sisters in a stroll with the teasing observation, "You are charmingly group'd, and... the picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth.") Although he came in for criticism, Gilpin had published at exactly the right time. Improved road communications and travel restrictions in continental Europe produced a burst of British domestic tourism in the 1780s and 1790s. Many such picturesque tourists were intent on sketching, or at least discussing what they saw in terms of landscape painting. Gilpin's works were the ideal companions for the new generation of travellers; they were written specifically for them and not intended as comprehensive travel guides. Legacy Although Gilpin sometimes commented on designed landscapes, the picturesque remained for him an essential set of rules for depicting nature. It was left to others, notably Richard Payne Knight, Uvedale Price and Thomas Johnes, to develop Gilpin's ideas into more comprehensive theories of the picturesque and apply these more generally to landscape design and architecture. Ultimately, these grand theories of wild natural beauty gave way to the tamer, more commercialised picturesque of the mid-19th century, though Gilpin's works remained popular and several new editions appeared with additions by John Heaviside Clark. Gilpin also lives on as the model for the satirist William Combe's clever but cruel Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1809), brilliantly illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson. This poor curate sets off on his straggly mare Grizzle in a quest for picturesque scenery, often (and usually to his discomfort) oblivious to the realities of the world around him. As well as his picturesque writing, Gilpin published several works on moral and religious subjects, including biographies of Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer and John Wycliffe. Some of the profit from his writing went on good works in his parish, including the endowment of a school at Boldre that now bears his name. Many of the manuscripts of his tours, including unpublished or recently published material, are now housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Gilpin is one of eight travellers included in Nicholas Crane's Great British Journeys. Works On the picturesque Dialogue upon the gardens of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Cobham, at Stow in Buckinghamshire (1748) An essay on prints: containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty; the different kinds of prints; and the characters of the most noted masters (1768) Observations on the River Wye, and several parts of South Wales, etc.