This, and other parts of Painshill seem to have been formed on the precept contained in the well-known lines of Tasso, in his description of the garden of Armida:

E quel che'l bello e'l caro accresce a l'opre,
L'arte che tutto fa, nulla si scopre.

Mr. Hamilton, however, is one of the very few who have profited by it: for although no precept be more generally admitted in theory than that of concealing the art which is employed, none has been less observed in practice. It is true, however, that it must not be too strictly followed in all cases; and thar like other excellent rules, it has its exceptions. Every thing that belongs to buildings and architecture is manifestly artificial, and the concealment of art entirely out of the question: whatever therefore is connected with the mansion, should display a degree of art and of ornament, in proportion to its style and character; and I own my regret, that all the old decorations have been banished from an affectation of simplicity, and what

is called nature. It is obvious on the same principle, that all roads, walks, and communications immediately connected with the house, should be completely regular and uniform; and where a more extended part, as at Blenheim, is richly dressed with shrubs and exotics, and kept in the highest state of polished neatness, a regular walk of the same high polish is perfectly in character: but in other parts, not solely the more distant, but wherever there is any thing of natural wildness and intricacy in the scene, the improver should conceal himself like a judicious author, who sets his reader's imagination at work, while he seems not to be guiding, but exploring with him some new region. Among the numberless excellencies of Homer it is not the least, that he scarcely ever appears in his own person: you are engaged amidst the most interesting and striking scenes, and are carried on from one to another in such a manner, as to be totally unconscious of the consummate skill with which your route has been prepared and his

poem is the completest exemplification of Tasso's precept in a more exalted art. The improver (if I may be allowed to compare small things with great) should pursue the same line of conduct in his humbler art, though by a different process; and while he employs his whole skill to lead the spectator in the best direction, through the most interesting scenes, and towards the most striking points of view, and to facilitate his approach to them, he should not strive to confine him to one single route, and should often, where it is practicable, conceal his having made any route at all. There is our nature a repugnance to despotism even in trifles, and we are never so heartily pleased as when we appear to have made every discovery ourselves it is this sort of feeling, as opposed to the one which arises from what is plainly and avowedly artificial, that Tasso seems to indicate by

il bello e'l caro accresce a l'opre.

It is a feeling that I have more than once

experienced myself and observed in others, when after having been long confined to egular walks, however judiciously taken, we have enjoyed the dear delight of getting to some spot where there were no traces of art, and no other walk or communication than a sheep-track, or some foot-path winding among the thickets.

It is in such spots as those, that art, if it interfere at all, should most carefully conceal itself; and in such, a Mr. Hamilton would proceed with a very cautious hand : but whatever effect an acquaintance with the fine arts, or perhaps the precept of Tasso, or the example of Homer may have. had on such a mind as his, nothing of that kind has influenced those of professed improvers; and a style very different from that of Painshill has been exhibited at no very great distance from it, in a place begun I believe by Kent, and finished by Brown. A wood with many old trees cover ed with ivy, mixed with thickets of hollies, yews, and thorns; a wood, which Rousseau might have dedicated a la reverie, is so in

tersected by walks and green alleys all edged and bordered, that there is no escaping from them; they act like flappers in Laputa, and instantly wake you from any

dream of retirement. The borders of these walks are so thickly planted, and the rest of the wood so impracticable, that it seems as if the improver said, “You shall never wander from my walks; never exercise your own taste and judgment, never form your own compositions; neither your eyes nor your feet shall be allowed to stray from the boundaries I have traced:" a species of thraldom unfit for a free country.

There is, indeed, something despotic in the general system of improvement; all must be laid open; all that obstructs, levelled to the ground; houses, orchards, gardens, all swept away. Painting, on the contrary, tends to humanize the mind: where a despot thinks every person an intruder who enters his domain, and wishes to destroy cottages and pathways, and 'to reign alone, the lover of painting, considers the dwellings, the inhabitants, and the