button to main menu  Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, plate 2

button NOTES from DR SYNTAX'S TOUR, 1812
Plate 2, opposite p.10:-

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DOCTOR SYNTAX.
On another edition:-
DOCTOR SYNTAX , LOSING HIS WAY
finds a finger post, near a milestone.
relevant text

...
Awak'd him from his thought profound;
And, as he star'd, and look'd around,
He said,- or else he seem'd to say,-
"I find that I have lost my way.
"Oh! what a wide expanse I see,
"Without a wood, without a tree;
"No one's at hand, no house is near,
"To tell the way, or give good cheer;
"For now a sign would be a treat,
"To tell us we might drink and eat:
...

"How could I come, misguided wretch!
"To where I cannot make a sketch?"
Thus as he ponder'd what to do,
A guide-post rose within his view;
And, when the pleasing shape he spied,
He prick's his steed, and thither hied;
But some unheading, senseless wight,
Who to fair learning ow'd a spight,
Had ev'ry letter'd mark defac'd,
Which once its several pointers grac'd/
...

...
"Upon that bank awhile I'll sit,
"And let poor Grizzle browse a bit;
"But as my time shall not be lost,
"I'll make a drawing of the post;
"And, tho' your flimsy tastes may flout it,
"There's something picturesque about it:
"'Tis rude and rough, without a gloss,
"And is well cover'd o'er with moss;
"And I've a right - (who dares deny it?)
"To place yon group of asses by it.
"Aye! this will do; and now I'm thinking,
"That self-same pond where Grizzle's drinking,
"If hither brought 'twould better seem,
"And faith I'll turn it to a stream;
"I'll make this flat a shaggy ridge,
"And o'er the water throw a bridge;
"I'll do as other sketchers do -
"Put any thing into the view;
"And any object recollect,
"To add a grace, and give effect,
"Thus, tho' from truth I haply err,
"The scene preserves its character.
"What man of taste my right will doubt,
"To put things in, or leave things out?
"'Tis more than right, it is a duty
"If we consider landscape beauty:-,
"He ne'er will as an artist shine,
"Who copies nature line by line;
"Who'er from nature takes a view,
"Must copy and improve it too.
"To heighten ev'ry work of art,
"Fancy should take an active part:
"Thus I (which few, I think, can boast)
"Have made a landscape of a Post.
...

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