SECTION VIII.

DISTANT FOREST SCENERY.

HE permanent beauties of a distant woody scene arise, first, from its form. There is as much variety in the form of a distant wood as in that of a single tree. We

sometimes see continuous woods

stretching along the horizon without any break. All seems of equal growth; the summit of the wood is contained

under one straight line. This, except in very remote distance, is formal, heavy, and disgusting. The shape of distant woods is then only picturesque when it is broken by a varied line. This variation is, in some degree, occasioned by the different sizes of trees; but as the

size of trees where the distance is great has little effect, it is chiefly, and most essentially, occasioned by the inequalities of the ground.

A regular line at the base of a long range of woody scenery is almost as disgusting as at the summit of it. The woods must in some parts approach nearer the eye, and in other parts retire, forming the appearance of bays and promontories. At least, this is the most beautiful shape in which they appear. Sometimes, indeed, the inequalities of the ground prevent the eye from seeing the base of the wood; for, as the base is connected with the ground, it is commonly more obscured than the summit, which ranges along the sky.

All square, round, picked, or other formal shapes in distant woods are disgusting.

There should not only be breaks, but contrast also between the several breaks of a distant forest scene. A line regularly varied disgusts as

much as an unvaried one.

Among the permanent beauties of distant woods, may be reckoned also the various kinds of trees, of which they are often composed.

Unless the distance be great, this mixture has its effect in the variety it produces both in form and colour. Large bodies of Fir also, and other species of Pines, have often a rich appearance, in a distance, among deciduous trees; but they must be Scotch Firs, Pinasters, Cluster Pines, or other clump-headed trees. The spiry-headed race, the Spruce Fir, the Silver Fir, and the Weymouth Pine, have here, too, as well as in the clump, a bad effect. Single they are sometimes beautiful; or two or three of them, here and there, by way of contrast, in large plantations, may be picturesque; but I think they are never so in large bodies. In general, however, the picturesque eye is little curious with regard to the kind of trees which compose a distant scene, for there are few kinds which do not harmonize together. It matters more, in this bold style of landscape, that the masses, of each different kind, should be large. The opposition is then strongly marked, and the contrast striking. If different trees are grouped in small bodies, the effect is totally lost in distance.

The last species of permanent beauty which we

take notice of in

distant forest scenery arises

from works of art. We mean not the embellishments of art, but such rude works as may almost be styled the works of Nature--the productions of convenience rather than of taste. We certainly draw the most picturesque objects from the grand store-house of Nature, though we condescend to admit artificial objects also; but, when they are admitted in this class, they must always be of the rough rather than of the polished kind.

Such objects we often meet with in the wild scenes of the forest,-spires, towers, lodges, bridges, cattle-sheds, cottages, winding pales, and other things of the same kind, which have often as beautiful an effect when seen at a distance, as we have just observed they have when sparingly met with in the internal parts of a forest. Only, the nearer the object is, we expect its form must be the more picturesque. Distance, no doubt, hides defects; and many an object may appear well in a remove, which, brought nearer, would disgust the eye.

SECTION IX.

SCENERY AFFECTED BY THE WEATHER.

the earth.

AVING thus considered what may properly be called the permanent beauties of distant forest scenery, we proceed to its incidental beauties. These arise principally from two causes the weather and the As both are changeable, they both produce various appearances. The former affects chiefly the sky, the latter

seasons.

The weather is a fruitful source of incidental beauty; and there are few states of it which do not impress some peculiar and picturesque character on landscape, to which it gives the leading tint. A country is chiefly affected by the

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