Piccolomini

Pico.

to have been built 270 years before Christ by Peridurus, Pickering a king of the Britons, who was buried here. It had once a castle, the ruins of which are still to be seen; to whose jurisdiction many of the neighbouring villages were subject and the adjacent territory, commonly called Pickering-Lath, or the liberty or forest of Pickering, was given by Henry III. to his son Edmund earl of Lancaster. A court is kept here for all actions under 40s. arising within the honour of Pickering. PİCKERY, in Scots Law, petty theft, or stealing things of small value.

PICCOLOMINI, James, whose proper name was Ammanati, took that of Piccolomini in honour of his patron Pius II. He was born in a village near Lucca in 1422. Pickering. He became bishop of Massa, afterwards of Frescati; a cardinal in 1461, under the name of Cardinal de Pavie; and died in 1479, at the age of 57, of an indigestion of figs. He left 8000 pistoles in the bankers hands, which Pope Sixtus IV. claimed; and of which he gave a part to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost. His works, which consist of some Letters, and a history of his own time, were printed at Milan, in 1521, in folio. His history, entitled Commentaries, commences the 18th of June 1464, and ends the 6th of December 1469. They may very properly be considered as a Sequel of Pope Pius II.'s Commentaries, which end with the year 1463.

PICCOLOMINI, ENEAS SYLVIUS. See PIUS II. PICENTIA, (Strabo, Pliny), the capital of the Picentini, whose territory, called Ager Picentinus, a small district, lay on the Tuscan sea, from the Promontorium Minerva, the south boundary of Campania on the coast, to the river Silarus, the north boundary of Lucania, extending within-land as far as the Samnites and Hirpini, though the exact termination cannot be assigned. The Greeks commonly confound the Pincentini and Picentes, but the Romans carefully distinguish them. The former, with no more than two towns that can be named, Silernum and Picentia; the situation of both doubtful: only Pliny says the latter stood withinland, at some distance from the sea. Now thought to be Bicenza, (Holstenius), in the Principato Citra of Naples.

PICENUM, (Cæsar, Pliny, Florus); PICENUS AGER, (Cicero, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus); Ager Picentium, (Varro): a territory of Italy, lying to the east of Umbria, from the Apennine to the Adriatic; on the coast extending from the river Aesis on the north, as far as the Prætutiani to the south. In the upper or northern part of their territory the Umbri excluded them from the Appennine, as far as Camerinum, (Strabo); but in the lower or southern part they extended from the Adriatic to the Apennine. A very fruitful territory, and very populous. Picentes, the people, (Cicero); from the singular Picens, (Livy): different from the Picentini on the Tuscan sea, though called so by the Greeks; but Ptolemy calls them Piceni, as does also Pliny. Their territory at this day is supposed to form the greatest part of the March of Ancona, (Cluverius).

PICHFORD, in the county of Salop in England; on the south-east side of Shrewsbury, near Condover. It is noted for a spring of pitchy water (from whence some derive its name), on the top of which there always flows a sort of liquid bitumen. Over most of the coal pits in this neighbourhood there lies a stratum of blackish rock; of which, by boiling and grinding, they make pitch and tar, and also distil an oil from it.

PICHINCHA, or PINCHINCA, a mountain in Peru. See PERU, N° 56.

PICKERING, in the north riding of Yorkshire in England, 13 miles from Scarborough, and 125 from London, is a pretty large town belonging to the duchy of Lancaster, on a bill among the wild mountains of Blakemore; having the forest of Pickering on the north, and Pickering-common on the south. It is said VOL. XVI. Part II.

PICKETS, in fortification, stakes sharp at one end, and sometimes shod with iron, used in laying out the ground, of about three feet long; but, when used for pinning the fascines of a battery, they are from three to five feet long.

PICKETS, in artillery, are about five or six feet long, shod with iron, to pin the park lines, in laying out the boundaries of the park.

PICKETS, in the camp, are also stakes of about six or eight inches long, to fasten the tent cords, in pitching the tents; also of about four or five feet long, driven into the ground near the tents of the horsemen, to tie their horses to.

PICKET, an out-guard posted before an army, to give notice of an enemy approaching.

PICKET, a kind of punishment so called, where a soldier stands with one foot upon a sharp-pointed stake; the time of his standing is limited according to the of fence.

PICKLE, a brine or liquor, commonly composed of salt, vinegar, &c. sometimes with the addition of spices, wherein meat, fruit, and other things, are preserved and seasoned.

