mean, however, that variety which arises from the manner in which these evergreens may be disposed, not from the number of distinct species. I have indeed often observed in forests, so many combinations and picturesque effects produced merely by oak, beech, thorns, and hollies, that one could hardly wish for more variety; on the other hand I have no less frequently found the most perfect monotony in point of composition and effect, where there was the greatest variety of trees: it put me in mind of what is mentioned of the more ancient Greek painters; that with only four colours, they did, what in the more degenerate days of the art, could not be performed with all the aid of chemistry.

Variety, of which the true end is to relieve the eye, not to perplex it, does not consist in the diversity of separate objects, but in that of their effects when combined together; in diversity of composition, and of character. Many think, however, they have obtained that grand object, when

they have exhibited in one body all the hard names of the Linnæan system*; but when as many different plants as can well be got together, are exhibited in every shrubbery, or in every plantation, the re sult is a sameness of a different kind, but not less truly a sameness, than would arise from there being no diversity at all; for there is no having variety of character, without a certain distinctness, without certain marked features on which the eye can dwell.

In forests and woody commons, we sometimes come from a part where hollies had chiefly prevailed, to another where junipers

* In a botanical light, such a collection is extremely curious and entertaining; but it is about as good a specimen of variety in landscape, as a line of Lilly's grammar would be of variety in poetry:

Et postis, vectis, vermis societur et axis.

A collection of hardy exotics may also be considered as a very valuable part of the improver's pallet, and may suggest many new and harmonious combinations of colours; but then he must not call the pallet a picture.

or yews are the principal evergreens; and where, perhaps, there is the same sort of change in the deciduous underwood. This strikes us with a new impression; but mix them equally together in all parts, and diversity becomes a source of monotony.

One great cause of the superior variety and richness of unimproved parks and forests, when compared with lawns and dressed grounds, and of their being so much more admired by painters, is, that the trees and groups are seldom totally alone and unconnected; that they seldom exhibit either of those two principal defects in the composition of landscapes, the opposite extremes of being too crouded, or too scattered: whereas the clump is a most unhappy union of them both; it is scattered in respect to the general composition, and close and lumpish when considered by itself.

Single trees, when they stand alone and are round-headed, have some tendency towards the defects of the clump; and it is

worthy of remark, that in the Liber Veritatis of Claude, consisting of nearly two hundred drawings, there are not, I believe, more than three single trees. This is one strong proof, which the works of other painters would fully confirm, that those who most studied the effect of visible objects, attended infinitely less to their distinct individual forms, than to their grouping and connection.

The great sources of all that painters admire in natural scenery, are accident and neglect*; for in forests and old parks, the rough bushes nurse up young trees, and grow up with them; and thence arises that infinite

* I remember hearing what I thought a just criticism on a part of Mr. Crabbe's poem of the Library: he has there personified Neglect, and given her the active employ." ment of spreading dust on books of ancient chivalry. But in producing picturesque effects, I begin to think her vis inertia is in many cases a very powerful agent.

Should this criticism induce any person who had not read the Library, to look at the part I have mentioned, 1 he will soon forget his motive for looking at it, in his admiration of one of the most animated, and highly poetical descriptions I ever read.

VOL. I.

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variety of openings, of inlets, of glades, of forms of trees, &c. The rudeness of many such scenes might be softened by a judicious style and degree of clearing and smoothing, without injuring, what might be successfully imitated in the most polished parts, their varied and intricate character.

Lawns are very commonly made by laying together a number of fields and meadows, which are generally cleared of every thing but the timber. When the hedges are taken away, it must be a great piece of luck, if the trees which were in them, and those which were scattered about the open parts, should so combine together, as to form a connected whole. The case is much more desperate, when a layer out of grounds has persuaded the owner,

To improve an old family seat,

By lawning a hundred good acres of wheat; for the insides of arable grounds have seldom any trees in them, and the hedges but few; and then clumps and belts are the usual resources.