of a different kind-the ragged borders of the lake, the wreathed roots of an aged tree, the high-banked lane, the lines tharpened by abrupt finuofities. In objection to this we obferved, that the fcene at home is ufually expected to be adorned with greater neatness; that there we seek repose; that the irregularities which the picturefque requires fatigue the eye and ruffle the pleafing calm which we expect near our habitations. Having premifed thefe leading points, which are applicable to the author's doctrines and our opinions in this article, we will follow the elegant and ingenious effays in a line as smoothly flowing as Mr. Brown himfelf could have devifed, and as diftant from the fharp returns, the picturefque poignancy of criticifm, as even Mr. Price could with. The firft effay is on artificial water. It is truly excellent, and may be read with advantage even by a follower of Mr. Brown. In fact, a lake muft always be in fome degree artificial; for it must be at least kept to an uniform level, and the rival fyftems will differ only with refpect to the outline, whether it fhould be fmoothly polished or left in its natural ruggedness. The broken rock, the half-difcovered antique root, &c. certainly depend on the nature of the furrounding fcenery; and our author, when he fpeaks of these in such general terms, falls into as great an error as his antagonist, who would clump a foreft and polith a mountain. Yet Mr. Price's ideas of adorning the ufual fmooth regularity of thefe artificial lakes, under fome restrictions, are very ingenious. It may be objected to the ftyle I have recommended, that, from the aukward attempts at picturefque effect, fuch fantaftic works would often be produced, as might force us to regret even the prefent monotony. I have no doubt, that very diverting performances in roots, ftones, and rock-work, would be produced, and that alone I fhould reckon as no little gain; for who would not prefer an abfurd, but laughable farce, to a flat infipid piece of five acts? There is, however, another very effential difference. In a made river there is fuch an incorrigible dulnefs, that unless the banks them felves be totally altered, the moft judicious planting will not entirely get the better of it: but let the most whimsical improver make banks with roots, ftones, rocks, grottos, caverns, of every odd and fantaftic form, even thefe, by means of trees, bushes, trailing plants, and of vegetation in general, may in a fhort time have their abfurdities in a great degree difguifed, and ftill under that difguife, be the caufe of many varied and ftriking effects: how much more fo, if the fame materials were difpofed by a skilful artist ! There are, indeed, fuch advantages arifing from the moisture and vegetation, which generally attend the near banks of water, that even quarry flones fimply placed againft a bank, however crude their firft appearance, foon become picturesque; moffes and weather, ftains (the certain confequence of moisture), soon enrich and diverfify their furface, while plants of different kinds fpring forth between their feparations, and crawl and hang over them in various directions. If ftones thus placed upright like a wall, nay if a wall itself, may by means of fuch accompaniments have an effect, what an infinite number of pleafing and ftriking combinations might be made, were an improver, with the eye of a painter, to search for ftones of fuch forms and tints as he could employ to most advantage! were he at the fame time, likewife to avail himself of fome of those beautiful, but lefs common flowering and climbing plants, which in general are only planted in borders, or against walls! we fee what rich mixtures are formed on rocky banks, by common heaths and furze alone, or with the addition of wild rofes and wood-bines; what new combinations might then be made in many places with the Virginia creeper, periploca, trailing arbutus, &c. which though, perhaps, not more beautiful, would have a new and more dreffed appearance! Many of the choice American plants of low growth, and which love shade, fuch as kalmeas, and rhododendrons, by having the mould they moft delight in placed to the north, on that fort of shelf which is often feen between a lower and an upper ledge of rocks, would be as likely to flourish as in a garden: and it may here be remarked, that when plants are placed in new fituations, with new accompaniments, half banging over one mafs of itone, and backed by another, or by a mixture of rock, foil, and wild vegetation, they aflume fo new a character, such a novelty and brilliancy in their appearance, as can hardly be conceived by those who only fee them in a fhrubbery, or a botanical