MISCELLANEOUS. 



185 



As, however, all places have not the ad- 

 vantage of blue* distance, we must seek 

 for other causes to enliven such scenes. A 

 hamlet or village partially seen through the 

 accompanying trees, presenting a variety of 

 form and colour to the eye, and suggesting 

 many a pleasing reflection to the mind, will 

 imperceptibly spread a cheerful hue on all 

 around. Even the curling smoke rising from 

 the lonely cottage, and slowly floating across 

 the darkening wood below it, marking the 

 preparation for the labourer's evening meal, 

 cannot but awake a kindly social feeling, 

 and impart a conscious cheerfulness to the 

 mind of the beholder. 



I lately met with a most striking instance 

 of excluding such rural circumstances. A 

 mansion of the manorial character, com- 

 manding a rocky gorge, fringed with wood, 

 through which a river forces its agitated 

 course, presents to the library window a truly 

 romantic scene, of which a group of trees, on 

 a precipitous bank, about fifty feet from the 

 house, forms the foreground. 



At the mouth of the gorge stands a pic- 



* This term is used to signify that distance which melts 

 into the horizon. 