PICO, one of the Azores islands, is so called from some lofty mountains on it; or rather from one very high mountain, terminating like Teneriffe in a peak, and reputed by some writers equal to it in height. This island lies about four leagues south-west from St George, twelve from Tercera, and about three leagues south-east of Fayal; in W. Long. 28. 21. and N. Lat. 38. 29. The mountain Pico, which gives name to the island, is filled with dismal dark caverns or volcanoes, which frequently vomit out flames, smoke, and ashes, to a great distance. At the foot of this mountain towards the east is a spring of fresh water, generally cold, but sometimes so heated with the subterraneous fire, as to rush forth in torrents with a kind of ebullition like boiling water; equalling that in heat, and sending forth a steam of sulphureous fetid vapours, liquefied stones, minerals, and flakes of earth, all on fire, in such quantities, and with such a violence, as to have formed a kind of promontory vulgarly called Mysterios, on the declivity of the coast, and at the distance of 1200 paces from the fountain. Such at least is the account of Ortelius; though we do not find this last circumstance of the promontory confirmed by later observations. The circumference of Pico is computed at about 15 leagues: and its most remarkable places are Pico, Lagoas, Santa Cruce or Cruz, San Sebastian, Pesquin, San Roko, Playa, and Magdalena; the inhabitants of which live wholly on the produce of the island, in great plenty and felicity. The cattle are various, numerous, and excellent in their several kinds: it is the same with the vine; and its juice, prepared into different wines, the best in the Azores. 3 Y

Besides

Besides cedar and other timber, they have a kind of wood which they call teixo, solid and hard as iron; and Pictet veined, when finely polished, like a rich scarlet tabby; which colour it has in great perfection. The longer it is kept, the more beautiful it grows: hence it is, that the teixo tree is felled only for the king's use or by his order; and is prohibited from being exported as a common article of trade.

vol xiii.

PICO Marina, a sea fish common at Kongo in Africa, derives its name from the resemblance of its mouth to Mod. Univ. the beak of a woodpecker. It is of large size, and History prodigious strength, has four fins on its back, three unP. 46. &c. der its belly, and one on each side of its head; its tail is large and forked, by which it cuts the waves with surprising force and velocity. It is at war with every fish that swims, and with every thing it meets in its way, without being intimidated by the largest vessels ; a surprising instance of which intrepidity, we are told by some missionaries, whose ship was attacked by one of them, near these coasts, in the dead of night. The violence of the shock which it gave to the vessel quickly awakened the captain and the rest of the people; who immediately ran to the ship's side, where they perceived, by moonlight, this huge monster fastened by its forehead to the vessel, and making the strongest efforts to disengage itself; upon which some of them tried to pierce him with their pikes, but he got off before they could accomplish their aim. On the next morning, upon visiting that side of the vessel, they found a piece of the bony snout stuck fast into the wood, and two or three inches of it projecting outwards. In the inside of the ship, there was discovered about five or six inches more of the point of the horn, which had penetrated through the plank. But we must observe, that the credulity of the times probably rendered this animal thus formidable. PICQUERING, flying war, or skirmish, made by soldiers detached from two armies for pillage, or before a main battle begins.

PICQUET, or PICKET. See PIQUET. PICRAMNIA, a genus of plants belonging to the diccia class; and in the natural method ranking with those that are doubtful. See BOTANY Index.

PICRANIA AMARA, or Bitter Wood, is a tall and beautiful timber tree, common in the woods of Jamaica, belonging to the pentandria class of plants. The name is expressive of its sensible qualities.

Every part of this tree is intensely bitter; and even after the tree has been laid for floors many years, whoever rubs or scrapes the wood, feels a great degree of bitterness in their mouth or throat. Cabinet-work made of this wood is very useful, as no insect will live near it.

This tree has a great affinity to the Quassia Amara of Linnæus; in lieu of which it is used as an antiseptic in putrid fevers. When used, less of it will do than of the Quassia Amara of Surinam. See QUASSIA, BOTANY and MATERIA MEDICA Index.

PICRIS, OX-TONGUE; a genus of plants belonging to the syngenesia class. See BOTANY Index.

PICRIUM, a genus of plants belonging to the tetandria class; and in the natural method ranking with those that are doubtful. See BOTANY Index.

