varied and animated than one of mere grass 

 can be, yet I am very far from wishing the 

 peculiar character of lawns to be destroyed: 

 the study of the principles of painting 

 would be very ill applied by an improver, 

 who should endeavour to give each scene 

 every variety that might please in a picture 

 separately considered, instead of such varie- 

 ties as are consistent with its own peculiar 

 character and situation, and with the con- 

 nections and dependencies it has on other 

 objects. Smoothness, verdure, and undula- 

 tion, are the most characteristic beauties of 

 a lawn, but they are in their nature closely 

 allied to monotony ; improvers, instead of 

 endeavouring to remedy that defect, to- 

 wards which those essential qualities of 

 beauty are constantly tending, have, on 

 the contrary, added to it and made it 

 much more striking, by the disposition 

 of their trees, and their method of form- 

 ing the banks of artificial rivers : nor 

 have they confined this system of levelling 

 and turfing; to those scenes where smooth- 

 ness and verdure ought to be the ground- 



