Bold rocks near hand are more inspiriting than
distant Alps, and the thick fern upon a Surrey heath makes a fine
forest for the imagination, and the dotted yew trees noble mountains.
A Scottish moor with birches and firs grouped here and there upon a
knoll, or one of those rocky seaside deserts of Provence overgrown
with rosemary and thyme and smoking with aroma, are places where the
mind is never weary. Forests, being more enclosed, are not at first
sight so attractive, but they exercise a spell; they must, however,
be diversified with either heath or rock, and are hardly to be
considered perfect without conifers. Even sand-hills, with their
intricate plan, and their gulls and rabbits, will stand well for the
necessary desert.
The house must be within hail of either a little river or the sea. A
great river is more fit for poetry than to adorn a neighbourhood; its
sweep of waters increases the scale of the scenery and the distance
of one notable object from another; and a lively burn gives us, in
the space of a few yards, a greater variety of promontory and islet,
of cascade, shallow goil, and boiling pool, with answerable changes
both of song and colour, than a navigable stream in many hundred
miles.
Pages:
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278