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diff --git a/25773-8.txt b/25773-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16803e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/25773-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9433 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Portraits of English Authors on +Gardening,, by Samuel Felton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, + with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with + considerable additions + +Author: Samuel Felton + +Release Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #25773] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +ON + +THE PORTRAITS + +OF + +English Authors on Gardening, + +WITH + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THEM. + +_Lately published, by the same Author, price 3s._ + +GLEANINGS ON GARDENS; + +Chiefly respecting those of the Ancient Style in England. + + +PRINTED BY LOWE AND HARVEY, PLAYHOUSE YARD, BLACKFRIARS. + + + + +ON THE + +PORTRAITS + +OF + +ENGLISH + +AUTHORS ON GARDENING, + +WITH + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. + +_Your painting is almost the natural man.--Timon of Athens._ + +_A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.--Winter's Tale._ + +_I will make a prief of it in my note-book.--M. W. of Windsor._ + +BY S. FELTON. + +SECOND EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. + +[Illustration] + +LONDON: 1830. + +PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE; AND JOSEPH ONWHYN, +CATHARINE STREET, STRAND. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following pages apply only to those English writers on gardening who +are deceased. That there have been portraits taken of _some_ of those +sixty-nine English writers, whose names first occur in the following +pages, there can be no doubt; and those portraits may yet be with their +surviving relatives or descendants. I am not so presumptuous as to apply +to the following most slight memorials, some of which relate to very +obscure persons, who claimed neither "the boast of heraldry, nor the +pomp of power," but whose + + ----useful toil, + Their homely joys and destiny obscure + +benefited society by their honest labour;--I am not so vain as to apply +to these, any part of the high testimony which Sir Walter Scott has so +justly paid to the merit of Mr. Lodge's truly splendid work of the +portraits of celebrated personages of English history. I can only take +leave to disjoint, or to dislocate, or copy, a very few of his words, +and to apply them to the following scanty pages, as it must be +interesting to have exhibited before our eyes _our fathers as they +lived_, accompanied with such memorials of their lives and characters, +as enable us to compare their persons and countenances with their +sentiments:--portraits shewing us how "our ancestors looked, moved, and +dressed,"--as the pen informs us "how they thought, acted, lived and +died." One cannot help feeling kindness for the memories of those whose +writings have pleased us.[1] + +What native of the county of Hereford, but must wish to see their +town-hall ornamented with a life-breathing portrait of Dr. Beale, +embodying, as it were, in the resemblance of the individual, (to use +the words of a most eloquent person on another occasion), "his spirit, +his feelings, and his character?" Or what elegant scholar but must wish +to view the resemblance of the almost unknown Thomas Whately, Esq., or +that of the Rev. William Gilpin, whose vivid pen (like that of the late +Sir Uvedale Price), has "realized painting," and enchained his readers +to the rich scenes of nature? + +Dr. Johnson calls portrait painting "that art which is employed in +diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the +affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead." + +The horticultural intercourse that now passes between England and +France, induces one to express a wish, that the portraits of many of +those delightful writers on this science, whose pens have adorned +France, (justly termed from its climate _la terre classique +d'horticulture_), were selected and engraved; for many of their +portraits have never yet been engraved. If this selection were +accompanied with a few brief notices of them and their works, it would +induce many in this country to peruse some of the most fascinating +productions that ever issued from the press. Amongst so many, whose +portraits and memoirs would interest us, I will mention those of +Champier, who distinguished himself at the battle of Aignadel, and who +published at Lyons, in 1533, Campus Elisius Galliæ amenitate referens; +Charles Etienne, who, in 1529, produced his Prædium Rusticum; and who +with Leibault published the Maison Rustique, of which upwards of thirty +editions have been published, (and which our Gervase Markham calls _a +work of infinite excellencie_); Paulmier de Grenlemesnil, a most +estimable man, physician to Charles IX., and who died at Caen in 1588, +and wrote a treatise de Vino et Pomaceo; and the only act of whose long +life that one regrets is, that his great skill was the means of +re-establishing the health of Charles, who, with his mother, directed +the horrid Massacre of St. Bartholomew; Cousin, who died in the prison +of Besançon, and wrote De Hortorum laudibus; that patriarch of +agriculture and of horticulture, Olivier de Serres, whose sage and +philosophic mind composed a work rich with the most profound +reflections, and whose genius and merit were so warmly patronized by +"le bon Henri," and no less by Sully;[2] Boyceau, intendant of the +gardens of Louis XIII., who, in 1638, published Traité du Jardinage, +selon les raisons de la nature, et de l'art, avec divers desseins de +parterres, pelouses, bosquets, &c.; André Mollet, who wrote Le Jardin de +plaisir, &c.; Claude Mollet, head gardener to Henry IV. and Louis XIII., +who, in 1595, planted the gardens of Saint Germain-en-laye, Monceau, +and Fontainbleau, and whose name and memory (as Mr. Loudon observes), +has been too much forgotten; Bornefond, author of Jardinier François, et +délices de la campagne; Louis Liger, of consummate experience in the +florist's art, "auteur d'un grand nombre d'ouvrages sur l'agriculture, +et le jardinage," and one of whose works was thought not unworthy of +being revised by London and Wise, and of whose interesting works the +Biographie Universelle (in 52 tomes) gives a long list, and mentions the +great sale which his Jardinier fleuriste once had; Morin, the florist, +mentioned by Evelyn, and whose garden contained ten thousand tulips; the +justly celebrated Jean de la Quintinye, whose precepts, says Voltaire, +have been followed by all Europe, and his abilities magnificently +rewarded by Louis; Le Nôtre, the most celebrated gardener (to use Mr. +Loudon's words) that perhaps ever existed, and of whom the Biographie +Univer. observes, that whatever might have been the changes introduced +in whatever Le Nôtre cultivated, "il seroit difficile de mettre plus de +grandeur et de noblesse;"[3] Charles Riviere du Fresnoy "qu'il joignot a +un goût général pour tous les arts, des talens particuliers pour la +musique et le dessein. Il excelloit sur-tout dans l'art de destribuer +les jardins. Il publia plusieurs _Chansons et les Amusemens serieux et +comiques_: petit ouvrage souvens re-imprimé et pleins de peintures vives +et plaisantes, de la plupart des états de la vie. On remarques dans +touts ses productions une imagination enjouée et singuliere;" +Pontchasteau, who wrote on the cultivation of fruit trees, whose +penitence and devotion were so severely austere, and whose very singular +history is given us in the interesting "Lettres de Madame la Comtesse de +la Riviere;" Linant, to whom Voltaire was a warm protector and friend, +and who, in 1745, wrote his poem Sur la Perfection des Jardins, sous la +regne de Louis XIV.; and of whom it was said that "les qualités du +coeur ne le caractérisoient pas moins que celles de l'esprit;" Le Pere +Rapin;[4] D'Argenville; Le Maistre, curate of Joinville, who in 1719 +added to his "Fruitier de la France," "Une Dissertation historique sur +l'origine et les progrés des Jardins; Vaniere, who wrote the Prædium +Rusticum;[5] Arnauld d'Andilli, in so many respects rendered +illustrious, who retired to the convent of Port Royal, (that divine +solitude, where the whole country for a league round breathed the air of +virtue and holiness, to quote Mad. de Sevigné's words), and who