398 



places there is something which separates 

 the immediate bank, from the general scenery 

 that encloses the river. This near bank 

 being in the foreground, is of the greatest 

 consequence : wherever that is regularly sloped 

 and smoothed, whatever beauty or grandeur 

 there may be above, the character of the river 

 is gone. 



P.312, 1. last. Mr. Repton, who is deservedly at the 

 head of his profession, might effectually correct 

 the errors of his predecessors, if to his taste 

 and facility in drawing (an advantage they did 

 not possess), to his quickness of observation, 

 and to his experience in the practical part, he 

 were to add an attentive study of what the t 

 higher artists have done, both in their pictures 

 and drawings. Their selections and arrange- 

 ments would point out many beautiful com- 

 positions and effects in nature, which, without 

 such a study, may escape the most experienced 

 observer. 



The fatal rock on which all professed im- 

 provers are likely lo split, is that of system: 

 they become mannerists, both from getting 

 fond of what the^ have done before, and from 

 the ease of repeating what they have so often 

 practised ; but to be reckoned a mannerist, is 

 at least as great a reproach to the improver as 

 to the painter. Mr. Brown seems to have 

 been perfectly satisfied, when he bad made a 



