Gilpin, though he spoke doubting] y ; and 

 I could not help flattering myself, that as 

 his authority had confirmed me in my ideas, 

 so by tracing them through a greater va- 

 riety of objects than his subject led him to 

 consider, I might shew the justness and ac~ 

 curacy of his suppositions. Peculiarity of 

 character, on which Mr. Gilpin very pro- 

 perly lays a stress, naturally arises from 

 strong lines and sudden variations; what is 

 perfectly smooth and flowing, has propor- 

 tionably less of peculiar character, and 

 loses in picturesqueness, what it may gain 

 in beauty. 



This leads me to consider a part of Mr. 

 Gilpin's Essay on Picturesque Beauty, that 

 appears to me to be written in a very dif- 

 ferent spirit from the last mentioned pas- 

 sage: as also from several others in his 

 works, which mark the true character and 

 cause of the picturesque in a masterly man- 

 ner, and shew how much and how well he 

 had observed. If the criticism I am going 

 to make be just, Mr. Gilpin has, I think, 

 laid himself open to it by his exclusive 