sent +each year to the queen some of that choice fruit which he there with +such zeal cultivated, and which Mazarin "appelloit en riant des fruits +bénis." This good man died at the age of eighty-six, and the letter of +Mad. de Sevigné, of the date of Sept. 23, 1671, will alone consign him +to the respect of future ages;[6] Jean Paul de Ardenne, superior of the +congregation of the oratory of Marseilles, one of the most famous +florists of the period in which he lived, and who devoted great part of +his time in deeds of charity; Francis Bertrand, who, in 1757, published +Ruris delicæ, being poems from Tibullus, Claudian, Horace, and from many +French writers, on the pleasures of the country; Mons. de Chabanon; +Morel, who assisted in laying out Ermenonville, and who wrote, among +other works, Théorie des Jardins, ou l'art des Jardins de la Nature; the +animated Prevost; Gouges de Cessieres, who wrote Les Jardins d'Ornament, +ou les Georgiques Francoises; he, too, whom the Prince de Ligne calls + + ----_enchanteur_ De Lille! + _O_ Virgile _moderne_! + +and whose generous invocation to the memory of Captain Cook must endear +his name to every Englishman;[7] the Viscount Girardin, who wrote De la +Composition des Paysages, who buried Rousseau in his garden at +Ermenonville, and who kept a band of musicians to perambulate those +charming grounds, performing concerts sometimes in the woods, and at +other times on the water, and at night in a room adjoining his hall of +company;[8] the venerable Malherbes, the undaunted defender of the +oppressed, who throughout his life lost no opportunity of drying up the +tears of the afflicted, and never caused one to flow; whose whole life +had been consecrated to the happiness of his fellow-creatures and the +dignity of his country, but whose spotless reputation could not save him +from the guillotine at his age of seventy-two;[9] Schabol; Latapie, who +translated Whately's Observations on Modern Gardening, to which he +added a discourse on the origin of the art, &c.; Watelet, who wrote +Essai sur les Jardins, and whose name has given rise to some most +charming lines in De Lille's poem, and whose biography is interestingly +drawn in the Biog. Univers.; Lezay de Marnesia, whose poems de la Nature +Champêtre, and le Bonheur dans les Campagnes, have passed through many +editions, and of whom pleasing mention is made in the above Biog. +Univers.; M. de Fontaine, author of Le Verger; Masson de Blamont, the +translator of Mason's Garden, and Whately's Observations; François +Rosier; Bertholan, the friend of Franklin. + +I am indebted, in a great measure, for the above list of French authors, +to that immense body of diffuse and elaborate information, the +Encyclopædia of Gardening, by Mr. Loudon. + +Those who are more conversant with the literature of France, than my +very limited researches have extended to, can, no doubt, easily +enumerate many very distinguished persons of that country, many talented +men, who though they may not have written on the subject of gardens, yet +evinced an ardent attachment to them, and became their munificent +patrons. Let us not then omit the name of Charles the Great, or +Charlemagne, in one of whose Capitulaires are _Directions concerning +Gardens, and what plants are best to set in them_. He died in 814, after +reigning forty-seven years over France: "Quoiqu'il ne sût pas écriere +(says the Nouv. Diet. Hist.), il fit fleurer les sciences. Aussi grand +par ses conquêtes, que par l'amour des lettres, et en fut le protecteur +et la restaurateur. Son palais fut l'asyle des sciences. Le nom de ce +conquérant et de cet législateur remplit la terre. Tout fut uni par le +force de son génie." De Sismondi calls him "a brilliant star in that +dark firmament." Mr. Loudon, in p. 40 of his Encyclopædia, says, that +"The Abbé Schmidt informs us (_Mag. Encyc._) that this monarch, who had +domains in every part of France, gave the greatest encouragement to the +eradication of forests, and the substitution of orchards and vineyards. +He was on terms of friendship with the Saracenic prince Haroun al +Raschid, and by that means procured for France the best sorts of pulse, +melons, peaches, figs, and other fruits." + +Francis I. when he built his palace at Fontainbleau, introduced into its +gardens, much of what he had seen in those of Italy, and when he +completed St. Germains, its style of grandeur may be guessed at from its +rocks, cascades, terraces and subterraneous grots. + +Henry IV.'s attachment to agriculture and to gardens, is well known. The +magnificent improvements he made at St. Germains, and the attention he +paid to his gardens at la Fleche, Vendome, and the Thuilleries, shew +this. Indeed, his employing Claude Mollet, and Jean Robin, are +sufficient proofs.[10] + +Louis XIV. magnificently rewarded La Quintinye, that original writer, +who conducted the fine gardens of Tambourneau, and whose precepts Mons. +de Voltaire tells us were followed by all Europe. The zeal of Louis for +the decorations of gardens, met with an able assistant when he +patronized Le Nôtre, to do justice to whose name, I can only refer my +reader to the concise but rich review of the grand efforts of this +singular genius, as they are noticed in p. 35 of Mr. Loudon's +Encyclopædia, and which "dazzled and enchanted every class of +observers."[11] + +Madame de Sevigné's delight in gardens pervades many of her letters: +that of July 1677, paints the charms which one in Paris gave her: "I was +invited in the kindest manner possible to sup at Gourville's with Mad. +de Scomberg, Mad. de Frontenac, Mad. de Coulanges, the Duke, M. de la +Rochefoucault, Barillon, Briole, Coulanges, Sevigné, in a garden of the +hotel de Condé; there were water-works, bowers, terraces, six hautboys, +six violins, and the most melodious flutes; a supper which seemed to be +prepared by enchantment, an admirable bass-viol, and a resplendent moon, +which witnessed all our pleasures." Of her own garden, formed by her own +pure taste, M. de Coulanges thus speaks: "I have spent a most delightful +fortnight here. It is impossible sufficiently to praise the gardens of +the _Rocks_; they would have their beauties even at Versailles, which is +saying every thing." And that she delighted in what she well knew how to +describe, is evident from her letter from _Chaulnes_: "This is a very +handsome house, which carries with it an air of grandeur, though it is +partly unfurnished, and the gardens neglected. There is scarcely any +verdure to be seen, and not a nightingale to be heard; in short, it is +still winter, on the seventeenth of April. But it is easy to imagine the +beauties of these walks; every thing is regular and magnificent; a +spacious parterre in front, bowling-greens opposite the wings, a large +playing fountain in the parterre, two in the bowling-greens, and another +at a distance in the middle of a field, which is well named _the +solitary_; a fine country, beautiful apartments, and a pleasant +prospect, though flat." She in another letter from _Chaulnes_ says; "I +was walking alone the other day, in these beautiful alleys." And in a +subsequent one she says: "It is a pity to be obliged to quit so +beautiful and so charming a place." Her frequent mention in her letters +of _my pretty walks_ at the _Rocks_, sufficiently paints her delight in +her own garden. In compliment to this lady, I cannot help applying to +her the exact words which Petrarch applies to Laura: _une haute +intelligence, un coeur pure, qui a la sagesse de l'âge avancé, ait le +brilliant de la belle jeunesse_. + +Few passed more happy hours in their garden at _Baville_, than the +illustrious Lamoignon, of whom it was said, that "Son ame égaloit son +génie; simple dans ses moeurs, austere dans sa conduite, il étoit le +plus doux des hommes, quand la veuve et l'orphein étoient à ses pieds, +_Boileau_, _Racine_, _Bourdaloue_, _Rapin_, composoit sa petite +cour,"--and whom Rapin invokes, not only in his poem on gardens, + + _My flowers aspiring round your brows shall twine, + And in immortal wreaths, shall all their beauties join;_ + +but in his letters, preserved with those of Rabutin de Bussy, he paints +in high terms the name of Lamoignon, and frequently dwells on his +retreat at _Baville_. Mons. Rab. de Bussy, in a letter to Rapin, says: +"Que Je vous trouve heureux d'avoir deux mois à passer à _Baville_, avec +Mons. le presidant! Il est admirable à Paris; mais il est aimable à sa +maison de campagne, et vous savez qu'on a