William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, chiefly relative to Picturesque Beauty, made in the summer of the year 1770

Robert Clark (The Literary Encyclopedia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1782

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Didactic
Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing
- Journal/ Diary

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Encouraged by the appreciation of Thomas Gray, to whom he showed his manuscript in June 1771, Gilpin approached Gray’s publisher William Mason, but it was only towards the end of 1782 that his

Observations

were published after his nephew Sawrey Gilpin had used a new procedure for converting his line and wash drawings into aquatint engravings. (See Malcolm Andrews,

The Search for the Picturesque

, 1989; Ch. 5). At this time Thomas Gray was famous as the author of “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”, but he had also played a role in the production of the picturesque as his

Mr. Gray's Journal of his visit to the Lake District, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, October 18, 1769

had been published as

Journal in the Lakes

by William Mason in 1775. Not widely known were Gray’s letters to Thomas…

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1071 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, chiefly relative to Picturesque Beauty, made in the summer of the year 1770". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21553, accessed 23 November 2024.]

William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, chiefly relative to Picturesque Beauty, made in the summer of the year 1770

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