' before the painter's eyes, and group themselves ' to animate his picture. One misfortune in truth 'there is, that throws a difficulty on the artist. A * principal beauty in our gardens is the lawn and ' smoothness of turf: in a picture it becomes a 'dead and uniform spot, incapable of chiaro scuro, ' and to be broken insipidly by children, dogs, ' and other unmeaning figures.

'SINCE We have been familiarized to the study ⚫ of landscape, we hear less of what delighted our sportsmen ancestors, a fine open country. Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and such ocean-like extents, 'were formerly preferred to the rich blue prospects ' of Kent, to the Thames-watered views in Berkshire, and to the magnificent scale of Nature in Yorkshire. An open country is but a canvas on which a landscape might be designed.

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'It was fortunate for the country and Mr. Kent, that he was succeeded by a very able master; ⚫ and did living artists come within my plan, I • should be glad to do justice to Mr. Brown; but ' he may be a gainer, by being reserved for some • abler

pen.

In general, is is probably true, that the possessor, if he has any taste, must be the best designer of his own improvements. He sees his

* situation in all seasons of the year, at all times of the day. He knows where beauty will not clash ' with convenience, and observes in his silent 'walks or accidental rides a thousand hints that 'must escape a person who in a few days sketches ' out a pretty picture, but has not had leisure to • examine the details and relations of every part.

• TRUTH, which, after the opposition given to * most revolutions, preponderates at last, will probably not carry our style of garden into general use on the continent. The expence is only • suited to the opulence of a free country, where • emulation reigns among many independent par•ticulars. The keeping of our grounds is an 'obstacle, as well as the cost of the first formation. A flat country, like Holland, is incapable of landscape. In France and Italy the nobility do ⚫ not reside much, and make small expence, at 'their villas. I should think the little princes of Germany, who spare no profusion on their pa⚫laces and country houses, most likely to be our ⚫ imitators; especially as their country and climate bears, in many parts, resemblance to ours. In

France, and still less in Italy, they could with difficulty attain that verdure which the humidity ⚫ of our clime bestows as the ground-work of our improvements. As great an obstacle in France is the embargo laid on the growth of their trees,

"As, after a certain age, when they would rise to

bulk, they are liable to be marked by the crown's surveyors as royal timber, it is a curiosity to see an old tree. A landscape and a crown-surveyor ' are incompatible.'

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DIVISION THE SECOND.

PRINCIPLES OF THE RURAL ART.

SECTION THE FIRST.,

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

ARTS, merely imitative, have but one principle to work by, the nature, or actual state, of the thing to be imitated. In works of design and invention, another principle takes the lead, which is taste. And in every work, in which mental gratification is not the only object, a third principle arises, utility, or the concurrent purpose for which the production is intended.

THE RURAL ART is subject to these three principles: to nature, as being an imitative art; to utility, as being productive of objects, which are useful, as well as ornamental; and to taste, in the choice of fit objects to be imitated, and of fit pur

poses to be pursued; as also in the composition of the several objects and ends proposed, so as to produce the degree of gratification and use, best suited to the place, and to the purpose for which it is about to be ornamented: thus, a Hunting Box and a Summer Villa,-an Ornamented Cottage and a Mansion, require a different style of ornament, a different choice of objects, a different taste. Nor can taste be confined to nature and utility,—the place and the purpose, alone; the object of the Polite Arts is the gratification of the human mind, and the state of refinement, of the mind itself, must be considered. Men's notions vary, not only in different ages, but individually in the same age: what would have gratified mankind, a century ago, in this country, will not please them now; while the Country Squire and the Fine Gentleman of the present day require a different kind of gratification; nevertheless, under these various circumstances, every thing may be natural, and every thing adapted to the place; the degree of refinement constituting the principal difference.

We do not mean to enter into any argument, about whether a state of rusticity, or a state of refinement, whether the forest, or the city, be the state for which the Author of Nature intended the human species: mankind are now found in every state, and in every stage of savageness, rusticity,