exclusively into his landscapes, and who even in his designs for Spencer, whose scenes were so often laid,

infra l'ombrose piante

D'antica selva,

still kept to his little beeches, must have had a more paltry mind than falls to the common lot: it must also have been as perverse as it was paltry; for as he painted trees without form, so he planted them without life, and seems to have imagined that circumstance alone would compensate for want of bulk, of age, and of grandeur of character.

I may here observe, that it is almost impossible to remove a large old tree, with all its branches, spurs, and appendages; and without such qualities as greatness of size, joined to an air of grandeur and of high antiquity, a dead tree should seldom if ever be left, especially in a conspicuous place; to entitle it to such a station, it should be " majestic even in ruin:" a dead tree which could be moved, would, from that very circumstance, be unfit for moving. Those of Kent's, were probably placed

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where they would attract the eye; for it is rare that any improver wishes to conceal his efforts.

If I have spoken thus strongly of a man, who has been celebrated in prose and in verse as the founder of an art almost peculiar to this country, and from which it is supposed to derive no slight degree of glory, I have done it to prevent (as far as it lies in me) the bad effect which too great a veneration for first reformers is sure to produce that of interesting national vanity, in the continuance and protection of their errors. The task which I have taken upon myself, has been in all ages invidious and unpopular: with regard to Kent, however, I thought it particularly incumbent upon me to shew that he was not one of those great original geniuses, who, like Michael Angelo, seem born to give the world more enlarged and exalted ideas of art; but, on the contrary,

that in the art he did profess, and from which he might be supposed to have derived su• perior lights with respect to that of gardening, his ideas were uncommonly mean, contracted, and perverse. Were I not to

shew this plainly and strongly, and without any affected candour or reserve, it might be said to me with great reasonyou assert that a knowledge of the principles of painting is the first qualification for an improver; the founder of English gardening was a professed artist, and yet you object to him!

Kent, it is true, was by profession a painter, as well as an improver; but we may learn from his example, how little a certain degree of mechanical practice will qualify its possessor, to direct the taste of a nation in either of those arts.

The most enlightened judge, both of his own art, and of all that relates to it, is a painter of a liberal and comprehensive mind, who has added extensive observation and reflection, to practical execution; and if in addition to those natural and acquired talents, he likewise possess the power of expressing his ideas clearly and forcibly in words, the most capable of enlightening others to such a rare combination we owe Sir Joshua Reynolds's dis

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courses, the most original and impressive work that ever was published on his, or possibly on any art. On the other hand, nothing so contracts the mind, as a little practical dexterity, unassisted and uncorrected by general knowledge and observation, and by a study of the great masters. An artist, whose mind has been so contracted, refers every thing to the narrow circle of his own ideas and execution, and wishes to confine within that circle all the rest of mankind*.

Before I enter into any particulars, I will make a few observations on what I look upon as the great general defect of the present system; not as opposed to the old style, which I believe, however, to have been infinitely more free from it, but con

* I remember a gentleman who played very prettily on the flute, abusing all Handel's music; and to give me every advantage, like a generous adversary, he defied me to name one good chorus of his writing. It may well be supposed that I did not accept the challenge; c'étoit bien l'embarras des richesses and indeed he was right in his own way of considering them, for there is not one that would do well for his instrument.

sidered by itself singly, and without comparison. That defect, the greatest of all, and the most opposite to the principles of painting, is want of connection-a passion for making every thing distinct and separate. All the particular defects which I shall have occasion to notice, in some degree arise from, and tend towards this original sin.

Whoever has examined with attention the landscapes of eminent painters, must have observed how much art and study they have employed, in contriving that all the objects should have a mutual relation ; that nothing should be detached in such a manner as to appear totally insulated and unconnected, but that there should be a sort of continuity throughout the whole. He must have remarked how much is effected, where the style of scenery admits of it, by their judicious use of every kind of vegetation, from the loftiest trees through all their different growths, down to the lowest plants; so that nothing should be crowded, nothing bare; no heavy uniform