plus de plaisir à aimer qu'à +admirer." On his death, Rapin thus speaks of him: "Il n'y eut jamais une +plus belle ame jointe à un plus bel esprit. Le plus grand de tous les +éloges est, que le peuple l'a pleuré; et chacun s'est plaint de sa mort +comme de la perte d'un ami, ou de celle d'un bienfacteur." + +The name of Boileau is too interesting to be overlooked. Many of his +letters and pages discover the delight he took in his garden at +_Auteuil_. In his epistle to _Lamoignon_, he describes his seat there as +his "bless'd abode," his "dear delicious shades," and he then paints the +pleasures of his country seat: + + _Give me these shades, these forests, and these fields, + And the soft sweets that rural quiet yields; + Oh, leave me to the fresh, the fragrant breeze, + And let me here awhile enjoy my ease. + Let me Pomona's plenteous blessings crop, + And see rich autumn's ripen'd burden drop, + Till Bacchus with full clusters crowns the year, + And gladdens with his load the vintager._ + +His celebrated epistle to _Anthony_, his old gardener, not only shews +the kind master, but his own love to his garden. I cannot refrain from +quoting a few lines from Lempriere: "As a poet, Boilieu has deservedly +obtained the applauses of every man of genius and taste. Not only his +countrymen boast of the superior effusions of his muse, but foreigners +feel and admire the graces, the strength and harmony of his verse, and +that delicacy of satire, and energy of style, by which he raised himself +to immortality." Another of his biographers says: "La religion, qui +éclaira ses derniers momens, avoit animé toute sa vie." The author of +the Pursuits of Literature thus speaks of him: "The most perfect of all +modern writers, in true taste and judgment. His sagacity was unerring; +he combined every ancient excellence, and appears original even in the +adoption of acknowledged thoughts and allusions. He is the just and +adequate representative of Horace, Juvenal, and Perseus, united, without +one indecent blemish; and for my own part, I have always considered him +as the most finished gentleman that ever wrote." In his Life, translated +by Ozell, we are told, that "he was full of sentiments of humanity, +mildness, and justice. He censured vice, and sharply attacked the bad +taste of his time, without one spark of envy, or calumny. Whatever +shocked truth, raised in him an indignation which he could not master, +and which accounts for that energy and fire which pervades his satires. +The sight of any learned man in want, made him so uneasy, that he could +not forbear lending money. His good nature and justice did farther +appear in his manner of recompensing his domestics, and by his +liberality to the poor. He gave by his will fifty thousand livres to the +small parishes adjoining the church of Notre Dame; ten thousand livres +to his valet de chambre, and five thousand to an old woman who had +served him a long time. But he was not contented to bestow his +benevolence at his death, and when he was no longer in a condition of +enjoying his estate himself, he was, all his life long, studious in +seeking opportunities of doing good offices." Part of this is confirmed +by another biographer: "Une piété sincere, une foi vive et une charité +si grande, qu'elle ne lui a presque fait reconnoitre d'autres héritiers +que les pauvres." The Lettres of Mad. la Comtesse de la Riviere, and +those of de Sevigné, frequently mention the charm which attended the +visits of Boileau.[12] Rabutin du Bussy thus speaks of him, in a letter +to the Pere Rapin, after eulogizing Moliere: "Despréaux est encore +merveilleuse; personne ne'crit avec plus de pureté; ses pensées sont +fortes, et ce qui m'en plait, toujours vraies." + +The above is a very cursory and brief allusion to what might be gathered +respecting those superb gardens in France, whose costly and magnificent +decorations so charmed many of our English nobility and gentry, when +travelling there, during the periods of Charles II., James II., William, +Anne, and during subsequent reigns. One need recur only to a very few, +as to Rose, who was sent there by Lord Essex, to view Versailles; to +George London, who was commissioned to go there, not only by the same +Rose, but who afterwards accompanied the Earl of Portland, King +William's ambassador; but to Evelyn, Addison, Dr. Lister, Kent, when he +accompanied Lord Burlington through France to Italy; to the Earl of Cork +and Orrery (the translator of Pliny's Letters), whose gardens at +_Marston_, and at _Caledon_, and whose letters from Italy, all shew the +eagerness with which he must have viewed the gardens of France, when +passing through the provinces towards Florence; to Ray, Lady M. W. +Montague, Bolingbroke, Peterborough, Smollet, John Wilks, John Horne +(when he met Mr. Sterne, or designed to meet him, at _Toulouse_), to +Gray, Walpole, R. P. Knight, who must have passed through the rich +provinces of France, as, in his work on Taste, he speaks of "terraces +and borders intermixed with vines and flowers, (_as I have seen them in +Italian villas_, and in some old English gardens in the same style), +where the mixture of splendour, richness, and neatness, was beautiful +and pleasing in the highest degree;" and to the lately deceased Sir U. +Price, who must also have passed through France, to view (with the +eagerness with which he did view) the rich and magnificently decorated +gardens of Italy, "aided with the splendour and magnificence of art," +their ballustrades, their fountains, basons, vases and statues, and +which he dwells on in his Essays with the same enthusiasm as when he +there contemplated the works of Titian, Paul Veronese, and other great +masters. Indeed, those pages where he regrets the demolition of many of +our old English gardens, and when he dwells on the probability that even +Raphael, Giulio Romano, and M. Angelo, (which last planted the famous +cypresses in the garden of the Villa d'Este) were consulted on the +decorations of some of the old Italian ones; these pages at once shew +the fascinating charms of his classic pen.[13] + +England can boast too of very great names, who have been attached to +this art, and most zealously patronized it, though they have not written +on the subject:--Lord Burleigh, Lord Hudson, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord +Capell, who honoured himself by several years correspondence with La +Quintinye; William the Third,--for Switzer tells us, that "in the least +interval of ease, gardening took up a greater part of his time, in which +he was not only a delighter, but likewise a great judge,"--the Earl of +Essex, whom the mild and benevolent Lord William Russell said "was the +worthiest, the justest, the sincerest, and the most concerned for the +public, of any man he ever knew;" Lord William Russell himself, too, on +whom Thomson says, + + _Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew + The grave where Russell lies_, + +whose fall Switzer feelingly laments, as one of the best of masters, and +encouragers of arts and sciences, particularly gardening, that that age +produced, and who "made _Stratton_, about seven miles from Winchester, +his seat, and his gardens there some of the best that were made in those +early days, such indeed as have mocked some that have been done since; +and the gardens of Southampton House, in Bloomsbury Square, were also of +his making;" the generous friend of this Lord William Russell, the manly +and patriotic Duke of Devonshire, who erected _Chatsworth_, that noble +specimen of a magnificent spirit;[14] Henry Earl of Danby, the Duke of +Argyle, beheaded in 1685, for having supported the rebellion of +Monmouth; the Earl of Halifax, the friend of Addison, Swift, Pope, and +Steele, and on whom a funeral poem thus speaks, + + _In the rich furniture of whose fair mind, + Those dazzling intellectual graces shin'd, + That drew the love and homage of mankind._[15] + +Lord Weymouth; Dr. Sherard of Eltham; Collinson, "to whose name is +attached all that respect which is due to benevolence and virtue;" +Grindal, Bishop of London, who cultivated with great success the vine +and other productions of his garden at Fulham; Compton, Bishop of +London, eminent, as Mr. Falconer in his Fulham observes, for his +unbounded charity and beneficence, and who was so struck with the +genius, the learning, and probity of Mr. Ray, that he was almost at the +entire charge of erecting the monument to him; the Earl of Scarborough, +an accomplished nobleman, immortalized by the enchanting pen of Pope, +and the fine pen of Chesterfield; the Earl of Gainsborough; the great +Chatham, whose taste in the embellishment of rural nature has been +exultingly acknowledged by Mr. Walpole, and by George Mason;[16] with +numerous other men of rank and science.