286 Gilpin's poeest sceneey. 



tinction is grandeur and dignity. The scenes we 

 have hitherto considered are all within the reach 

 of art; and, in fact, have all been the objects 

 \of improvement. But the forest disdains all 

 ^ihuman culture. On it, the hand of Nature only 

 is impressed. The forest, like other beautiful 

 scenes, pleases the eye ; but its great effect is to 

 roiise the imagination. 



The word forest immediately suggests the idea 

 of a continued uninterrupted tract of woody country. 

 But forests, in general, are much more varied. 

 They consist, indeed, of tracts of woody country ; 

 but these tracts are, at the same time, intermixed 

 with patches of pasturage, which commonly bear 

 the same proportion to the woods of the forest 

 which lawns do to the clumps of a park. These 

 intermingled scenes of wood and pasturage are 

 again divided from other intermixtures of the 

 same kind by wide heaths, which are sometimes 

 bounded by a naked line of horizon, but more 

 frequently skirted with wood. This intermixture 

 of wood and pasturage, with large separations 

 of heath, give a variety to the forest, which a 

 boundless continuance of woody scenery could 



