270 Gilpin's forest scENEiir. 



Tlie distinction made by Gilpin between a vale and a 

 valley is not consistent with modern custom. The words 

 are really synonymous — vale being only a convenient 

 formj for the purposes of poetry, of valley. If any 

 modern author makes a distinctioUj it is rather, we think, 

 by characterizing the larger depression, between hills, a 

 valley. A chasm is commonly understood to indicate a 

 depression caused by disruption, either by volcanic or 

 other agency. Such a depression might form a glen. A 

 glen is necessarily a valley, but the latter is not neces- 

 tarily a glen. The word glen is, doubtless, a somewhat 

 elastic one, but it is ordinarily used to indicate a steep 

 and narrow valley, of small size, shat in by rocky hills, 

 and characterized by scenery which is more or less wild 

 and impressive. It is just in this sense that Scott uses 

 it in the introduction to the first canto of Marmion : — 



' Low in its dark and narrow glen, 

 You scarce the rivulet might ken, 

 So thick the tangled. green-wood grew, 

 So feehle trilled the streamlet through : ' — Ed. 



The circumstances which, form the glen, it is 

 evident, admit infinite variety. It may be more 

 or less contracted. It may form one single svreep, 

 or its deviations may he irregular. The wood 

 may consist of full-grown trees, or of underwood, 

 or of a mixture of both. The path which winds 



