Ffynh 1S

The Revd William Gilpin’s description of the town of Brecon:

Brecknoc is a very romantic place, abounding with broken grounds, torrents, dismantled towers, and ruins of every kind. I have seen few places, where a landscape-painter might get a collection of better ideas.

Gilpin’s description of Dinefwr Castle, Carmarthenshire:

The woods, which adorn these beautiful scenes about Dinevawr-castle, and which are clumped with great beauty, consist chiefly of the finest oak ...

The picturesque scenes, which this place affords, are numerous. Wherever the castle appears, and it appears almost everywhere, a landscape of purely picturesque is generally presented. The ground is so beautifully disposed, that it is almost impossible to have bad composition. And the opposite side of the vale often appears as a back-ground; and makes a pleasing distance.

(Revd William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, &c. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, London, 1782, pp. 51 and 63)