SECT. XV.

S we left Bridgewater, we drew nearer the fea. In our way we paffed Sir Charles Tint's plantations, which we had before feen as parts of a diftance. They appeared now ftretching to a great extent along the fide of a hill, and beautifully interfperfed with lawns. They were adorned with too many buildings, which would, however, have had a better effect, if they had not been painted white. A feat or fmall building, painted white, may be an advantage in a view: but when these white spots are multiplied, the distinction of their colour detaches them from the other objects of the fcene, with which they ought to combine: they diftract the eye, and become separate spots, instead of parts of a whole.

In the neighbourhood of Sir Charles Tint's, lies Enmore-castle, the feat of Lord Egmont. It is a new building, in the form of an old castle. A dry ditch furrounds it, which you

pafs

pafs by a draw-bridge. This carries you into a fquare court, the four fides of which are occupied by the apartments. It is called whimfical; and, no doubt, there is fomething whimfical in the idea of a man's inclosing himself, in the reign of George the Second, in a fortress that would have fuited the times of King Stephen. But if we can diveft ourselves of this idea, Enmore-castle seems to be a comfortable dwelling, in which there is contrivance and convenience. The fituation of the ftables feems the moft whimsical. You enter them through a subterraneous paffage, on the right of the great gate. There was no occafion to carry the idea fo far as to lock up the horses within the castle. If the ftables had been placed at some convenient distance, nobody, who fhould even examine the caftle under its antique idea, would observe the impropriety; while the inconvenience, as they are placed at prefent, is evident to every one who fees

them.

But if the house be well contrived within, it is certainly no picturesque object without. The towers, which occupy the corners and middle of the curtains, are all of equal

height, which gives the whole an unpleasing

appear

appearance. If the tower at the entrance had been more elevated, with a watch-house at the top, in the manner of fome old caftles, the regularity might ftill have been observed; and the perspective in every point, except exactly in the front, would have given the whole a more pleafing form.

But even with this addition, Enmore-castle would be, in a picturefque light, only a very indifferent copy of its original. The old baronial caftle, in its ancient state, even before it had received from time the beauties of ruin, was certainly a more pleafing object than we have in this imitation of it. The form of Enmore is facrificed to convenience. To make the apartments regular within, the walls are regular without. Whereas our ancestors had no idea of uniformity. If one tower was square and low, the other, perhaps, would be round and lofty. The curtain too was irregular, following the declivity or projection of the hill on which it stood. It was adorned also with watch-towers, here and there, at unequal distances. Nor were the windows more regular, either in form or fituation, than the internal parts of the castle, which they enlightened. Some jutting corner of a detached

hill

hill was also probably fortified with a projecting tower. A large buttress or two perhaps propped the wall, in fome part, where the attack of an enemy had made it weak: while the keep, rifing above the castle, formed generally a grand apex to the whole. Amidst all this mass of irregularity, the lines would be broken, the light often beautifully received, and various points of view prefented, fome of which would be exceedingly picturesque. Whereas Enmore-castle, seen in every point of view, presents a face of unvaried fameness. Even taken in perspective, it affords no variety. We fee three fimilar towers, with two fimilar curtains between them, on one fide; and three fimilar towers, with two fimilar curtains between them, on the other. On the whole, therefore, as it obtains no particular convenience from its castle-form, and evidently no particular beauty, it might, perhaps, have been as well if the noble founder had built, like other people, on a modern plan.

SECT. XVI.

FROM Enmore-caftle we ascended Quantoc

hills. Our views from the heights of Pontic were chiefly inland; but from the high grounds here, as we now approached the fea, we were entertained with beautiful coaft-views, which make a very agreable fpecies of landscape.

The first scene of this kind was compofed of Bridgewater-bay, and the land around it. We faw indeed the two iflands of Flat-holms and Steep-holms, and the Welsh coaft beyond them; but they were wrapped in the ambiguity of a hazy atmosphere, which was of no advantage to the view. Hazinefs has often a good effect in a picturesque scene. The variety of objects, shapes, and hues which compose an extensive landscape, though inharmonious in themselves, may be harmoniously united by one general tinge spread over them. But here the land bore fo fmall a proportion to the water, that as we could not have a picture, and expected only amusement, we wished for more diftinctness.

M