[17] These have highly assisted +in elevating gardening to the rank it has long since held, and has +allured multitudes to this delightful science:--no wonder, when _Homer_ +=writeth how= _Laertes_ =the olde man, was wont with his travaile in his +Orchards, to drive from his minde the sorrow hee tooke for the absence +of his sonne=. When old Gerarde asks his _courteous and well-willing +readers_--"whither do all men walk for their honest recreation, but +where the earth hath most beneficially painted her face with flourishing +colours? and what season of the year more longed for than the spring, +whose gentle breath enticeth forth the kindly sweets, and makes them +yield their fragrant smells?" When the Lord Chancellor Bacon declares a +garden "is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment +to the spirits of man:" and when this wonderfully gifted man thus fondly +dwells on part of its allurements;--"the breath of flowers is far +sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music), +than in the hand; therefore, nothing is more fit for that delight, than +to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air; the +flower, which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is +the violet;[18] next to that is the musk rose, then the +strawberry-leaves, dying with a most-excellent cordial smell; then sweet +briar, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a +parlour, or lower chamber window; but those which perfume the air most +delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and +crushed, are three--that is, burnet, wild thyme, and water-mints; +therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when +you walk or tread."[19] Or when Mr. Evelyn, in the joy of his +enthusiasm, exultingly transposed from Virgil:-- + + O fortunatos nimium, bona si sua norint + _Horticulas_! + +and who declared, that the employ and felicity of an excellent gardener +was preferable to all other diversions. When Mr. Addison says that a +garden "fills the mind with calmness and tranquillity, and lays all its +turbulent passions at rest." When Sir William Temple (who infused into +his writings the graces of some of the best writers of ancient times), +thus allures his readers: "_Epicurus_, whose admirable wit, felicity of +expression, excellence of nature, sweetness of conversation, temperance +of life, and constancy of death, made him so beloved by his friends, +admired by his scholars, and honoured by the Athenians, passed his time +wholly in his garden; there he studied, there he exercised, there he +taught his philosophy; and indeed no other sort of abode seems to +contribute so much to both the tranquillity of mind, and indolence of +body, which he made his chief ends. The sweetness of air, the +pleasantness of smells, the verdure of plants, the cleanness and +lightness of food, the exercises of working or walking; but above all, +the exemption from cares and solitude, seem equally to favour and +improve both contemplation and health, the enjoyment of sense and +imagination, and thereby the quiet and ease both of the body and mind." +When the industrious Switzer says:--"'Tis in the quiet enjoyment of +rural delights, the refreshing and odoriferous breezes of garden air, +that the deluge of vapours, and those terrors of hypochondraism, which +crowd and oppress the head are dispelled." When the industrious and +philosophic Bradley observes, that "though the trouble of the mind wears +and destroys the constitution even of the most healthful body, all kinds +of gardens contribute to health." When Pope,[20] who loved to breathe +the sweet and fragrant air of gardens, in one of his letters says, "I am +in my garden, amused and easy; this is a scene where one finds no +disappointment." When that "universally esteemed and beloved man," the +Prince de Ligne, declares, "Je voudrois échauffer tout l'univers de mon +gôut pour les jardins. Il me semble qu'il est impossible, qu'un mechant +puisse l'avoir. Il n'est point de vertus que Je ne suppose à celui qui +aime à parler et à faire des jardins. Péres de famille, inspirez la +jardinomanie à vos enfans.[21] When a taste for gardening (as Mr. Cobbet +observes) "is much more innocent, more pleasant, more free from +temptation to cost, than any other; so pleasant in itself! It is +conducive to health, by means of the irresistible temptation which it +offers to early rising; it tends to turn the minds of youth from +amusements and attachments of a frivolous or vicious nature; it is a +taste which is indulged at home; it tends to make home pleasant, and to +endear us to the spot on which it is our lot to live." When Mr. Johnson +forcibly paints the allurements to a love for this art, when concluding +his energetic volume on gardening, by quoting from Socrates, that "it is +the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, and of a thousand sober +delights and honest pleasures."--And from Lord Verulam, that amid its +scenes and pursuits, "life flows pure, and the heart more calmly beats." +And when M. le V. H. de Thury, président de la Société d'Horticulture de +Paris, in his Discours d'Installation says: "Dans tous les temps et dans +tous les pays, les hommes les plus célèbres, les plus grands capitaines, +les princes, et les rois, se sont livrés avec délices, et souvent avec +passion, à la culture des plantes et des jardins." And among other +instances he cites "Descartes, qui se livrait avec une égale ardeur à la +science des astres et à la culture des fleurs de son jardin, et qui +souvent, la nuit, quittait ses observations célestes pour étudier le +sommeil et la floraison de ses plantes avant le lever du soliel."[22] +Petrarch, too, who has enchanted every nation and every age, from his +endeared Vaucluse, thus speaks of his garden: "I have formed two; I do +not imagine they are to be equalled in all the world: I should feel +myself inclined to be angry with fortune, if there were any so beautiful +out of Italy. I have store of pleasant green walks, with trees shadowing +them most sweetly." Indeed, what Cicero applies to another science, may +well apply to horticulture: "nihil est _agriculturæ_ melius, nihil +uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine, nihil libero dignius." Let me +close with a most brilliant name;--the last resource in the _Candide_ of +Voltaire is,--_cultivate your garden_. + +In my transient review of the gardens of ancient times, at the +commencement of the following work, I have not even glanced at those of +the _Saxons_, in this island; when one should have thought that the +majestic name of ALFRED alone, would have made a search of this nature +interesting, even if such search were unavailing. I have also +inadvertently omitted any allusion to those of the _Danes_ and the +_Normans_. I have only then now to say, that Mr. Johnson's researches, +as to these gardens, in pp. 31, 37, 38, 39 and 40 of his lately +published History of English Gardening, with his elegant language and +the flow of sentiment that pervades those pages, would make any search +or review of mine presumptuous. In those pages, he dwells on the +tendency which the then introduction of the christian religion had to +soften the manners of the people, and by thus rendering them more +domestic, gardening became an art congenial to their feelings; and +whilst the country at large was devastated by war, the property of the +religious establishments was held sacred, and varieties of vegetables +preserved, which otherwise would soon have become extinct, if cultivated +in less hallowed ground. He then traces the existence of many gardens, +orchards, and vineyards, belonging to our monasteries, proving, that +even in the time of the _Danes_, horticulture continued "silently to +advance," and that at the time of the arrival of the _Normans_, gardens +were generally in the possession of the laity, as well as of the +ecclesiastics; and he refers to Doomsday Book for his assertion, that +"there is no reason to doubt, that at this period, every house, from the +palace to the cottage, was possessed of a garden of some size." He +concludes with interesting references to the gardens, vineyards, and +orchards, of the Abbot