228 



NOTICES OF AUTHORS. 



getlier as cumber ers of tlie soil ! For ourselves, we 

 would rather haa with the silly sheep, and nibble 

 the turf, than pass our time in acting over this most 

 pitiful trifling, or in publishing a memorial of our 

 shame. We know not how others are affected, 

 but there is no other place on earth where we ha;ve 

 felt such oppression and weariness, as in the exten- 

 sive smoothed park and lawns around the coimtry 

 seat. We sicken under the uniformity of the heavy- 

 looking round-headed trees, — the dulness of the flat 

 fat pastm-e, undecorated by a single weed,— the quiet 

 stupid physiognomy of the cattle, — the officiousness 

 of the sleek orderly menial. I t may be we are very 

 destitute of taste in this ; here every thing is expe- 

 riencing satiety of sensual enjoyment, is full to re- 

 pletion ; every thing has been sedulously arranged 

 to please, and we ought certainly to admire; but 

 we have no sympathy with such a scene. 



The solitariness, the absence of men and of hu- 

 man interest, is not compensated by any of the wild 

 charms of nature. There is small room here for the 

 discovery of the habitat and native character of 

 plants, no chance of meeting mth a rare species, 

 every thing is modelled to art. The land-bailiff is 

 an adept. With his dirty composts and top-dress- 

 ings, he smothers the /o^ and the daisy ; the scythe 



