PART VII. 



PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



365 



rigid brows, or harsh angular abruptness. The simplicity 

 of plain or simple surfaces may be increased by removing 

 trifling parts, and promoting their tendency either to grandeur 

 or beauty. Thus a plain is improved in grandeur by the re- 

 moval of those lumps and excrescences which frequently may 

 be seen on their surface; and a hill, covered equally with 

 stones, furze, or tubercles of earth, will, by having some places 

 entirely freed from these appendages, be rendered less in- 

 tricate and featureless, and consequently more simple and 

 beautiful, or grand. Irregular or picturesque surfaces are ea- 

 sily improved, either by increasing the abruptnesses and broken 

 ground already there, or by the addition of others in connex- 

 ion and concord with the present. Broken or picturesque 

 ground is frequently admissible, especially if the broken or 

 naked places are abrupt, or nearly perpendicular; but where 

 nakedness seems to overspread the surface, the effect is too 

 barren and inhospitable to be pleasing in cultivated scenery*. 

 In some species of heaths, and shores of rivers or the sea, 

 naked surfaces are often characteristic, and therefore ought not 

 to be replaced, unless the character is to be entirely changed. 

 Changing the natural character of the surface with regard to 



* In the foreground of Plate XXX. , contrasted with that of Plate XXIX., the ef- 

 fect of broken ground will be readily perceived. There it is not only more inte- 

 resting of itself, but is better suited with the rough wild style of scenery to which 

 the walk there shewn leads. 