of Ely and other monks. + +The above work of Mr. Johnson's is the result of original thought, and +of an ardent and extended scientific research. Mine is a compilation, +"made with a pair of scissors," to copy the words of Mr. Mathias, which +he applies to a certain edition of Pope. I content myself, however, with +the reflection of Mr. Walpole, that "they who cannot perform great +things themselves, may yet have a satisfaction in doing justice to those +who can." + +Having alluded at pp. 71 and 120 to Dr. Alison, and having given at p. +211 Dr. Dibdin's tribute to him, I cannot omit reminding my reader, that +the graceful language, the sublime and solemn thoughts, which this +admirable divine has transfused into many of his Sermons on the Seasons, +make one doubly feel the truth and propriety with which he has so +liberally reviewed Mr. Whately's _Observations on Modern Gardening_. + +[Illustration] + + + + + ON + THE PORTRAITS + OF + English Authors on Gardening. + + + + +ON THE PORTRAITS OF ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING. + + +The earliest accounts we have of gardens, are those recorded in Holy +Writ; their antiquity, therefore, appears coeval with that of time +itself. The Garden in Eden had every tree good for food, or pleasant to +the sight. Noah planted a Vineyard. Solomon, in the true spirit of +horticultural zeal, says, _I planted me Vineyards, I made me Gardens and +Orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit_. We have +all heard of the grandeur of Nebuchadnezzar's Gardens. + +Whether that of Alcinous was fabulous or not, it gave rise to Homer's +lofty strains:-- + + The balmy spirit of the western gale + Eternal breathes on flowers untaught to fail; + The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, + The buds to harden, and the fruit to grow.[23] + +That Homer was all alive to the rich scenery of nature, is evident, even +from his Calypso's Cave:-- + + All o'er the cavern'd rock a sprouting vine + Laid forth ripe clusters. Hence four limpid founts + Nigh to each other ran, in rills distinct, + Huddling along with many a playful maze. + Around them the soft meads profusely bloom'd + Fresh violets and balms.[24] + +The Egyptians, the Persians, and other remote nations, prided themselves +on their magnificent gardens. Diodorus Siculus mentions one "enriched +with palm trees, and vines, and every kind of delicious fruit, by +flowery lawns and planes, and cypresses of stupendous magnitude, with +thickets of myrtle, and laurel, and bay." He paints too the attachment +which some of the ancients had to landscape scenery:-- + + None of art's works, but prodigally strown + By nature, with her negligence divine. + +The splendid gardens at Damascus, were superintended by a native of +Malaga, who "traversed the burning sands of Africa, for the purpose of +describing such vegetables as could support the fervid heat of that +climate." The cities of Samarcand, Balckd, Ispahan, and Bagdad, were +enveloped and surrounded by luxurious and splendid gardens. No wonder +when those countries were partly governed by such celebrated men as +Haroun-al-Raschid, and his son Al-Mamoun, the generous protectors of +Arabian literature, and which son (about the year 813) has been justly +termed the _Augustus_ of Bagdad. "Study, books, and men of letters, (I +am quoting the eloquent pages of De Sismondi _On the Literature of the +Arabians_,) almost entirely engrossed his attention. Hundreds of camels +might be seen entering Bagdad loaded with nothing but manuscripts and +papers. Masters, instructors, translators, and commentators, formed the +court of Al-Mamoun, which appeared rather to be a learned academy than +the centre of government in a warlike empire." + +The gardens of Epicurus, and of Pisistratus, Cimon, and Theophrastus, +were the most famous of any in the Grecian empire. Those of Herculaneum +may be seen in the 2nd vol. of the paintings found there. The luxurious +gardens of the affluent Seneca, and the delight with which Cicero speaks +of his paternal seat, (which enraptured his friend Atticus with its +beauty,) and the romantic ones of Adrian, at Tivoli, and of Lucullus, of +Sallust, of the rich and powerful Crassus, and of Pompey, shew the +delight which the old Romans took in them. One may gather this also from +Livy; and Virgil's energy of language warmly paints the + + ----flowering pride + Of meads and streams that through the valleys glide. + A country cottage near a crystal flood, + A winding valley, and a lofty wood. + + * * * * * + + Leisure and calm in groves, and cooling vales; + Grottoes and babbling brooks, and darksome dales. + +Messaline (says a translation of Tacitus) avoit une passion extreme pour +les jardins de Lucullus, qu'il embellisoit superbement, ajoûtant tous +les jours quelque nouvelles beautez à cellés qu'ils avoint receuës de +leur premier maitre. + +We are reminded in a magic page of our own immortal poet, of those of +Julius Cæsar, and of + + ----_his_ walks, + His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, + +when the noble Antony invokes the Romans to + + ----kiss dead Cæsar's wounds, + And dip their napkins in his sacred blood. + +Horace's incomparable lines on the happiness and delight of a country +life, his country granges, his woods, his garden, and his grove; and +many of the other Roman writers, abundantly shew their attachment to +gardens, as accompaniments to their splendid villas. There was scarcely +a romantic valley that was not crowded with their villas. + +Martial and Juvenal ridicule the clipped box trees, cut dragons, and +similar grotesque fancies, at some of their villas, both admiring the +nobler grace with which nature adorned each spot.[25] + +The Romans were perhaps the first who introduced that art into Britain, +meagerly as they did introduce it. The earliest account I can find of an +English writer on Gardening, is, + +Alfred, an _Englishman_, surnamed the Philosopher, much respected at +Rome. He died 1270, and left four books on the Meteors of Aristotle; +also one on _Vegetables_, and five on the Consolations of Boethius. We +are not _very_ likely to discover _his_ portrait. Nor that of the +following:-- + +HENRY DANIEL, a Dominican friar, said to be well skilled in the natural +philosophy and physic of his time, left a manuscript inscribed _Aaron +Danielis_. He therein treats De re Herbaria, de Arboribus, _Fructibus_, +&c. He flourished about the year 1379.--N. B. I have copied this article +from Dr. Pulteney's Sketches, vol. 1, page 23.[26] + +I believe there are no Portraits engraved, nor perhaps yet discovered, +of the following sixty-nine persons; at least I know of none:-- + + +RICHARD ARNOLDE, who in his Chronicle, printed in 1502, has a chapter on +"The crafte of graffynge, and plantyne, and alterynge of fruyts, as well +in colours, as in taste." The celebrated poem of the Nut-brown Maid +first appeared in this Chronicle. Sir E. Brydges, in vol. 6 of his +Censura Literaria, has transcribed the whole poem as it appears in +Arnolde. + + +THOMAS TUSSER, whose memory has had the felicity to merit the notice of +Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, from his having published +his poem of "A Hundreth good Pointes of Husbandrie, imprinted at London, +in Flete strete, within Temple barre, at the syne of the Hand and +Starre, by Richard Totell, An. 1577." A copy of this first edition +(probably unique) is preserved in the British Museum. A re-print of this +singular literary rarity is given in Mr. Hazlewood's British +Bibliographer. The subsequent editions of this curious book are +interestingly enumerated by Mr. Mavor, in his edition of Tusser. No +portrait I believe has been discovered of this benevolent man, whose +good sense, impressive maxims, enlightened and philosophic turn of mind +and feeling for the poor, shine through most pages of his poem:-- + + What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night with sleep, + What better work, than daily care, from sin thyself to keep? + What better thought, than think on God, and daily him to serve, + What better gift than to the poor, that ready be to sterve? + +His estimate of life is concise:-- + + To death we must stoop, be we high, be we low, + But how and how suddenly few be that know; + What carry we then but a sheet to the grave, + (To cover this carcass) of all that we have? + +His hospitable heart thus pleads for the desolate, during the +festivities of Christmas, and his love of "mirth and good cheer" makes +him not forget Harvests home:-- + + At Christmas, the hardness of winter doth rage, + A griper of all things, and specially age; + Then sadly poor people, the young and the old, + Be sorest oppressed with hunger and cold. + + At Christmas, by labour there's little to get, + That wanting--the poorest in danger are set: + What season then better, of all the whole year, + Thy needy, poor neighbour, to comfort and cheer. + + At Christmas be merry, and thankful withal, + And feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small: + Yea all the year long, to the poor let us give, + God's blessing to follow us, whiles we do live. + + In harvest time, harvest folk, servants and all + Should make, all together, good cheer in the hall; + And fill out the black bowl of blythe to their song, + And let them be merry all harvest time long. + + Once ended thy harvest, let none be beguil'd, + Please such as did help thee--man, woman, and child,-- + Thus doing, with alway, such help as they can, + Thou winnest the praise of the labouring man. + + Now look up to God-ward, let tongue never cease + In thanking of him, for his mighty increase, + Accept my good will--for a proof go and try; + The better thou thrivest, the gladder am I. + +Tusser died about the year 1583, aged about sixty-five, and is buried in +St. Mildred's church, in the Poultry. His epitaph is preserved in +Stowe's Survey of London; and (as Mr. Mavor observes) it is perfectly in +character with the man and his writings; and if conjecture may be +allowed, was penned by himself:-- + + Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, + Who sometime made the Points of Husbandry. + By him then learn thou may'st. Here learn we must, + When all is done, we sleep and turn to dust. + And yet, through Christ, to heaven we hope to go: + Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so. + +His book exhibits an authentic picture of the state of horticulture +during the time of Mary, and Elizabeth; and, as Mr. Warton observes, his +work "is valuable as a genuine picture of the agriculture, the rural +arts, and the domestic oeconomy and customs of our industrious +ancestors." + +Walter Blith says of him:--"As for Master Tusser, who rimeth out of his +experience, if thou delightest therein, thou mayst find things worthy +thy observation." + +Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, thus writes:--"The life of +this poor man was a series of misfortunes; and is a proof of the truth +of that saying in Holy Scripture, that 'the battle is not to the strong, +nor the race to the swift.' As to the Points of Husbandry, it is written +in familiar verse, and abounds with many curious particulars, that +bespeak the manners, the customs, and the modes of living in the +country, from the year 1520 to about half a century after; besides +which, it discovers such a degree of oeconomical wisdom in the author, +such a sedulous attention to the honest arts of thriving, such a general +love of mankind, such a regard to justice, and a reverence for religion, +that we do not only lament his misfortunes, but wonder at them; and are +at a loss to account for his dying poor, who understood so well the +method to become rich." + +From the "Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet," I +select a small part of what that worthy man says of Tusser:--"He seems +to have been a good-natured cheerful man, and though a lover of +oeconomy, far from meanness, as appears in many of his precepts, +wherein he shews his disapprobation of that pitiful spirit, which makes +farmers starve their cattle, their land, and every thing belonging to +them; chusing rather to lose a pound than spend a shilling. Upon the +whole, his book displays all the qualities of a well-disposed man, as +well as of an able farmer. He wrote in the infancy of farming, and +therefore I shall give a full account of his practice, especially as his +precepts will be comprised in a narrow compass, and as a sort of justice +done to him as an original writer." + +Mr. Mavor observes, "The precepts of Tusser indeed are so excellent, +that few can read them without profit and improvement; he appears to +have possessed such a degree of pious resignation to the will of the +Supreme, of christian charity, and of good humour, under all his +miscarriages, that his character rises high in our esteem, independent +of his merits as a writer. The cultivated and liberal mind of Tusser +seems to have been ill-suited to his fortune, and to his vocation. A +love of hospitality probably kept him from independence; yet if he was +imprudent, we cannot help loving the man and admiring the justness of +his sentiments on every subject connected with life and morals." + +Fuller, in his _Worthies of Essex_, says, "he spread his bread with all +sorts of butter, yet none would stick thereon. Yet I hear no man to +charge him with any vicious extravagancy, or visible carelessness, +imputing his ill success to some occult cause in God's counsel." + +I am indebted, in some degree, for these several testimonies, to Mr. +Mavor's spirited edition of this book, which he has enriched with a +biographical sketch of Tusser, and with many interesting illustrations +of his poem. He exhibits another instance of the private character of +Tusser, in his concluding remarks on the last page of his work:--"The +moral feeling and the pious resignation which breathe in the concluding +stanzas of this poem, leave a powerful impression on the mind; and +whatever vicissitudes in life the Editor or his Readers may experience, +he wishes for Himself and for Them, the same philosophic and christian +composure, on a retrospect of the past, and the anticipated view of +futurity." + +Of Mr. Warton's remarks on Tusser, Mr. Mavor thus partly speaks:--"For +the personal kindness of Warton to me, at an early period of life, I +shall ever retain an affectionate remembrance of him, and for his genius +and high attainments in literature, I feel all that deference and +respect which can belong to his most enthusiastic admirers; but no man +was less a judge of the merits of a book on Husbandry and Huswifry." + +Mr. Warton observes, that "Tusser's general precepts have often an +expressive brevity, and are sometimes pointed with an epigrammatic turn, +and smartness of allusion." + +In Tusser's poetical account of his own unsuccessful life, + + _How through the briers my youthful years + Have run their race_,-- + +how he was forced from his father's house when a little boy, and driven +like a POSTING HORSE, being impressed to sing as a chorister, at +Wallingford College; his miseries there, and the _stale bread_ they gave +him; the fifty-three stripes the poor lad received at Eton, when +learning Latin; his happy transfer to Trinity College, which to him +seemed a removal from hell to heaven; the generosity of Lord Paget, + + _Whose soul I trust is with the just_; + +then his + + ----_good parents dy'd + One after one, till both were gone, + Whose souls in bliss, be long ere this._ + +His remaining ten years at court, where + + _Cards and dice, with Venus' vice, + And peevish pride, from virtue wide, + With some so wraught, + That Tyburn play, made them away, + Or beggars state._ + +His residing in _Suffolk_, as a farmer, + + _To moil and toil, + With loss and pain, to little gain, + To cram Sir Knave_; + +his removal to near Dereham Abbey, which he left, (though stored with +flesh and fish) from the squabbles and brawls of _lord with lord_; the +death of the worthy Sir Richard Southwell, + + ----_that jewel great, + Which op'd his door to rich and poor, + So bounteously_,-- + +on whose decease he was left to _sink or swim_; his removal to +Salisbury, as a singing man; thence + + _With sickness worn, as one forlorn,_ + +he removed to a parsonage house in Essex, to collect tithes, in its +_miry ways_; his foreboding the parson's death, and foreseeing new +charges about to be made for tithes, + + ----_I spy'd, if parson died, + (All hope in vain) to hope for gain, + I might go dance; + Once rid my hand, of pars'nage land, + Hence, by-and-by, away went I + To London straight, to hope and wait + For better chance._ + +From which place the plague drove him to Cambridge, to + + _The college, best of all the rest,_ + _With thanks to thee, O Trinity!_ + _Through thee and thine, for me and mine,_ + _Some stay I got._ + +He concludes with pious resignation to God.