Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887 . to acoarser strain, and as life becomes moreunsophisticated it grows less the old work of the reaper is doneby a fat man with a flaming face, sittingon a cast-iron machine, and smoking acob pipe, your artist will leave the fieldsas soon as possible. Figures have a ter-rible power to destroy sentiment in purelandscape; so have houses. When oneleaves nature, pure and simple, in theblue-grass country, he must accordinglypick his way circumspectly or go amissin his search for the beautiful. If histaste lead him to
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887 . to acoarser strain, and as life becomes moreunsophisticated it grows less the old work of the reaper is doneby a fat man with a flaming face, sittingon a cast-iron machine, and smoking acob pipe, your artist will leave the fieldsas soon as possible. Figures have a ter-rible power to destroy sentiment in purelandscape; so have houses. When oneleaves nature, pure and simple, in theblue-grass country, he must accordinglypick his way circumspectly or go amissin his search for the beautiful. If histaste lead him to desire in landscapes thefinest evidences of human labor, the highartificial finish of a minutely careful civ-ilization, he Avill here find great disap-X^ointment awaiting him. On tlie otherhand, if he delight in those exquisite ru-ral spots of the Old World with pictur-esque bits of homestead architecture andthe perfection of horticultural and unob-trusive botanical details, he will be noless aggrieved. What he sees here is THE BLUE-GRASS REGION OF KENTUCKY. 375. neither the most scientific farming-, sim-ply economic and utilitarian—raw andrude—nor tliat cultivated desire for theelements in nature to be so moulded bythe hand of man that they will fuse har-moniousl} and inextricably with his hab-itations and his work. The whole face of the country is takenup by a succession of farms. Each ofthese, except, of course, the very smallones, presents to the eye the variation ofmeadow, field, and woodland pasture, to-gether with the homestead and the sur-rounding grounds of orchard, garden, andlawn. The entire landscape is thus caughtin a vast net-work of fences. The Ken-tuckian retains his English ancestors loveof inclosures; but the uncertain tenure ofestates beyond a single generation doesnot encourage him to make them themost durable. One does, indeed, noticehere and there throughout the countrystone walls of blue limestone, that givean aspect of substantial repose and com-for
Size: 1780px × 1404px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorvarious, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookyear1887
