Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



of the Swiss landscape, no ancient said one 

 word ; it is why Silius Italicus describes the 

 Alps as a horrifying barren desert, whilst 

 lovingly dwelling on Italy's ravines and wooded 

 shores." It has been pointed out in mitigation 

 of their blindness that modern travellers to the 

 Arctic desolations of ice have been equally 

 impervious to the terrible majesty of those 

 regions, destined perhaps some day to be the 

 playground of a jaded townsfolk. "We have to 

 wait many centuries for the awakening. I find 

 that even Horace Walpole, writing from Turin 

 in 1739, after crossing the Alps for the first 

 time, has nothing to say of them but " such 

 uncouth rocks, and such uncomely inhabitants." 

 But he is full of sentiment concerning the loss 

 of his pet King Charles " Tory," which was 

 carried off by a wolf. 



To the crowds which now find an almost 

 exaggerated delight in the moors and lochs of 

 Scotland, the words of Dr. Johnson on his tour 

 in 1773 would seem to refer to another planet. 

 He describes the dreary monotony of the 

 treeless moors and naked hills : "An eye 

 accustomed to flowery pastures and waving 

 harvests is astonished and repelled by the wide 



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