PART VII. PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 373 



that the same kind of errors may be seen at the town of 

 Bridgenorth. 



Stones. — These are intimately connected with rocks, and 

 have been partly treated of above, under concealment. The 

 grandest forms of stones are those which present most breadth 

 and effect, which are generally such as are most cubical. Their 

 uses are various and not unimportant. They are desirable in 

 picturesque foregrounds, among wild scenery, near natural paths, 

 and among rough thickets. In brooks and rills their use is most 

 important. There, by contrast with water and vegetation, they 

 give spirit and force, and by appearing above the surface of 

 various heights and different shapes, by catching and reflecting 

 lights, throwing shadows, and by changing their apparent dis- 

 position at every movement of the spectator, they produce a 

 playfulness, intricacy, and cheerfulness, which in this kind of 

 water no other appendage can communicate. Their absence 

 both in natural rills, brooks, and ponds, produces a melan- 

 choly, solitary, and sombre appearance : this may be admirably 

 exemplified in the river Almond; and the former can never be 

 more strikingly shewn, than on the North Esk, and particularly 

 at Roslin Castle, Hawthornden, and Polton*. Rivers may be 

 highly useful without stones, as is the Thames, the Isis, or 



* All near Edinburgh. 



t 



