unequal heights are an ornament to landscape, especially when they are partially concealed by thickets; while a neat post and rail, regularly continued round a field, and seen without any interruption, is one of the most unpicturesque, as being one of the most uniform of all boundaries.

But among all the objects of nature, there is none in which roughness and smoothness more strongly mark the distinction between the two characters, than in water. A calm, clear lake, with the reflections of all that surrounds it, viewed under the influence of a setting sun, at the close of an evening clear and serene as its own surface, is perhaps, of all scenes, the most congenial to our ideas of beauty in its strictest, and in its most general acceptation,

Nay though the scenery around should be the most wild and picturesque (I might almost say the most savage) every thing is so softened and melted together by the reflection of such a mirror, that the prevailing idea, even then, might possibly be that

of beauty, so long as the water itself was chiefly regarded. On the other hand, all water of which the surface is broken, and the motion abrupt and irregular, as universally accords with our ideas of the picturesque; and whenever the word is mentioned, rapid and stony torrents and waterfalls, and waves dashing against rocks, are among the first objects that present themselves to our imagination. The two characters also approach and balance each other, as roughness or smoothness, as gentle undulation or abruptness prevail.

Among trees, it is not the smooth young beech, nor the fresh and tender ash, but the rugged old oak, or knotty wych elm that are picturesque: nor is it necessary they should be of great bulk; it is sufficient if they are rough, mossy, with a character of age, and with sudden variations in their forms. The limbs of huge trees shattered by lightning or tempestuous winds, are in the highest degree picturesque; but whatever is caused by those dreaded powers of

destruction, must always have a tincture of the sublime*.

If we next take a view of those animals that are called picturesque, the same qualities will be found to prevail. The ass is generally thought to be more picturesque than the horse; and among horses, it is the wild and rough forester, or the wornout cart-horse to which that title is applied. The sleek pampered steed, with his

There is a simile in Ariosto, in which the two characters are finely united:

Quale stordito, et stupido aratore,

Poi ch'e passato il fulmine, si leva

Di la, dove l'altissimo fragore

Presso agli uccisi buoi steso l'aveva ;

Che mira sensa fronde, et senza onore,

Il Pin che da lontan veder soleva,

Tal si levo'l Pagano.

Milton seems to have thought of this simile; but the sublimity both of his subject and of his own genius, made him reject those picturesque circumstances, the variety of which, while it amuses, distracts the mind, and has kept it fixed on a few grand and awful images:

As when heaven's fire
Has scath'd the forest oaks, or mountain pines,
With singed top their stately growth tho' bare,
Stands on the blasted heath.

high arched crest and flowing mane, is fre quently represented in painting; but his prevailing character, whether there, or in reality, is that of beauty.

In pursuing the same mode of inquiry with respect to other animals, we find that the Pomeranian, and the rough water-dog, are more picturesque than the smooth spaniel, or the greyhound; the shaggy goat than the sheep: and these last are more so when their fleeces are ragged and worn away in parts, than when they are of equal thickness, or when they have lately been shorn. No animal indeed is so constantly introduced in landscape as the sheep, but that, as I observed before, does not prove superior picturesqueness; and I imagine, that besides their innocent character, so suited to pastoral scenes of which they are the natural inhabitants, it arises from their being of a tint at once brilliant and mellow, which unites happily with all objects; and also from their producing when in groups, however slightly the detail may be expressed, broader masses of light and shadow than any other animal. The

reverse of this is true with regard to deer: their general effect in groups, is comparatively meagre and spotty; but their wild appearance, their lively action, their sudden bounds, and the intricacy of their branching horns, are circumstances in the highest degree picturesque.

Wild and savage animals, like scenes of the same description, have generally a marked and picturesque character: and as such scenes are less strongly impressed with that character when all is calm and serene, than when the clouds are agitated and variously tossed about, so whatever may be the appearance of any animal in a tranquil state, it becomes more picturesque, when suddenly altered by the influence of some violent emotion; and it is curious to observe how all that disturbs inward calm, produces a correspondent roughness with out. The bristles of the chafed and foaming boar the quills on the fretful porcupine-are suddenly raised by sudden emotion; and the angry lion exhibits the same picturesque marks of rage and fierceness,

Παν δε τ' επισκυνιον κατω ἕλκεται οσσε καλυπτων.