350 Gilpin's poeest sobnert. 



In Winter, too, the effect of evergreens is often 

 pleasing. Holly, when it happens to be well 

 comhined, and mixed in just pro'portion, makes an 

 agreeable contrast. Ivy, hanging round the Oak, 

 if it be not too profuse , we have already observed, 

 is a beautiful appendage to its grandeur. I have 

 I seen some parts of the forest, where the stem of 

 f almost every tree was covered with it. This indeed 

 was not picturesque ; but it gave the wood a very 

 odd appearance, by exhibiting so total an inversion 

 of Nature. In Summer, the tops of trees are 

 green, and their stems commonly bare. Here the 

 tops were bare, while the stems were in full leaf. 



In a light hoar-frost, before the sun and air 

 begin to shake the powder from the trees, the 

 wintry forest is often beautiful, and almost ex- 

 hibits the effect of tufted foliage. As single 

 objects also, trees, under this circumstance, are 

 curious. The black branches, whose under-sides 

 are not covered with rime, often make a singular 

 contrast with the whitened spray. Trees of 

 ' minuter ramification and foliage, as the Beech, 

 the Elm, and the Fir, appear, under this circum- 

 stance, to most advantage. The Ash, the Horse- 