[27] + + +DIDYMUS MOUNTAIN, who, in 1571, wrote "The Gardener's Labyrinth," in +4to. "wherein are set forth, divers knottes and mazes, cunningly handled +for the beautifying of gardens." And in 1577 appeared a second part, +"with the wittie ordering of other daintie hearbes, delectable flowres, +pleasaunt fruites, and fine rootes, as the like hath not heretofore been +vttered of any." Other editions in 4to. 1608, and in folio 1652. + + +BARNABY GOOCHE published The whole art and trade of Husbandry, contained +in foure books, _enlarged_ by Barnaby Googe, Esq. 4to. black letter, +1578. The two later editions, in 1614 and 1631, both in black letter, +and in 4to. are said by Weston to have been re-printed by Gervaise +Markham. The 2nd book treats "Of Gardens, Orchards, and Woods." + +In the 2nd vol. of the _Censura Litt._ is some information respecting B. +Gooche, and his epistle to the reader shews his own liberal mind: "I +haue thought it meet (good Reader) for thy further profit and pleasure, +to put into English, these foure Bookes of Husbandry, _collected and +set forth_, _by Master Conrade Heresbatch_, a great and a learned +Counceller of the Duke of _Cleues_: not thinking it reason, though I +haue altered and increased his vvorke, _with mine owne readings and +obseruations_, ioined with the experience of sundry my friends, to take +from him (as diuers in the like case haue done) the honour and glory of +his owne trauaile: Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings, +or mine, should deface, or any wayes darken the good enterprise, or +painfull trauailes of such our Countrymen of England, as haue +plentifully written of this matter: but alwayes haue, and do giue them +the reuerence and honour due to so vertuous, and well disposed +Gentlemen, namely, _Master Fitzherbert_, and _Master Tusser_: vvhose +vvorkes may, in my fancie, without any presumption, compare with any, +either _Varro_, _Columella_, or _Palladius_ of _Rome_." + + +SIR HUGH PLATT, "that learned and great observer," but of whom we know +so little, was, as Mr. Weston, in his Catalogue of English Authors, +informs us, "the most ingenious husbandman of the age he lived in: yet, +so great was his modesty, that all his works seem to be posthumous, +except the _Paradise of Flora_, which appeared in 1600, when it is +probable he was living. He spent part of his time at Copt-hall, in +Essex, or at Bishop's-hall, in Middlesex, at each of which places he had +a country seat; but his town residence was Lincoln's Inn. He held a +correspondence with all lovers of agriculture and gardening throughout +England; and such was the justice and modesty of his temper, that he +always named the author of every discovery communicated to him." In 1606 +he had a garden in St. Martin's Lane. A list of his works appears in the +late Dr. Watts's most laborious work, the Bibl. Brit. in 4 vols. 4to. In +his "Floraes Paradise, beautified and adorned with sundry sorts of +delicate fruites and flowers, to be sold in Paule's church-yard, at the +signe of the Holy Ghost, 1608," 12mo. he thus concludes his address to +the studious and well affected reader:--"_And thus, gentle Reader, +hauing acquainted thee with my long, costly, and laborious Collections, +not written at adventure, or by an imaginary conceit in a Scholler's +priuate Studie, but wrung out of the earth, by the painfull hand of +experience: and hauing also giuen thee a touch of Nature, whom no man as +yet euer durst send naked into the worlde without her veyle; and +expecting, by thy good entertainement of these, some encouragement for +higher and deeper discoueries heereafter, I leaue thee to the God of +Nature, from whom all the true light of Nature proceedeth._ +Bednall-greene, _neere London_, _this 2 of July, 1608_." + +In his chapter of "An offer of some new, rare, and profitable +Inventions," after speaking of "the most rare and peerless plant of all +the rest, I meane the grape," he mentions the wholesomeness of the wine +he then made from his garden at _Bednall-greene_, _neere London_:--"And +if any exception shold be taken against the race and delicacie of them, +I am content to submit them to the censure of the best mouthes, that +professe any true skill in the iudgement of high country wines: although +for their better credit herein, I could bring in the French Embassador, +who (now almost two yeeres since, comming to my house of purpose to tast +these wines) gaue this sentence vpon them; that he neuer drank any +better nevv Wine in France. And _Sir Francis Vere_, that martiall +Mirrour of our times, who is seldom or never without a cup of excellent +wine, at his table, assured me that he neuer dranke the like vnto mine, +but once, and that in France. So that now mee thinks I begin to growe +somewhat strong in my supporters; and therefore I make some doubt, +whether I shall need to bring in that renowned Lady _Arabella_, the +Countesse of _Cumberland_, the Lady _Anne Clifford_, the Lady +_Hastings_, the Lady _Candish_, and most of the Maides of Honour, with +diuers Lordes, Knights, and Gentlemen of good worth, that haue generally +applauded the same; or leaue it heere to worke out his owne credit in +his due time, because it is rich, and of a strong boiling nature." + +In his chapter of "Secrets in the ordering of Trees and Plants," he +alludes to a gardener of the name of Maister _Andrew Hill_, or to his +garden, no less than twenty-three times; and frequently to one of the +name of Maister _Pointer_,[28] _of Twickenham_. Also to one of the name +of _Colborne_; and to a parson _Simson_. He thus concludes this +chapter:--"Heere I will conclude with a pretty conceit of that delicate +knight, Sir _Francis Carew_; who, for the better accomplishment of his +royall entertainemét of our late Queene of happy memory, at his house at +_Beddington_, led her Maiestie to a Cherrie tree, whose fruite hee had +of purpose kept backe from ripening, at the least one month after all +Cherries had taken their farewell of England. This secret he performed, +by straining a Tent or cover of canvas ouer the whole tree, and wetting +the same now and then with a scoope or horne, as the heate of the +weather required; and so, by with-holding the sunne-beames from +reflecting vppon the berries, they grew both great, and were very long +before they had gotten their perfect cherrie-colour: and when hee was +assured of her Maiesties comming, he remoued the Tent, and a few sunny +daies brought them to their full maturitie." + +In the 2nd vol. of _Censura Litt._ is some information respecting Sir +Hugh. + + +GABRIEL PLATTES, who (Harte says) "had a bold, adventurous cast of +mind." The author of "Herefordshire Orchards," calls him "a singular +honest man." Mr. Weston says, "This author may be considered as an +original genius in husbandry. This ingenious writer, whose labours were +productive of plenty and riches to others, was so destitute of the +common necessaries of life, as to perish with hunger and misery. He was +found dead in the streets, without a shirt to cover him, to the eternal +disgrace of the government he lived under. He bequeathed his papers to +S. Hartlib, whom a contemporary author addresses in this manner: 'none +(but yourself, who wants not an enlarged heart, but a fuller hand to +supply the world's defect,) being found, with some few others, to +administer any relief to a man of so great merit.' Another friend of +Hartlib's, gives Plattes the following character: 'certainly that man +had as excellent a genius in agriculture, as any that ever lived in this +nation before him, and was the most faithful seeker of his ungrateful +country's good. I never think of the great judgement, pure zeal, and +faithful intentions of that man, and withal of his strange sufferings, +and manner of death, but am struck with amazement, that such a man +should be suffered to fall down dead in the streets for want of food, +whose studies tended in no less than providing and preserving food for +whole nations, and that with as much skill and industry, so without +pride or arrogance towards God or man.'--A list of his many works +appears in Watts's Bibl. Brit. and also in Weston's intelligent +Catalogue; and much information is given of Plattes in vol. 2 of the +Censura Litteraria. Two of his works appear to be, + + 1. Treatise of Husbandry; 1633, 4to. + + 2. Discourse of Infinite Treasure, hidden since the World's + beginning, in the way of Husbandry; 1632, 1653, 1656, 4to.