LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
371 
mefcry and regularity. An antique cottage, with its usual accompani¬ 
ments—its mossy thatch-pointed gables, dormer windows, overhanging 
trees, and rustic porch and fence—is truly picturesque, and often 
arrests the wandering eye, when buildings of a more substantial and 
respectable appearance are disregarded. In a ruined cathedral or 
abbey is displayed the triumph of the picturesque; and its charms to 
a painter’s eye are often so great as to rival those of beauty itself. 
A cubical pile of stone or brick work, destitute of any projecting 
members, whether the house be large or small, (though the larger the 
building may be, the worse,) is lumpish, and, in the eye of taste, is 
positively ugly. 
Stagnant water in a muddy ditch or pool, covered with green scum, 
and filled with rushes and noxious weeds, is naturally disgusting and 
offensive. 
Picturesque trees are such as have arrived at their full stature, and 
are verging to decay, having parts of their tf spreading honours” dead 
or mutilated, the bark rugged, and fringed with moss and shaggy 
lichens. Of such, the British oaks show this character most frequently, 
more especially when they stand singly on the banks of streams or 
high roads, or on naked heaths, and have been scathed by lightning. 
Other trees are naturally picturesque in outline, such as the cedar of 
Lebanon, the weeping elm, and some others. 
Picturesque animals are, the ass, the camel, goat, Pomeranian dog, 
and the lion with his shaggy mane. The eagle, and almost all large 
birds of prey, are picturesque objects; for, however smooth their 
plumage and varied their colours, the crooked form of their beaks 
and talons detracts from any impression that may be had of their 
beauty. 
Among our own species, the manner and condition of the dress make 
very great differences. Beggars, gipsies, and all such rough tattered 
figures as are merely picturesque, bear a close analogy, in all the quali¬ 
ties that make them so, to old hovels and mills, to the wild forest horse, 
and other objects of the same kind. 
If from nature we turn to that art from which the expression itself 
is taken, we shall find all the principles of picturesqueness confirmed. 
The pictures of some of the great masters are known by their pecu¬ 
liarly picturesque style, their abrupt and rugged forms, sudden devia¬ 
tions, and the rough and broken touches of their pencil in characterising 
the objects they represent. 
“ Picturesqueness, therefore, appears to hold a middle station be¬ 
tween beauty and sublimity, and on that account, perhaps, is more 
frequently and more happily blended with them both than they are 
