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Page 221:-
spectator with instant destruction; it is safer to shelter
yourself close to its bottom, and trust to the mercy of that
enormous mass, which nothing but an earthquake can stir. The
gloomy uncomfortable day well suited the savage aspect of the
place, and made it still more formidable; I stayed there, not
without shuddering, a quarter of an hour, and thought my trouble
richly paid; for the impression will last for life. At the
alehouse where I dined in Malham, Vivares, the landscape painter,
had lodged for a week or more; Smith and Bellers and also been
there, and two prints of Gordale have been engraved by them.
Oct. 14. Leaving my comfortable inn, to which I had returned from
Gordale, I set out for Skipton, sixteen miles. From several parts
of the road, and in many places about Settle, I saw at once the
three famous hills of this county, Ingleborough, Pennygant, and
Pendle; the first is esteemed the highest, and their features are
not to be described, but by the pencil [1].
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[1]
Without the pencil, nothing indeed is to be described with
precision, and even then, that pencil ought to be in the very
hand of the writer, ready to supply with outlines every thing
that his pen cannot express by words. As far as language can
describe Mr. Gray has, I think, pushed its powers: for rejecting,
as I have before hinted, every general unmeaning and hyperbolical
phrase, he has selected (both in his journal and on other similar
occasions) the plainest, simplest, and most direct terms; yet
notwithstanding his judicious care in the disposition of these, I
must own I feel them defective. They present me, it is true, with
a picture of the same species, but not with the identical
picture; my imagination receives clear and distinct, but not true
and exact images. It may be asked then, why am I entertained with
well-written descriptions? I answer, because they amuse rather
than entertain me; and because, after I have seen the places
described, they serve to recall to my memory the original scene,
almost as well as the truest drawing or picture. In the meanwhile
my mind is flattered by thinking it has acquired some conception
of the place, and rests contented in an innocent error, which
nothing but ocular proof can detect, and which, when detected,
does not diminish the pleasure I had before received, but
augments it, by superadding the charms of comparison and
versification; and herein I would place the real and only merit
of verbal prose description. To speak of poetical, would lead me
beyond the limits as well as the purpose of this note. I cannot,
however, help adding that I have seen one piece of verbal
description which completely satisfies me, because it is
throughout assisted by masterly delineation. It is composed by
the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, of Cheam, in Surrey; and contains, among
other places, an account of the very scenes, which, in this tour,
our author visited. This gentleman, possessing the conjoined
talents of a writer and designer, has employed them in this
manuscript to every purpose of picturesque beauty, in the
description of which, a correct eye, a practised pencil, and an
eloquent pen, could assist him. He has, consequently, produced a
work unique in its kind at once. But I have said it is in
manuscript, and, I am afraid, likely to continue so; for would
his modesty permit him to print it, the great expense of plates
would make its publication impracticable.
[This excellent note seems to contain the justest criticism on
the nature and powers of verbal description, as applied to
landscapes and prospects. And now the reader has gone through our
author's specimens of it in the foregoing Guide, if it appear
that he hath not availed himself of these precepts as much as he
might have done, he may take a scrutiny into his errors, a
critical lesson, in the next degree useful to instructions
derived from such examples as Mr. Gray's; and thus reap
improvement as well as amusement, from the efforts of a hasty and
redundant pen.- Mr. Gilpin's tour has been since published.]
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