garden. In warmer aspects, especially in the more southern parts of England, bignonias, paffion-flowers, &c. imight often grow luxuriantly amidft fimilar accompaniments; thefe we have always feen nailed against walls, and have but little idea of their effect, or even of that of vines and jeffamines, when loofely hanging over rocks, and ftones, or over the dark coves which might be made among them.' P. 46. In the management of water, as leading the eye to beau-, tiful objects, and concealing thofe lefs pleafing to which the attention would be otherwife led, as well as in the management of a natural river, Mr. Price difplays an accurate and refined tafte. But, in the banks of his artificial water, he fill wishes to leave the little angles, the miniature bays and promontories, the fringe of rufhes or of plants, which, we think, give the appearance of carele ffnets and neglect. We mutt ftill recur to our original principle, that, at home, all fhould be ornamented and polished, but, at a diftance, more wild and picturesque in every country the garden fcenery is oppófed to that around; and, when inclofures were comparatively few, our garden plots were divided by ftraight lines. The now furround us, and of courfe we arrange our gardens dif ferently. On the whole, with the exception of our author's principle, his hobby-horse, which he often rides with little mercy, we have been highly pleafed with this effay. We before noticed fome of his digreffions fcattered in the notes. They are more numerous than in the former volume, and they are often highly interefting. We fhall felect one which has much pleafed us. An unexpected excurfus of this kind varies the fcenery, and renders our author's picturesque ideas still more entertaining. All that part of the fable which relates to the form and pofition of the Cyclops' eye, is by many fuppofed to have been invented fince the time of Homer: it is certain that he is perfectly filent with refpect to them both. Some of his moft diligent interpreters. have alfo thought that he never intended to reprefent Polyphemus as having been originally of a different formation from other men, but merely as having loft an eye by fome accident; and at Catanea, in Sicily, there is a fculpture in relief, which does represent him according to this idea. I must own, that notwithstanding these authorities, I am still inclined to think, that Homer did mean to reprefent the Cyclops in general, as a one-eyed race by nature, whatever may have been his notion of the form and pofition of that one eye. There is a paffage in Strabo which clearly proves that he was of that opinion: fpeaking of Homer's mixing truth. with falfehood, he fays, that he probably borrowed тes μovoμateS nunλwas, from the history of the Arimaspians. I lately, alfo, heard an obfervation which strongly influenced my opinion. At the time I was writing this note, I mentioned the subject of it in company with fome friends of mine, very much verfed in all claffical learning. One of them, whose words in public and private have such weight, that the flighteft of them are recollected, faid, he was perfuaded that Polyphemus never had more than one eye; for if he had ever had two, Homer would not have omitted telling us how he had loft one of them. This remark, though flightly thrown out, ftruck me as containing great juftnefs of obfervation, and great knowledge of Homer's character. But though Homer is filent as to the form and position of the eye, both these circumftances, as likewife the etymology of the name, Cyclops, are mentioned with remarkable exactnefs in the Theogony; a poem afcribed to Hesiod, but which, I believe, is generally thought to be pofterior both to him or Homer. • Μούνος δ' οφθαλμός μεσσῳ επέκειτο μετωπῳ Euripides, who has written a whole play on the fubject of the Cyclops, fays nothing of the form of the eye, and very slightly alludes to its pofition; with regard to the latter, Ovid has in two pafLages followed Heliod very exactly. Whatever may be thought of the merit of this invention in poetry, it has certainly furnished a very bad monster in painting; for the artifts who have reprefented a Cyclops, have placed the eye, not merely in the middle of the face (which possibly μerwяov, as well as frons, might, with a little licence, be fuppofed to fignify,) but in the exact middle of the forehead, confidered feparately. Callimachus, and, after him, Virgil, have given a much more picturefque image · Τοισι δ' ὑπ' οφρυν Φαεα μεν γληνα, σακεί ισα τετρακοειῳ Callimach. Hymnus in Dianam. 