362 PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. BOOK I. 



indisposition — in figure — or in all of these; and these again 

 he connects with buildings, cattle, or rocks. All that can 

 be said on picturesque improvement, whether on the mate- 

 rials, or general subjects, or indeed on any polite art, is but 

 the application of these two principles, character and connexion, 

 varied according to the nature of the expression, and the na- 

 ture of the materials which are to produce it. Hence the im- 

 portance of this branch of knowledge in every department of 

 rural design. With it, the slightest operations will produce 

 the most enchanting effects; but without it, the artist is 

 sure to wander in darkness and confusion — to effect things 

 only by immense labour and difficulty, and consequently 

 much unnecessary expense. It is plain, however, that most of 

 those who follow the profession of laying out grounds, have no 

 conception of this kind of knowledge ;— nor do they need it, 

 according to their system: for as Mr. Price observes, Mr. 

 Brown " has so fixed and determined the forms and lines of 

 clumps, belts, and serpentine canals, and has been so steadily 

 imitated by his followers, that had the improvers been incor- 

 porated, their common seal, with a clump, a belt, and a piece 

 of made water, would have fully expressed the whole of their 

 science, and have served for a model as well as a seal*/' 



* Price's Essays, vol. i. p. 264. 