PICTET, BENEDICT, a celebrated divine, was born at Geneva, in 1655, of a distinguished family, and prosecuted his studies with great success. After having travel

Picts

led into Holland and England, he taught theology in his Pictet own country with an extraordinary reputation. The university of Leyden, after the death of Spantreina, solicited him to come and fill his place; but he thought that his own country had the best right to his services; and for that generosity he received its thanks by the month of the members of council. A languishing disorder, occasioned by too much fatigue, hastened his death which happened on the 9th of June 1724, at the age of 69 years. This minister had much sweetness and affability in his manner. The poor found in him a comforter and a father. He published a great number of works in Latin and French, which are much esteemed in Protestant countries. The principal of these are, 1. A System of Christian Theology in Latin, 3 vols. in 4to; the best edition of which is that of 1721. 2. Christian Morality, printed at Geneva, 1710, 8 vols. in I 2mo. 3. The History of the 11th and 12th centuries; intended as a sequel to that of Sueur, printed in 1713, 2 vols. in 4to. The Continuator is held in higher estimation than the first author. 4. Several Controver sial Treatises. 5. A great number of tracts on morality and piety; among which we must distinguish "the Art of Living and Dying well;" published at Geneva, 1705, in 12mo. 6. Some Letters. 7. Some Sermons, from 1697 to 1721; 4 vols. in 8vo. With a vast number of other books, the names of which it would be tedious to mention; but which, as Mr Sennebier says, "all show evident marks of piety and good sense."

PICTET, John-Louis, a counsellor of Geneva, born in 1739, was of the same family. He was member of the Council of Two Hundred; counsellor of State and Syndic; and died in 1781. He applied himself to the study of astronomy, and made several voyages into France and England for his improvement. Few men were ever blessed with a clearer or more enlightened understanding. He has left in manuscript the "Journal of a Voyage which he made to Russia and Siberia in 1768 and 1769, in order to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disk:" A work very interesting, from the lively descriptions which it gives both of men and of

PICTS, the name of one of those nations who an-Name. ciently possessed the north of Britain. It is generally believed that they were so called from their custom of painting their bodies; an opinion which Camden supports with great erudition. (See Gough's edition, Vol. I. p. xci. of the preface). It is certainly liable, however, to considerable objections; for as this custom prevailed among the other ancient inhabitants of Britain, who used the glastum of Pliny and the vitrum of Mela for the like purpose, it may be asked, Why the name of Picti was confined by the Romans to only one tribe, when it was equally applicable to many others? Why should they design them only by an epithet, without ever annexing their proper name? Or why should they impose a new name on this people only, when they give their proper name to every other tribe which they have occasion to speak of? As these questions cannot be answered in any satisfactory manner, it is plain we must look for some other derivation of the name.

The Highlanders of Scotland, who speak the ancient language of Caledonia, express the name of this once fa

mous

Picts.

2

Origin.

3

mous nation by the term Pictich; a name familiar to
the ears of the most illiterate, who could never have de-
rived it from the Roman authors. The word Pictich
means pilferers or plunderers. The appellation was pro-
bably imposed upon this people by their neighbours, or
assumed by themselves, some time after the reign of Ca-
racalla, when the unguarded state of the Roman pro-
vince, on which this people bordered, gave them fre-
quent opportunities of making incursions thither, and
committing depredations. Accordingly this name seems
to have been unknown till the end of the 3d century.
Eumenius the panegyrist is the first Roman author who
mentions this people under their new name of Pictich,
or, with a Latin termination, Picti. When we say that
this name may have been probably assumed for the rea-
son just now mentioned, we must observe, that, in those
days of violence, the character of a robber was attended
with no disgrace. If he had the address to form his
schemes well, and to execute them successfully, he was
rather praised than blamed for his conduct; providing
he made no encroachments on the property of his own
tribe or any of its allies. We mean this as no peculiar
stigma upon the Picts; for other nations of antiquity, in
the like rude state, thought and acted as they did.
See
Thucydides, lib. iii. p. 3. and Virg. Æn. vii. 745 et 749.
Concerning the origin of the Picts, authors are much
divided. Boethius derives them from the Agathyrsi,
Pomponius Lætus from the Germans, Bede from the
Scythians, Camden (A) and Father Innes from the
ancient Britons, Stillingfleet from a people inhabiting
the Cimbrica Chersonesus, and Keating and O'Flaherty,
on the authority of the Cashel Psalter, derive them
from the Thracians. But the most probable opinion
is, that they were the descendants of the old Caledo-
nians.
Several reasons are urged in support of this opi-
nion by Dr Macpherson; and the words of Eumenes,
"Caledonum, aliorumque Pictorum, silvus," &c. plain-
ly imply that the Picts and Caledonians were one and
the same people.

