337 



experienced myself and observed in others* 

 when after having been long confined to 

 egular walks, however judiciously taken, 

 we have enjoyed the dear delight of get- 

 ting to some spot where there were no 

 traces of art, and no other walk or com- 

 munication than a sheep-track, or some 

 foot-path winding among the thickets. 



It is in such spots as those, that art, if 

 it interfere at all, should most carefully 

 conceal itself ; and in such, a Mr. Hamilton 

 would proceed with a very cautious hand : 

 but whatever effect an acquaintance with 

 the .fine arts, or perhaps the precept of 

 Tasso, or the example of Homer may have 

 had on such a mind as his, nothing of that 

 kind has influenced those of professed 

 improvers ; and a style very different from 

 that of Painshill has been exhibited at no 

 very great distance from it, in a place be- 

 gun I believe by Kent, and finished by 

 Brown. A wood with many old trees cover* 

 ed with ivy, mixed with thickets of hollies, 

 yews, and thorns ; a wood, which Rousseau 

 might have dedicated a la reverie, is so in- 



vol. I. z 



