PART VII. 



PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



371 



Complete concealment is seldom desirable, except when the 

 rocks are of the barren or disagreeable kind ; such as a naked 

 surface of rocks, or small naked angular fragments staring 

 through ground of uniform or simple surface. In cases of the 

 first kind, the rock should be covered with earth; and in the 

 second, blown out with gunpowder, or eradicated by the spade 

 and mattock. The first case occurred with me at Castlewig, 

 and both cases occurred at Barnbarrow. The fragments scat- 

 tered in front of Downton Castle are of the same class as the 

 second kind; they appear quite unconnected with each other, 

 and have no natural relation to the ground, which is nearly of 

 a level surface with a meagre soil covered with bad grasses. 

 They are therefore deformities which should be removed. All 

 general observers, and even enthusiasts in scenery who had not 

 previously been informed of their intentions, would instantly 

 ask what they were put there for : and whenever this is the 

 case, it is a sufficient condemnation. Nature, either real, or 

 judiciously imitated, if she do not charm common observers, 

 never excites enquiries of this kind*. 



In rendering rocks more characteristic, the first requisite is to 



* I have taken the liberty of giving my opinion freely in this case, because the 

 acknowledged good taste of the proprietor, both in his writings and rural improve- 

 ments in general, may have some influence on those who are more led by others 

 than guided by their own judgments ; and also because I have in so many parts of 

 this volume taken occasion to shew my high approbation of " The Landscape" 



