button to main menu  Description of Sixty Studies, pp.30-31
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page 30:-
of scenes in Rydal, yet they are made from the township of Loughrigg.
The whole township of Rydal is calculated by nature for producing effects in the highest degree beautiful and picturesque; the middle and lower grounds are composed of elegantly undulating surfaces, which, if properly attended to, might render its whole and its parts, probably, at least, equal to any thing of the kind to be met with elsewhere.
The park commences near the hall, and advancing considerably up the hill towards the pikes, commands noble prospects of the lakes of Rydal and Windermere, which, aided even by the trees still standing, render it a most desirable place for those who delight in contemplating the beauties of nature. Some fine trees still remain, but the writer has, with great regret, been witness to the despoiling of some rich and heavenly compositions by an im-
page 31:-
[im]proper application of the axe; improper as applied to the feelings of the picturesque observer, but not as a means of enriching the proprietor, and of contributing towards the comforts of the public at large.
Mr. Landseer, in the New London Review, has given a most scientific and detailed account of seventy-eight studies from nature, published by the writer in 1809; and though the examination is creditable to him, yet as that thinking observer, Mr. Landseer, has expressed his surprise that the writer, after having called the vale of Grasmere beautiful, should advise the proprietors to improve it by attending to their trees, he thinks it necessary in the present place to make some observations on that subject.
It does not appear that the landed proprietors among these mountains feel a necessity for improvements of this sort, by the havoc that is from time to
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