... much rather have an impressive looking picture of themselves in a historical and noble pose, than a picture of the countryside. Also, the middle class were not really able to take the time off to go on the grand tour in Europe and discover the classics, and the countryside picturesque tour was more easily accessable. This did gradually change, but when the picturesque first became popular it was mainly restricted to the middle class. We can define what was considered to be picturesque by looking mainly at the work of William Gilpin and Uvedale Price. However, the first guidelines at the time came with the publication of Archibald Alison's 'Principles of Taste' in 1790. This included a statement about the 'principle of association', which said that beauty was not neccessarily contained within an object, and instead that it depended on the feelings of association that were aroused by it. This was ...

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