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CHANGES, AND RULES OF TASTE FOR PREVENTING THEIR BAD
EFFECTS.
SUCH, as hath been said, was the appearance of things till
within the last sixty years. A practice, denominated
Ornamental Gardening, was at that time becoming prevalent
over England. In union with an admiration of this art, and
in some instances in opposition to it, had been generated a
relish for select parts of natural scenery: and Travellers,
instead of confining their observations to Towns,
Manufactories, or Mines, began (a thing till then unheard
of) to wander over the island in search of sequestered
spots, distinguished as they might accidentally have
learned, for the sublimity or beauty of the forms of Nature
there to be seen. - Dr. Brown, the celebrated Author of the
Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times,
published a letter to a friend, in which the attractions of
the Vale of Keswick were delineated with a powerful pencil,
and the feeling of a genuine Enthusiast. Gray, the Poet,
followed: he died soon after his forlorn and melancholy
pilgrimage to the Vale of Keswick, and the record left
behind him of what he had seen and felt in this journey,
excited that pensive interest with which the human mind is
ever disposed to listen to the farewell words
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