A WOOD RAMBLE IN APRIL 25 



it is locally. I suppose any one who has never gone 

 through this kind of training could scarcely believe 

 the difference it makes in the degi-ee of enjoyment of 

 all that is most worthy of admiration in our beautiful 

 world. But it enables one, even in a greater degree 

 than the other perceptions of form and proportion 

 that the artist must acquire or cultivate, to see pic- 

 tures for oneself, not merely to see objects. And the 

 pictures so seized by the eye and brain are the best 

 pictures of all, for they are those of the great Artist, 

 revealed by Him direct to the seeing eye and the 

 receiving heart. 



It is not so much that people are unobservant, but 

 that from the want of the necessary training they 

 cannot see or receive direct from nature what is seen 

 by the artist, and the only natural pictures that strike 

 them are those that present some unusual strength or 

 mass of positive colour, such as a brilliant sunset, or a 

 group of trees in yellow glory of autumn colouring, 

 or a field of poppies, or an orchard bearing its load 

 of bloom. To these untrained eyes the much more 

 numerous and delicate of Nature's pictorial moods or 

 incidents can only be enjoyed or understood when 

 presented in the form of a painted picture by the 

 artist who understands Nature's speech and can act 

 as her interpreter. 



Now I come to the fringe of a plantation of 

 Spruce Fir some thu'ty years old. The trees meet 

 overhead above the narrow cart-track, and looking in 



