Smollett has one character who labored under ἀγροφοβια, or _horror of green fields_, but that was manifestly not his own case. Though he completely ignored Nature in his other books, “Humphrey Clinker” is ample proof of his sensitiveness to Nature and his descriptive power. It needed a touch of homesickness and the vivifying force of early associations to bring the feeling to the surface, but as soon as it found expression there was revealed a closeness of observation and a genuineness of affection for Nature in her milder forms not found in any novel before “Humphrey Clinker.” The nearest approach to it is in the fantastic work of Amory. In Clara Reeve’s “Old English Baron” (1777) there is one brief conventional passage about the morning serenade of the birds and the fragrance of the woodbine (p. 27). In “Julia de Roubigné” (1777) Mackenzie makes more use of Nature than he had in “The Man of Feeling.” Julia and Savillon are both represented as finding pleasure in the beautiful country around them. In one letter Julia says: “Methinks I should hate to have been born in a town; when I say my native brook, or my native hill, I talk of friends of whom the remembrance warms my heart.” In the serenity of Nature she finds calmness after spiritual tumult. Belville, the home of Julia, is described as “a venerable pile, the remains of ancient Gothic magnificence.” The most attractive part of the estate was “a wild and rocky dell, where tasteless wealth had never warred on nature, nor even elegance refined or embellished her beauties. The walks are only worn by the tread of shepherds and the banks only smoothed by the feeding of their flocks.” There is great regret expressed when the new owner of Belville cuts down the trees, and puts in modern adornments “which they call Chinese.” In this novel Mackenzie shows a real though narrow appreciation of free, unsubdued Nature. In Fanny Burney’s “Evelina” (1778) the only touch of Nature is a criticism of Vauxhall Gardens as being too formal and regular. In “Cecilia” (1782) there is no use of Nature. William Beckford’s “Vathek” (1784) is an extravaganza where there is no pretense of representing Nature as it is. A single quotation will give the general tone. It is a description of a high mountain: Upon it grew a hundred thickets of eglantine and other fragrant shrubs, a hundred arbours of roses, jessamines and honeysuckle, as many clumps of orange trees, cedar, and citron whose branches interwoven with the palm, the pomegranate, and the vine, presented every luxury that could regale the eye or the taste. The ground was strewed with violets, harebells, and pansies, in the midst of which sprang forth tufts of jonquils, hyacinths, and carnations, with every other perfume that impregnates the air.