0)1 the Cedar in Scenery. 



121 



as figures do in landscape composition, than to form the basis 

 of it. A red-coated soldier or two, would enliven a view, but a 

 file of them would be anything but picturesque : unless, indeed, 

 in a battle scene, where they formed the principal feature. So 

 it should be with the cedars ; if they must be together, let them 

 form a grove ; they would then have a character of gloomy 

 magnificence, which might be a very fine addition to a 

 residence. I should imagine that such a grove of full-grown 

 cedars would be highly interesting and attractive. We will 

 just suppose that the banks of an artificial river or lake were 

 bounded on one side by grassy hills, planted with a few 

 evergreens and birches, and that the other side was a gentle 

 slope covered with a grove of cedars ; that a winding and 

 almost natural path conducted you among their ponderous 

 stems ; that the grass was kept tolerably free from weeds, that 

 holly-hock, paeonies, roses, and other flowers of a large and 

 imposing character, were raising their heads here and there, 

 and that the woodbine was also twining around some of the 

 stems ; then suppose a clear summer evening, the water 

 reflecting the yellow light of the sunset, and the stems of the 

 cedars touched by its rays, and I think we shall have 

 conceived one of the calmest and most solemn scenes that 

 could be found in nature, or that it is in the power of art to 

 create. In the annexed sketch (^.19.) I have endeavoured to 



19 



convey some idea of the subject, but the smallness of the scale, 

 and the absence of colour, are much against my pourtraying 

 such a scene. 



I would not recommend the introduction of cedars into 

 plantations, or belts, as they are generally lost amidst the 

 other foliage ; and if brought to the edge, form too 



K 3 



