cation. It follows, that a gentleman who, from long refidence, is fully acquainted with the former, and whofe will is a rule to the latter, is the propereft perfon to improve his own place ;-provided he be intimately acquainted with the rtas well as with the place and the purpose: the three are equally and effentially neceflary to be underftood. It would be as great an impropriety, in a gentleman, to fet about the execution of a work of this nature, upon a large fcale, before he had acquired a comprehenfive knowledge of the subject, ftudied its leading principle from Nature, made ample obfervation upon places already ornamented, and had established his theory by fome actual practice, at least upon a fmall feale,—as it would be, in a profeffional artift, to hazard his own reputation, and rifque the property of his employer, before he had ftudied, maturely, the nature of the place, and had been made fully fenfible of the intentions of its owner.

THE nature and ftyle of improvement,—the purpoje,-depends entirely upon the intention and tafte of the proprietor, and is, confequently, as various, as the nature of places themfelves: neverthelefs, improvements in general may be claffed under the following heads:

THE HUNTING BOX,

THE ORNAMENTED COTTAGE,

THE

THE VILLA, and

THE PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE.

BUT, before we enter upon the detail, it will bę proper to make fome general obfervations.

It is unneceffary to repeat, that wherever Nature, or accident, has already adapted the place to the intended purpose, the affiftance of Art is precluded: but wherever Nature is improveable, Art has an undoubted right to ftep in, and make the requifite improvement. The diamond, in its natural state, is improveable by art.

IN the lower claffes of rural improvements, Art fhould be feen as little as may be ; and, in the more negligent fcenes of Nature, every thing ought to appear, as if it had been done by the general laws of Nature, or had grown out of a feries of fortuitous circumstances. But, in the higher departments, Art cannot be hid; and the appearance of defign ought not to be excluded. A human production cannot be made perfectly natural; and, held out as fuch, it becomes an impofition. Our art lies in endeavouring to adapt the productions of Nature to human taste and perception; and, if much art be used, let us not attempt to hide it. Who confiders an accomplished well dreffed woman as in a ftate of Nature? and who, feeing a beautiful ground adorned

adorned with wood and lawn, with water, bridges, and buildings, believes it to be a natural production? Art feldom fails to please when executed in a masterly manner: nay, it is frequently the defign and execution, more than the production itself, that strikes us. It is the artifice, not the defign, which ought to be avoided. It is the labour, and not the art, which ought to be concealed. A well written poem would be read with lefs pleasure, if we knew the painful exertions it gave rise to in the compofition; and the rural artift ought, upon every occafion, to endeavour to avoid labour; or, if indifpenfably neceffary, to conceal it. No trace fhould be left to lead back the mind to the expenfive toil. A mound raised, a mountain levelled, or a useless temple built, convey to the mind feelings equally disgusting.

Bur though the aids of Art are as effential to Rural Ornament, as education is to manners; yet Art may do too much: fhe ought to be confidered as the handmaid, not as the mistress, of Nature : and whether the be employed in carving a tree into the figure of an animal, or in fhaping a view into the form of a picture, fhe is equally culpable. The nature of the place is facred. Should this tend to landscape, from fome principal point of view, affist Nature, and perfect it; provided this can be done without injuring the views from other points.

points. But do not disfigure the natural features of the place;-do not facrifice its native beauties to the arbitrary laws of landscape painting.

Great Nature fcorns controul; she will not bear
One beauty foreign to the fpot or foil

She gives thee to adorn: 'Tis thine alone

To mend, not change her features.

MASON.

In a picture bounded by its frame, a perfect landscape is looked for: it is of itself a whole, and the frame must be filled. But it is not fo in orna mented Nature: for, if a fide-fcreen be wanting, the eye is not offended with the frame, or the wainfcot; but has always fome natural, and often pleafing object to receive it. Suppofe a room to be hung with one continued rural representation,—would diftinct pictures be expected? would correct landscapes be looked for? Nature scarcely knows the thing mankind call a landscape. The landscape painter feldom, if ever, finds it perfected to his hands;-fome addition or alteration is almost always wanted. Every man, who has made his obfervations upon natural fcenery, knows that the Milletoe of the Oak occurs almoft as often as a perfectly natural landscape; and to attempt to make up artificial landscape, upon every occafion, is unnatural, and abfurd,

IT

Ir is far from our intention to intimate any thing the least disrespectful to landscape painting: let the ingenious artist cull from Nature her choiceft beauties, and let him affociate them, in the manner best fuited to his own fingle, and permanent point of view but do not let us carry his production back again to Nature, and contract her unbounded beauties within the limits of a picture frame. If, indeed, the eye were fixed in one point, the trees could be raised to their full height at command, and the fun be made to ftand ftill,-the rural artist might work by the rules of light and fhade, and compofe his landscape by the painter's law. But, while the fun continues to pour forth its light impartially, and the trees to rife with flow progreffion, it would be ridiculous to attempt it. Let him rather feek out, imitate, and affociate, fuch STRIKING PASSAGES IN NATURE, as are immediately applicable to the place to be improved, without regard to rules of landfcape, merely human ;and let him,

in this and all

Be various, wild, and frec, as Nature's felf." MASON.

Inflead of facrificing the natural beauties of the place to one formal landscape, let every ftep difciofe fresh charms unfought for. How ftrikingly beautiful the changes formed by the islands, and their refpective mountains, in failing through the

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