As there has been much dispute about the origin of the Picts, so there has been likewise about their language. There are many reasons which make it plain that their tongue was the Gaelic or Celtic; and these reasons are a further confirmation of their having been of Caledonian extract. Through the east and north-east coasts of Scotland (which were possessed by the Picts) we meet with an innumerable list of names of places, rivers, mounLanguage. tains, &c. which are manifestly Gaelic. From a very old register of the priory of St Andrew's (Dalrymple's Collections, p. 122.) it appears, that in the days of Hungus, the last Pictish king of that name, St Andrew's was called Mukross; and that the town now called Queensferry had the name of Ardchinneachan. Both these words are plain Gaelic. The first signifies "the heath or promontory of boars ;" and the latter, “the height or peninsula of Kenneth." In the list of Pictish kings published by Father Innes, most of the names are obviously Gaelic, and in many instances the same with the names in the list of Scottish or Caledonian kings

published by the same author. Had Innes understood any thing of this language, he would not have supposed with Camden that the Picts spoke the British tongue. It was unlucky that the two words on which they built their conjecture (Strath and Aber) are as common in the Gaelic as they could have been in the British, and at this day make a part of the names of places in countries to which the Pictish empire never extended. The names of Strathfillan and Lochaber may serve as in

stances.

The venerable Bede, as much a stranger to the Celtic as either of the antiquaries just now mentioned, is equally unhappy in the specimen which he gives of the Pictish language in the word penuahel, "the head of the wall." Allowing the commutation of the initial p into c, as in some other cases, this word has still the same meaning in Gaelic which Bede gives it in the Pictish. It is true, there might have been then, as well as now, a considerable difference between various dialects of the Celtic; and thus, perhaps, that pious author was led to discover five languages in Britain agreeably to the five books of Moses: A conceit from which the good man derived a great deal of harmless satisfaction.

Ficts.

The Picts of the earliest ages, as appears from the Territory, joint testimony of all writers who have examined the subject, possessed only the east and north-east coast of Scotland. On one side, the ancient Drumalbin, or that ridge of mountains reaching from Lochlomond near Dumbarton to the frith of Tain, which separates the county of Sutherland from a part of Ross, was the boundary of the Pictish dominions. Accordingly we find in the life of Columba, that, in travelling to the palace of Brudius, king of the Picts, he travelled over Drumalbin, the Dorsum Britannia of Adamnan. On the other side, the territory of the Picts was bounded by the Roman province. After Britain was relinquished by the emperor Honorius, they and the Saxons by turns were masters of those countries which lie between the frith of Edinburgh and the river Tweed. We learn from Bede, that the Saxons were masters of Galloway when he finished his Ecclesiastical History. The Picts, however, made a conquest of that country soon after; so that, before the extinction of their monarchy, all the territories bounded on the one side by the Forth and Clyde, and on the other by the Tweed and Solway, fell into their hands.

The history of the Picts, as well as of all the other History. ancient inhabitants of Britain, is involved in obscurity. The Irish historians give us a long list of Pictish kings, who reigned over Pictavia for the space of 11 or 13 centuries before the Christian era. After them Innes, in his Critical Essay, gives us a list of above fifty, of whom no less than five held the sceptre, each for a whole century. It is probable that these writers had confounded the history of the Picts with that of their ancestors the old Caledonians. In any other view, their accounts of them are highly fabulous; and have been long ago confuted by Dr Macpherson of Slate, an antiquary of much learning and research. The Picts, as has been 3Y 2 already

Picts

The principal seat of the Pictish kings was at Abernethy. Brudius, however, as appears from the accounts given by Adamnan, in his life of Columba, had a pa- Picturesque lace at Inverness, which was probably near the extre- Beauty. mity of his territory in that quarter; for there is no good reason for believing, with Camden, that this king had any property in the Western Isles, or that he had made a gift of lona to St Columba when he visited him in that place.

already observed, were probably not known by that name before the 2d or 3d century. Adamnan, abbot of Iona, is the first author that expressly mentions any Pictish king; and the oldest after him is Bede. We are informed by these two writers, that St Columba converted Brudius king of the Picts to the Christian faith. Columba came into Britain in the year of the vulgar era 565. Before that period we have no general record to ascertain so much as the name of any Pictish king. The history of Drust or Drest, who is said to have reigned over the Picts in the beginning of the fifth century, when St Ninian first preached the gospel to that nation, has all the appearance of fiction (B). His having reigned a hundred years, and his putting an end to a hundred wars, are stories which exceed all the bounds of probability.

