Sunday 26 July 2020

Beauty, horror, and immensity united

"The full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances, beauty , horror , and immensity united…But to give you a complete idea of these three perfections, as they are joined in Keswick, would require the united powers of Claude , Salvator , and Poussin . The first should throw his delicate sunshine over the cultivated vales, the scattered cots, the groves, the lake, and wooded islands. The second should dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs, the steeps, the hanging woods, and foaming waterfalls; while the grand pencil of Poussin should crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains."

John Brown A Description of the Lake at Keswick (and the Adjacent Country) in Cumberland (1767); cited in Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes (1821).