'Ingens, quod folum torvâ fub fronte latebat Eneid, Book 3. the exact reverse of an eye in the moft open and confpicuous part of the face. Theocritus dwells particularly on the thickness and the continued length of the eye-brow - Λασία μεν όφρύς επί παντι μετώπῳ, Εξ ωτος τέταται ποτι ωτερον ως μια μακρα. From these descriptions, added to the general character in Homer, a much less unnatural, and, at the fame time, a more terrific monfter might have been produced, even fuppofing the popular fable to be in a great measure adopted. The eye might for inftance be made central and round; but be placed, according to the authorities I have juft quoted, under the forehead. Such an eye, half concealed by the overhanging eyebrow, and dreadfully gleaming from beneath it, would give a portentous character; yet ftill, being fo accompanied, and being placed, if not in the ufual fituation, at leaft in the ufual line, would not, as I conceive, have that appearance of ftupid blindnefs, which a Polypheme in painting (before his adventure with Ulyffes) always prefents. That appearance I take to arife, not folely from a position of the eye, fo different, and fo diftant from its ufual fituation, but also, because the painters have marked the fockets of the two eyes, probably from finding, that when the whole space between the brow and the cheek was filled up, the face loft its form, and became a shapeless lump: and yet, on the other hand, when the sockets of the eyes are ever fo flightly indicated, it is impoffible not to look there for the organs of fight; and not finding them there, the idea of blindness is unavoidably impreffed. Now, I believe, that if a fingle eye were placed immediately above the nofe, and under the brow, and no indication were made of other fockets, that fingle eye would, in that cafe, give the idea of vifion.. Then the one, contisued, fhaggy, eyebrow, fo ftrongly and diftin&tly exprefied by The critus, which feems to favour the idea of an eye in the centre, would, above all things, give a dark and favage look to the giant cannibal: for the mere junction of the eyebrows is faid to have given un air finiftre to marshal Turenne; a man hardly lefs famed for the mildnefs of his nature than for his fkill and valour in war. 6 • Although I have on a former occafion disclaimed any critical knowledge of the Greek language, I must add to this long note, by making an acknowledgment of the fame kind. I fhould be forry to be fufpected of making a parade of erudition, if I really were poffeffed of any; much more, having no fuch pretenfions. I thought. the fubject new and curious; I wished to collect, and to communicate whatever might throw light upon it; and I have on this, as on many other occafions, received great affiftance from my ingenious and learned friends.' P. 114. The fecond effay relates to the decorations near the houfe; in other words, the garden. We here expected to meet with fome foftening of Mr. Price's rigour refpecting the picturefque. We fondly hoped, that he would have admitted a little regularity of finoothed, nicely cut edges of the turf, and the grafs foft and matted by frequent mowing. We find, indeed, in different parts, a little relaxation in admitting the trimmed walk of gravel, as this is in general artificial; but the palinodia, if intended, is not very fatisfactory. We receive, however, ample amends. The modern fyftem of placing the infulated houfe on a lawn, as if brought by genii from a more characteristic fituation, is juftly and feverely reprehended. In its naked majefty it feems mifplaced, for even the den of a brute is furrounded by its kindred foreft. The remarks on the Italian gardens are interefting; but we fufpect that our author's predilection arifes in part from having feen them in a decaying ftate, when the varied difcolourations of the marble and the neglected trees gave a picturefque appearance and form to what might have been originally too exact for the painter's tafte; as his preference of the paved terrace with the parapet is more obviously connected with the breaks arifing from decay. Indeed an early predilection for a garden in the old form may have reconciled him to the flights of steps, terraces, &c. From the fame fource, he feems to derive the preference for the ancient upright fountains, and we cannot forbear tranferibing fome digreffive remarks on this subject. The abbé de Lille, who has very pointedly ridiculed the little fountain, and the ftatues in a citizen's garden, and all fuch attempts to be magnificent in miniature, has done juftice to the real magnificence and fplendour of those on a large scale, and has celebrated them in verfes well fuited to the effects he has defcribed. Mr. Mafon, on the other hand, has altogether condemned upright founBains with their decorations, and the principle on which they are |