t 



bellishments are now extended over* a whole 

 district, and as they give a new and pecu- 

 liar character to the general face of the 

 country, it is well worth considering whe- 

 ther they give a natural and a beautiful 

 one, and whether the present system of im- 

 proving (to use a short though often an 

 inaccurate term) is founded on any just 

 principles of taste. 



In order to examine this question, the 

 first enquiry will naturally be, whether 

 there is any standard, to which in point of 

 grouping and of general composition > 

 works of this sort can be referred ; any 

 authority higher than that of the persons 

 who have gained the most general and 

 popular reputation by those works, and 

 whose method of conducting them ha& 

 had the most extensive influence on the 

 general taste ? I think there is a standard ; 

 there are authorities of an infinitely higher 

 kind ; the authorities of those great artists 

 who have most diligently studied the 

 beauties of nature, both in their grandest 

 and most general effects, and in their 



