PICTURESQUE ANIMALS. 299 



the human race, and while the laboring classes add to 

 the pleasing character of a scene in nature, a single 

 figure, male or female, in fashionable apparel, destroys 

 the whole eflect. Hence almost all the representations 

 of picnics fail in awakening any poetic emotions. 



A shepherd, when properly represented with his crook, 

 which is his staff of office, and surrounded by the ani- 

 mals of his charge, his faithful dog, the rustic cottage, 

 the sheepfold, and the general rude scenery of nature, 

 is always picturesque. But his appearance must be 

 entirely that of a shepherd, without any of the ways or 

 the gear of a man of the town. I have seen a picture 

 of two young shepherds in the Ambruzzi mountains, 

 painted by an eminent English artist, in which the 

 characteristic qualities of the scene are entirely de- 

 stroyed by a certain genteel or finical air and expres- 

 sion observed in their countenance and attitudes. In- 

 stead of rustic shepherds we see two young men, each 

 with a crook, sitting and reclining upon a rock. They 

 are very neatly dressed, and look as if they were young 

 sprigs of the nobility, who had gone into the mountains, 

 for a few days, merely to play shepherd ; so nicely is 

 their hair arranged, that the longitudinal parting is dis- 

 tinctly seen, caused by the sleeking away of the hair 

 on each side of the head. The expression of their faces 

 corresponds with the rest of their appearance ; one, in 

 particular, having that look of conscious self-satisfac- 

 tion which we often observe in a silly fop of the town. 

 The very manner in which he leans his head upon his 

 thumb and fingers betrays his concern, lest he should 

 spoil the arrangement of his hair. How strange that 

 the painter of this piece should not have seen that all 

 these little trifles completely ruined the picturesque 

 character of his painting ! 



