After the practice came the theory. The painters and landscape-gardeners were followed by a school of philosophers, who expounded Taste and the laws of the Picturesque. Some extracts from the work of one of these, Thomas Whately, whose _Observations on Modern Gardening_ appeared in 1770, will show to what excesses the whole nonsensical business had been carried. "In wild and romantic scenes," says Whately, "may be introduced a ruined stone bridge, of which some arches may be still standing, and the loss of those which are fallen may be supplied by a few planks, with a rail, thrown over the vacancy. It is a picturesque object: it suits the situation; and the antiquity of the passage, the care taken to keep it still open, though the original building is decayed, the apparent necessity which thence results for a communication, give it an imposing air of reality." The context of this passages shows that the bridge leads nowhither. On the management of rocks Whately is a connoisseur. "Their most distinguished characters," he says, "are _dignity_, _terror_, and _fancy_: the expressions of all are constantly wild; and sometimes a rocky scene is only wild, without pretensions to any particular character." But ruins are what he likes best, and he recommends that they shall be constructed on the model of Tintern Abbey. They must be obvious ruins, much dilapidated, or the visitors will examine them too closely. "An appendage evidently more modern than the principal structure will sometimes corroborate the effect; the shed of a cottager amidst the remains of a temple, is a contrast both to the former and the present state of the building." It seems almost impossible that this should have been offered as serious advice; but it was the admired usage of the time. Whately's book was a recognized authority, and ran through several editions. He is also known as a Shakespeare critic, of no particular mark.