26 



the notice of painters. In many scenes of 

 that kind, the varieties of form, of colour, and 

 of light and shade, which present them- 

 selves at every step, are numberless; and it 

 is a singular circumstance that some of the 

 most striking among them should be owing 

 to the indiscriminate hacking of the pea- 

 sant, nay, to the very decay that is occa-» 

 sioned by it. When opposed to the tame- 

 ness of the poor pinioned trees (whatever 

 their age) of a gentleman's plantation 

 drawn up strait and even together, there is 

 often a sort of spirit and animation, in the 

 manner in which old neglected pollards 

 stretch out their limbs quite across these 

 hollow roads, in every wild and irregular 

 direction: on some, the large knots and 

 protuberances, add to the ruggedness of 

 their twisted trunks; in others, the deep 

 hollow of the inside, the mosses on the bark, 

 the rich yellow of the touch-wood, with the 

 blackness of the more decayed substance, 

 afford such variety of tints, of brilliant and 

 mellow lights, with deep and peculiar 



