Strut?s Delicicee Sylvadrum. 383 
We are far from meaning in the least degree to detract from 
the merit of our Claudes, Ruysdaels, and Hobbimas (on the 
contrary, we have them in the highest esteem), or to deny the 
utility of their works in correcting the taste and guiding the 
execution of modern painters. ‘Nevertheless we would not 
wish to see these heroes of former days, eminent as they were 
in their profession, too servilely copied, or too exclusively 
attended to. Art may be carried too far. It is very possible 
and very common to study pictures more than nature ; almost, 
indeed, to the utter exclusion of the latter. Was it not by a 
close application to the study of nature that the old masters 
themselves attained to eminence ? The modern aspirant after 
fame, therefore, should pursue the like course; and ‘ with 
all appliances and means to boot,” which are fairly to be 
derived from an inspection of the works of his predecessors, 
let him go in the first instance to the fountain-head, and study 
Nature for himself, instead of taking up with her beauties at 
second hand, and viewing them, as it were, through the eyes 
of another. We could expatiate on this subject, but our 
limits warn us to forbear. 
The first number of Delicice Sylvdrum contains, besides the 
frontispiece already spoken of, four plates, the full complement 
of each number, representing, respectively, scenes from Wind- 
sor, Epping, nnd Marlborough Forests, and one view near 
Chepstow. Among these we decidedly give the preference to 
5 ‘ . 
the genuine forest views. The oak in the Epping plate, with 
its foreshortened arms, the brilliant spring of water at its foot, 
and the weeds in the fore-ground, demand our unqualified 
praise. We have one fault, however, and’ but one, to find 
with this beautiful plate. The head of the tree, in the middle 
of the picture towards the top, is heavy, lumpish, and too 
unlike foliage ; nor is the outlme of it good. We are quite 
sure that, with a little care, Mr. Strutt could have managed 
this part of the etching better, since, as we have alr eady 
remarked, he excels in depicting foliage, and especially the 
foliage of the oak. The fault complained of is owing, we 
conceive, to some alteration having been made in the plate, 
after the design was etched on the copper, of which alteration 
we fancy we can perceive evident traces. One or two other 
instances of a similar kind might be pointed out in some of 
the other plates; and we mention the circumstance the rather, 
not in the spirit of severe criticism, but in the hope that Mr. 
Strutt will take care to avoid inflicting on his plates the same 
kind of blemishes in future. The more complete he has his 
design at the first, and the fewer alterations he makes with the 
scraper and burnisher after the acid has once been applied to 
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