for, what the artist has done, but in the desire that
he should do himself more justice and more honor. I have much pleasure
in Creswick's works, and I am glad always to see them admired by others.

Sec. 35. Conclusion. Works of J. Linnell and S. Palmer.

I shall conclude this sketch of the foliage art of England, by mention
of two artists, whom I believe to be representative of a considerable
class, admirable in their reverence and patience of study, yet
unappreciated by the public, because what they do is unrecommended by
dexterities of handling. The forest studies of J. Linnell are peculiarly
elaborate, and, in many points, most skilful; they fail perhaps of
interest, owing to over-fulness of detail and a want of generalization
in the effect; but even a little more of the Harding sharpness of touch
would set off their sterling qualities, and make them felt. A less known
artist, S. Palmer, lately admitted a member of the Old Water-Color
Society, is deserving of the very highest place among faithful followers
of nature. His studies of foreign foliage especially are beyond all
praise for care and fulness. I have never seen a stone pine or a cypress
drawn except by him; and his feeling is as pure and grand as his
fidelity is exemplary. He has not, however, yet, I think, discovered
what is necessary and unnecessary in a great picture; and his works,
sent to the Society's rooms, have been most unfavorable examples of his
power, and have been generally, as yet, in places where all that is best
in them is out of sight. I look to him, nevertheless, unless he lose
himself in over-reverence for certain conventionalisms of the elder
schools, as one of the probable renovators and correctors of whatever is
failing or erroneous in the practice of English art.

FOOTNOTES

[71] It sometimes happens that a morbid direction of growth will
cause an exception here and there to this rule, the bough swelling
beyond its legitimate size; knots and excrescences, of course,
sometimes interfere with the effect of diminution. I believe that in
the laurel, when it grows large and old, singular instances may be
found of thick upper boughs and over quantity of wood at the
extremities. All these accidents or exceptions are felt as such by
the eye. They may occasionally be used by the painter in savage or
grotesque scenery, or as points of contrast, but are no excuse for
his ever losing sight of the genera