375 



landscape, from the plainest and simplest to the 

 most splendid and complicated, and excludes no- 

 thing but tameness and confusion, so it equally 

 suits all free governments, and only excludes anar- 

 chy and despotism. It must be always remem- 

 bered however, that despotism is the most complete 

 leveller ; and he who clears and levels every 

 thing round his own lofty mansion, seems to me 

 to have very Turkish pinciples of improvement. 



P. 32, 1. 14. .Among the various ill effects occasioned by 

 the prevailing system of making the ground every 

 where, and in all cases smooth and even, none 

 is more lamented by the painter than that of 

 covering up the picturesque roots of old trees, 

 which seem to fasten on the earth with their 

 dragon claws. Such were those of the beech 

 that I have mentioned with so much regret; it is 

 even worse when the spurs of a large oak, which 

 give to its base such a look of firmness and stabi- 

 lity, and shew what must be the rivets beneath that 

 enable him to defy the tempest, are completely 

 moulded up, for the sake of bringing the whole of 

 the ground to one exact level, or for some such 

 paltry consideration. The trunk then leses one of 

 the most marked and striking parts of its character, 

 and looks like an enormous post stuck into the 

 ground. 



P. 57,1. 15. It may appear singular, that in mentioning 

 trees of a picturesque character, I Should have ex- 

 cepted the youg ash ; for, as it is a great favourite 



