken into numberless pleasing forms ; but under a sullen 

 sky, a total change may be produced : the distant mountains 

 and all their beautiful projections may disappear, and their 

 places be occupied by a dead flat. These local variations 

 cannot be too much attended to by all lovers of landscape. 



The author speaks of changes which time as well as 

 weather produces in scenery. Even the wild features of na- 

 ture suffer continual change from various causes, — inclosures, 

 canals, quarries, buildings, and, above all, from the growth or 



