or
the pencil renders it more or less pleasing to the eye of the spectator,
who has learned to observe and feel, chiefly from Nature herself.

Deeming the points in which Alpine imagery is superior to British too
obvious to be insisted upon, I will observe that the deciduous woods,
though in many places unapproachable by the axe, and triumphing in the
pomp and prodigality of Nature, have, in general,[63] neither the
variety nor beauty which would exist in those of the mountains of
Britain, if left to themselves. Magnificent walnut-trees grow upon the
plains of Switzerland; and fine trees, of that species, are found
scattered over the hill-sides: birches also grow here and there in
luxuriant beauty; but neither these, nor oaks, are ever a prevailing
tree, nor can even be said to be common; and the oaks, as far as I had
an opportunity of observing, are greatly inferior to those of Britain.
Among the interior vallies the proportion of beeches and pines is so
great that other trees are scarcely noticeable; and surely such woods
are at all seasons much less agreeable than that rich and harmonious
distribution of oak, ash, elm, birch, and alder, that formerly clothed
the sides of Snowdon and Helvellyn; and of which no mean remains still
survive at the head of Ulswater. On the Italian side of the Alps,
chesnut and walnut-trees grow at a considerable height on the mountains;
but, even there, the foliage is not equal in beauty to the 'natural
product' of this climate. In fact the sunshine of the South of Europe,
so envied when heard of at a distance, is in many respects injurious to
rural beauty, particularly as it incites to the cultivation of spots of
ground which in colder climates would be left in the hands of Nature,
favouring at the same time the culture of plants that are more valuable
on account of the fruit they produce to gratify the palate, than for
affording pleasure to the eye, as materials of landscape. Take, for
instance, the Promontory of Bellagio, so fortunate in its command of the
three branches of the Lake of Como, yet the ridge of the Promontory
itself, being for the most part covered with vines interspersed with
olive-trees, accords but ill with the vastness of the green
unappropriated mountains, and derogates not a little from the sublimity
of those finely contrasted pictures to which it is a foreground. The
vine, when cultivated upon a large scale, notwithstanding all that may
be said of it in poetry,[64]