PART I. 



FOR A COUNTRY RESIDENCE. 



659 



return. The reason of this is obvious; the natives of both 

 kingdoms, when abroad, and reflecting upon their native 

 countries, naturally picture to themselves its most striking 

 features, which in Scotland and Wales archills and mountains, 

 and in England generally large towns and cities; and as both 

 have been accustomed, in contemplating their native scenes, to 



ried and enriched by caves and cells, hovels, and covered seats, or other buildings 

 in perfect harmony with the wild but pleasing horrors of the scene." Now I beg 

 that the reader, who has not seen Downton, will endeavour to conceive an idea of 

 this scene in his mind. If he abide by this description, as this author is pleased to 

 call it, I know not what he will conceive of it ; certain it is, no painter could ever 

 make a drawing from any one part of it, which would be recognized as in the faint- 

 est degree like Downton. I will not carp at the epithets bestowed, such as " the 

 most- beautiful, &c. which can be conceived," though it is far inferior to hundreds of 

 others; nor shall I notice equal errors in the choice of words in the description, be- 

 cause I am aware that in this respect I may have frequently erred myself in the 

 course of this volume; I object only to the want of those great features which cha- 

 racterize Downton Vale, and distinguish it from most others in England. These are, 

 a continuation of steep mountains on one side; the abrupt termination of irregularly 

 level grounds on the other; and, what we have not the smallest idea of from the 

 above sentences, a rich canopy of old wood which covers both the banks ! ! What 

 could a painter have done without this mountain and these woods ? 



What better are Mr. Repton's sketches in his " Hints" and " Observations?' 7 

 what do they display, but (< a kind of superficial ingenuity, well calculated to take 

 the lead in drawing-schools and academies, which, assuming all the airs of genius, 

 often passes for that quality among inaccurate observers; a glittering tinsel kind of 

 talent, which rarely attains to eminence ; which belongs more to the hand than to 

 the head; and most commonly ends in a manufactui'e of mannered insipidity ', and 

 unfeeling mechanism* ." Witness Mr. R.'s foreground trees, which are neither 

 imitative of general nor individual nature; and most of them are such as could 

 not possibly exist at all. See his Views of Welbeck in " Hints and Sketches." 



* Shee's Rhymes on Art, p. 25, first edition. 