Brudius, the contemporary of Columba, is the first Pictish king mentioned by any writer of authority.

What figure his ancestors made, or who were his successors on the throne of Pictavia, cannot be ascertained. Bede informs us, that, during the reign of one of them, the Picts killed Egfred king of Northumberland in battle, and destroyed the greatest part of his army. The same author mentions another of their kings called Naitan, for whom he had a particular regard. It was to this Naitan that Ceolfrid, abbot of Wiremouth, wrote his famous letter concerning Easter and the Tonsure (c); a letter in which Bede himself is supposed to have had a principal hand. Roger Hoveden and Simon of Durham mention two other Pictish kings Onnust and Kinoth, the first of whom died in 761, and the latter flourished about the 744, and gave an asylum to Alfred of Northumberland, who was much about that time expelled his kingdom. The accounts given by the Scots historians of several other Pictish kings cannot be depended on; nor are the stories told by the British historians, Geoffroy of Monmouth and the author of the Eulogium Britannia, worthy of much greater credit.

In the ninth century the Pictish nation was totally subdued by the Scots in the reign of Kenneth Macalpin. Since that time their name has been lost in that of the conquerors, with whom they were incorporated after this conquest; however, they seem to have been treated by the Scottish kings with great lenity, so that for some ages after they commanded a great deal of respect. The prior of Hogulstead, an old English historian, relates, that they made a considerable figure in the army of David the Saint, in his disputes with Stephen king of England. In a battle fought in the year 1136, by the English on one side, and the Scots and Picts on the other, the latter insisted on their hereditary right of leading the van of the Scots army, and were indulged in that request by the king.

6

With respect to the manners and customs of the Mannen, Picts, there is no reason to suppose they were any other than those of the old Caledonians and Scots, of which many particulars are related in the Greek and Roman writers who have occasion to speak of those na tions.

Upon the decline of the Roman empire, cohorts of barbarians were raised, and Picts were invited into the service, by Honorius, when peace was everywhere restored, and were named Honoriaci. Those under Constantine opened the passes of the Pyrenean mountains, and let the barbarous nations into Spain. From this period we date the civilization of their manners, which happened after they had by themselves, and then with the Scots, ravaged this Roman province.

PICTS Wall, in antiquity, a wall begun by the emperor Adrian, on the northern bounds of England, to prevent the incursions of the Picts and Scots. It was first made only of turf strengthened with palisadoes, till the emperor Severus, coming into Britain in person, built it with solid stone. This wall, part of which still remains, began at the entrance of the Solway frith in Cumberland, and running north-east extended to the German ocean. See ADRIAN and SEVERUS.

PICTURE, a piece of painting, or a subject represented in colours, on wood, canvas, paper, or the like. See PAINTING.

PICTURESQUE BEAUTY, says a late writer on that subject, refers to "such beautiful objects as are suited to the pencil." This epithet is chiefly applied to the works of nature, though it will often apply to works of art also. Those objects are most properly denominated picturesque, which are disposed by the hand of nature with a mixture of varied rudeness, simplicity, and grandeur. A plain neat garden, with little variation in its plan, and no striking grandeur in its position, displays too much of art, design, and uniformity, to be called picturesque: "The ideas of neat and smooth (says Mr Gilpin), instead of being picturesque, in fact disqualify the object in which they reside from any pretensions to picturesque beauty. Nay, farther, we do not scruple to assert, that roughness forms the most essential point of difference between the beautiful and the picturesque; as it seems to be that particular quality which

makes

Picturesque makes objects chiefly pleasing in painting. I use the geBeauty. neral term roughness; but properly speaking roughness relates only to the surfaces of bodies: when we speak of their delineation, we use the word ruggedness. Both ideas, however, equally enter into the picturesque, and both are observable in the smaller as well as in the larger parts of nature; in the outline and bark of a tree, as in the rude summit and craggy sides of a mountain.

Let us then examine our theory by an appeal to experience, and try how far these qualities enter into the idea of picturesque beauty, and how far they mark that difference among objects which is the ground of our inquiry.

