.THE ILLUSTRATIONS, XXVU 



inspection, there is a cliarm in these rude 

 sketches — something which strongly touches the 

 imagination. But neither the drawing nor en- 

 graving will compare with the work of the 

 present day. The aquatint, however, which over- 

 spreads them, gives them a peculiarly striking 

 appearance. Of the effect of this colouring, 

 Gilpin himself says : — ' As some people, not much 

 versed in matters of this kind, have conceived 

 the tint, with which these acquatinta drawings are 

 stained, to be an attempt to colour after Nature, 

 I would suggest that nothing less is intended. 

 Some litUe idea of the glow of sunset may be given 

 by it ; and this is attempted only in one or two 

 prints. In all the rest, the design of this wash 

 is only to take off the glaring rawness of white 

 paper, and to harmonize, by a mellow tint, the 

 unpleasant opposition of black and white.' The 

 ' glaring rawness ' of white paper and the ' un- 

 pleasant opposition of black and white ' are not 

 to be discerned in the good drawing and engrav- 

 ing of the present day. Hence, though, at first, 

 we felt inclined to reproduce Gilpin's landscapes 

 in facsimile — and this could have been accom- 



