In the second place, the landscape art, though technically not of high rank, is yet, by its amount, the range of its themes, and its suggestions of a new personal feeling toward the external world, an important contribution to the growing love of Nature. The output of the years 1740–55 is really surprisingly large and correspondingly varied in theme. There are three artists who paint successful marines, and three whose studies of animal life take good rank. In landscapes we find much emphasis on the pastoral beauty of England, its hills, streams, lakes, woods, meadows, and thatched cottages. Wilder scenery is also portrayed, for by the middle of the century the Highlands of Scotland, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, the Lake District, and Wales, have all received recognition as true subjects for landscape art. And there is, in the case of every artist, even of those who feel most strongly the dominance of foreign masters, a very evident study of the details of English landscapes and an eagerness to record in painting the charms felt by the artist. It should also be noted that, though nearly all the more important pictures were the work of English artists, yet native artists began to paint scenery at about the same time in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The period from 1755 to 1800 is throughout rich in landscape production, but the thirty years between 1755 and 1785 is the most significant portion of the period. These are the years during which landscape art was established in England and during which it won the greatest laurels it was to have before the great days of the early nineteenth century. The two famous artists of this notable thirty years were Wilson and Gainsborough and it will simplify the account if we take up their work before that of their lesser contemporaries. [Illustration: THE SUMMIT OF CADER-IDRIS _By Richard Wilson_]