xxiv Editor's Introduction 



break magically from under the towering arch and the 

 dark crown of trees. 



Prince Piickler's description of Tintern Ab- 

 bey — Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey — should 

 not be passed by : it is so fine : — 



It would be difficult to imagine a more favorable 

 situation or a more sublime ruin. The entrance to it 

 seems as if contrived by the hand of some skillful scene 

 painter to produce the most striking effect. The church, 

 which is large, is still almost perfect; the roof alone and 

 some of the pillars are wanting. The ruins have received 

 just that degree of care which is consistent with the full 

 preservation of their character. All unpicturesque rub- 

 bish that would obstruct the view is removed without 

 any attempt at repair or embellishment. A beautiful 

 smooth turf covers the ground and luxuriant creeping 

 plants grow amid the stones. The fallen ornaments are 

 laid in a picturesque confusion and a perfect avenue of 

 thick ivy stems climb up the pillars and form a roof 

 over head. The better to secure the ruin, a new gate 

 of antique workmanship is put up. When this is sud- 

 denly opened the effect is striking and surprising. You, 

 at once, look down the avenue of ivy clad pillars and 

 see the grand perspective lines closed at the distance of 

 three hundred feet by a magnificent window eighty feet 

 high and thirty feet broad: through its intricate and 

 beautiful tracery you see a wooded mountain from whose 

 sides project abrupt masses of rock. 



When it comes to landscape gardening criti- 

 cism, we find all through his letters passages that 

 abundantly prove that his mind was continually 

 occupied in studying his art wherever he traveled. 

 Here is a bit on city planning and the landscape 

 connected with it which might have been written 



