button to main menu Gilpin 1786
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Armitt Library : A918.16
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Print, aquatint, extensive valley, by William Gilpin, 1772-74, published by T Cadell and W Davies, Strand, London, 1808.
Vol.2 opposite p.41 in Observations on Several Parts of England, Particularly the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland Westmoreland, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, 3rd edn 1808.
The list of plates has:-
'XVI. / AN illustration of that beautiful species of landscape, produced by an extensive vale. Gradation is among the first principles of picturesque beauty. A graduating light, a graduating shade, or a graduating distance, are all beautiful. When the vale therefore does not exceed such a proportion, as is adapted to the eye, it is pleasing to see it fading away gradually, from the fore-ground, into the obscurity of distance. It presents indeed only one uniform idea; which, tho often grand, is not generally so pleasing, as the variety, and intricacy of a country broken into parts, and yet harmoniously combined.'
source type:- Gilpin 1786 (3rd edn 1808)