INTEODUOTION, XI 



attempt appears to have been made to correct or 

 explain Gilpin's statements up to the date of the 

 new publication — the most essential part of edi- 

 torial duty. Where an editor approves, he should, 

 in most cases,be silent — for his silence will pre-sup- 

 pose acquiescence. This rule, however. Sir T. D. 

 Lauder continually fails to observe ; and his fre- 

 quent interposition offends the reader. Nor was 

 the First Editor of the ' Forest Scenery ' more 

 happy in his illustrations. He does not attempt 

 to reproduce the charmingly-suggestive landscapes 

 of Gilpin, or the drawings illustrating the portion 

 of the work devoted to trees in combination, but 

 gives, chiefly, a series of inferiorwood engravings of 

 singularly ineffective and clumsy drawings of indi- 

 vidual trees. The letter-press of the First Edition 

 is preserved in its entirety, but the spirit and the 

 charm of Gilpin, in all other respects, are gone. 



The delightful writer on ' Picturesque Beauty ' 

 made no profession to be a botanist. He was an 

 artist, with a true artist's instinctive feelings — a 

 deep love of Nature, an intense dislike of all 

 formality, an intuitive recognition of the beautiful 

 harmony prevailing in the natural world, together 