"A piece of Palladian architecture may be elegant in the last degree; the proportion of its parts, the propriety of its ornaments, and the symmetry of the whole, may be highly pleasing; but if we introduce it in a picture, it immediately becomes a formal object, and ceases to please. Should we wish to give it picturesque beauty, we must use the mallet instead of the chissel; we must beat down one half of it, deface the other, and throw the mutilated members around in heaps; in short, from a smooth building we must turn it into a rough ruin. No painter who had the choice of the two objects would hesitate a moment.

"Again, why does an elegant piece of gardenground make no figure on canvas? the shape is pleasing, the combination of the objects harmonious, and the winding of the walk in the very line of beauty. A this is true; but the smoothness of the whole, though right and as it should be in nature, offends in picture. Turn the lawn into a piece of broken ground, plant rugged oaks instead of flowering shrubs, break the edges of the walk, give it the rudeness of a road, mark it with wheel tracks, and scatter around a few stones and brushwood; in a word, instead of making the whole smooth, make it rough, and you make it also picturesque. All the other ingredients of beauty it already possessed." On the whole, picturesque composition consists in uniting in one whole, a variety of parts, and these parts can only be obtained from rough objects.

It is possible, therefore, to find picturesque objects among works of art, and it is possible to make objects so; but the grand scene of picturesque beauty is nature in all its original variety, and in all its irregular grandeur. "We seek it (says our author) among all the ingredients of landscape, trees, rocks, broken grounds, woods, rivers, lakes, plains, valleys, mountains, and distances. These objects in themselves produce infinite variety; no two rocks or trees are exactly the same; they are varied a second time by combination; and almost as much a third time by different lights and shades and other aerial effects. Sometimes we find among them the exhibition of a whole, but oftener we find only beautiful parts."

Sublimity or grandeur alone cannot make an object picturesque for, as our author remarks," however grand the mountain or the rock may be, it has no claim to this epithet, unless its form, its colour, or its accompaniments, have some degree of beauty. Nothing can be more sublime than the ocean; but wholly unaccompanied, it has little of the picturesque. When we talk therefore of a sublime object, we always understand that it is also beautiful; and we call it sublime or

beautiful only as the ideas of sublimity or simple beauty Picturesque prevail. But it is not only the form and the composi- Beauty. tion of the objects of landscape which the picturesque eye examines; it connects them with the atmosphere, and seeks for all those various effects which are produced from that vast and wonderful storehouse of nature. Nor is there in travelling a greater pleasure than when a scene of grandeur bursts unexpectedly upon the eye, accompanied with some accidental circumstance of the atmosphere which harmonizes with it, and gives it double value."

There are few places so barren as to afford no picturesque scene.

66

-Believe the muse,

She does not know that inauspicious spot
Where beauty is thus niggard of her store.
Believe the muse, through this terrestrial wasto
The seeds of grace are sown, profusely sown,
Even where we least may hope.-——————

Mr Gilpin mentions the great military road between Newcastle and Carlisle as the most barren tract of country in England; and yet there, he says, there is always something to amuse the eye. The interchangeable patches of heath and green-sward make an agreeable variety. Often too on these vast tracts of intersecting grounds we see beautiful lights, softening off along the sides of hills; and often we see them adorned with cattle, flocks of sheep, heath-cocks, grouse, plover, and flights of other wild fowl. A group of cattle standing in the shade on the edge of a dark hill, and relieved by a lighter distance beyond them, will often make a complete picture without any other accompani ment. In many other situations also we find them wonderfully pleasing, and capable of making pictures amidst all the deficiencies of landscape. Even a winding road itself is an object of beauty; while the richness of the heath on each side, with the little hillocks and crum-. bling earth, give many an excellent lesson for a foreground. When we have no opportunity of examining the grand scenery of nature, we have everywhere at least the means of observing with what a multiplicity of parts, and yet with what general simplicity, she covers every surface.

"But if we let the imagination loose, even scenes like these administer great amusement. The imagination can plant hills; can form rivers and lakes in valleys; can build castles and abbeys; and, if it find no other amusement, can dilate itself in vast ideas of space."

Mr Gilpin, after describing such objects as may be called picturesque, proceeds to consider their sources of amusement. We cannot follow our ingenious author through the whole of this consideration, and shall therefore finish our article with a short quotation from the beginning of it. "We might begin (says he) in moral style, and consider the objects of nature in a higher light than merely as amusement. We might observe, that a search after beauty should naturally lead the mind to the great origin of all beauty; to the

first good, first perfect, and first fair. But though in theory this seems a natural climax, we insist the less upon it, as in fact we have scarce groundto hope that every admirer of picturesque beauty is an

admirer