142 



respondent beauties and varieties might 

 hare been produced. 



To give effect and variety of character to 

 foregrounds (in which light all the garden 

 near the house may be considered) the 

 forms, tints, and masses of stone or of 

 wood-work, must often be opposed to those 

 of vegetation, what is artificial, to what is 

 natural ; and this, I believe, is the general 

 principle that should be attended to from 

 the palace to the cottage. A cottage, with 

 its garden pales, and perhaps some shrub, 

 or evergreen, a bay or a lilac, appearing 

 through, and fruit-trees hanging over them ; 

 With its arbour of sweet-briar and honey- 

 suckle, supported by rude wood-work, or a 

 rustic porch covered with vine or ivy — is an 

 object which is pleasing to all mankind, 

 and not merely to the painter : he* indeed, 

 feels more strongly the value of their con- 

 nection, and disposition; but deprive the cot- 

 tage of these circumstances, place it (as many 

 a modern house is placed) on mere grass 

 and unaccompanied, — will the painter only 

 regret them ? what such rustic embellish- 

 ments are to the cottage, terraces, urns, 