[29] + + +WILLIAM LAWSON published in 1597, A New Orchard and Garden, in 4to. +Other editions, in 4to., in 1623, and 1626. His singular assertions are +treated with great candor by the author of _Herefordshire +Orchards_,--"for I thought I found many signs of honesty and integrity +in the man, a sound, clear, natural wit." + +SIMON HARWARD published in 1597, a Treatise on the Art of propagating +Vegetables; and annexed it to Lawson's New Orchard and Garden, + +THOMAS JOHNSON, the learned editor of the enlarged and valuable edition +of Gerarde. Wood calls him "the best herbalist of his time." Mr. +Weston, in his Catalogue, relates with great pleasure, the sanguine and +interesting tours which Mr. Johnson, and some friends, made in various +counties, to examine the native botanical beauties of his own country. + +Wood further informs us, that at the siege of Basinghouse, "he +received a shot in the shoulder, of which he died in a fortnight after; +at which time his work did justly challenge funeral tears; being then no +less eminent in the garrison for his valour and conduct as a soldier, +than famous through the kingdom for his excellency as an herbalist and +physician." I have given in a note below, his approbation of Parkinson's +work, merely to shew Mr. Johnson's liberal mind.[30] + +RALPH AUSTEN, published his Treatise of Fruit Trees, shewing the manner +of Grafting, Planting, &c. with the spiritual use of an Orchard, or +Garden, in divers similitudes. _Oxford_, 1653 and 1657, 4to. He appears +to have lived and died at Oxford. He dedicates it to his friend S. +Hartlib, Esq. Worlidge says, that in this treatise Austen hath "very +copiously set forth the high applauses, dignities, advantages, and +variety of pleasures and contents, in the planting and enjoyment of +fruit trees." + + +FRANCIS AUSTEN, published in 1631, Observations on Sir Francis Bacon's +Natural History, so far as concerns Fruit trees, 4to. Another edition, +4to., 1657. + + +JOHN BONFEIL, published Instructions how to Plant and Dress Vines, &c. +and to make Wine, &c. Printed with his Art of making Silk, 4to., 1622. + + +STEPHEN BLAKE, published in 1664, The complete Gardener's Practice, 4to. + + +WILLIAM HUGHES published + + 1, The complete Vineyard, 8vo. 1670, and 1683. + + 2, The American Physician, or a Treatise of the Roots, Plants, &c. + growing in the English Plantations; 12mo. 1672. + + 3, The Flower Garden, 12mo. 1672 and 1734. + + +SAMUEL HARTLIB, ESQ. published Sir Richard Weston's "Discourse of +Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders, shewing the wonderful +improvement of land there, and serving as a pattern for our practice in +this Commonwealth." _Lond._ 1645, 4to. 24 pages. Mr. Weston, in his +interesting Catalogue, says, "It is remarked in the Phil. Trans. that +England has profited in agriculture to the amount of many millions, in +consequence of the Flanders husbandry having been made known by this +little treatise. In another edition (I believe 1655) Hartlib, in order +to enlarge, and better explain it, annexed Dr. Beatie's Annotations to +it." Mr. Hartlib also published, + + 1, Legacie; or an Enlargement of the Discourse of Husbandry; 4to. + 1650. A second edition in 1651, and a third in 1655. + + 2, Concerning the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry, in a + letter to Dr. Beale; 4to. 1651. + + 3, A Designe for Plentie, by an universall planting of + _Fruit-trees_; tendered by some Well-wishers to the Public. _Lond._ + without date, but probably (as Mr. Loudon observes) 1652, 4to. + "Published by Hartlib, who had the MS. from the Hon. Colonel John + Barkstead, Lieutenant of the Tower. The author was an aged minister + of the Gospel, at Lovingland, near Yarmouth." + + 4, The Commonwealth of Bees, 1657. + +Mr. Weston gives much information respecting Mr. Hartlib. I select only +the following:-- + +"He was a German gentleman by birth, a great promoter of husbandry +during the times of the commonwealth, and much esteemed by all ingenious +men in those days, particularly by Milton, who addressed to him his +Treatise on Education; Sir William Petty also inscribed two letters to +him on the same subject. _Lond._ 4to. 1647 and 1648. Cromwell, who was a +great favourer of agriculture, in consequence of this admirable +performance, allowed Hartlib a pension of £100. a year; and Hartlib +afterwards, the better to fulfil the intentions of his benefactor, +procured Dr. Beatie's excellent annotations on the Legacy, with other +valuable pieces from his numerous correspondents. This famous work, +attributed to Hartlib, and called the Legacy, was only drawn up at his +request, and, passing through his correction and revision, was published +by him." His name will ever stand honoured, from Milton having +dedicated his _Tractate on Education_ to him, and from his having, in +this tract, painted with affection, and with warm and high colours, the +character of Mr. Hartlib.[31] + +Dr. JOHN BEALE, author of that celebrated little tract, the +"Herefordshire Orchards, a pattern for the whole of England." _London_ +1657, 12mo.; 1724, 8vo. He addresses this to Mr. Hartlib, and thus +commences it:--"Your industrious endeavours for the benefit of all men, +and particularly for the good of this nation, hath well deserved the +grateful acknowledgement of all good men, and of my self in special; for +that in my rural retirement I have received some profit, and very much +innocent and refreshing delights in the perusal of those treatises, +which are by your diligent hand communicated to the publick." He thus +affectionately concludes it:--"I briefly hint unto you what esteem we do +truly owe unto your labours. I pray the Lord to remember your diligence +in the great day of his appearance in glory. Your hearty well-wisher." +In vol. 6 of the works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, are many letters +from Dr. Beale. That dated Oct. 26, strongly paints his attachment to +the fruits of Herefordshire, or whatever may tend to the benefit of that +his native county. Mr. Boyle says of him, "There is not in life, a man +in this whole island, nor on the continents beyond the seas, that could +be made more universally useful to do good to all." And Mr. Gough, in +his Topography, records the benefits he conferred on that county. Such a +testimony as the above, from such a man as Mr. Boyle, is, indeed, +honourable. The learned Boerhaave tells us who Mr. Boyle was: "Boyle, +the ornament of his age and country, succeeded to the genius and +enquiries of the great Verulam. Which of all Boyle's writings shall I +recommend? All of them. To him we owe the secrets of fire, air, water, +animals, vegetables, fossils, so that from his works may be reduced the +whole system of natural knowledge." His charities amounted to £1000. +annually. Dr. Beale resided chiefly at Hereford, (1660) when he was made +Rector of Yeovil, Somersetshire, where he died in 1683, at the age of +eighty. His other works are enumerated in Mr. Loudon's Encyclopædia of +Gardening. Mr. Evelyn, in the greatest of his works, (his Sylva,) adds +to it Dr. Beale's advertisement concerning Cyder. + +William Brome, a principal ornament of Christ Church, a native of +Herefordshire, and who afterwards lived in retirement at Ewithington, in +that county, "formed the plan (says the late Mr. Dunster in his edition +of Phillips's Cyder) of writing the Provincial History of his native +county, a work for which he was eminently qualified, not only by his +great and general learning, but as being particularly an excellent +naturalist and antiquary. After having made a considerable progress, he +abandoned his design, and, which is still more to be lamented, destroyed +the valuable materials which he had collected." I merely introduce this +to state, that from Mr. Brome, much information, in all likelihood, +might have been gathered respecting Dr. Beale. We have to regret, that +time and mortality, have now obliterated every fading trace of +contemporary recollection of a man, who, in his day, was so highly +esteemed.[32] + +ROBERT SHARROCK, Archdeacon of Winchester, and Rector of Bishop's +Waltham, and of Horewood. Wood, in his Athenæ, says, "he was accounted +learned in divinity, in the civil and common law, and very knowing in +vegetables, and all appertaining thereunto. He published The History of +the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables, by the concurrence of art +and nature. _Oxford_, 1660, 8vo., and 1672, 8vo.: an account of which +book you may see in the Phil. Trans. No. 84, page 5002." He also +published Improvements to the Art of Gardening; or an exact Treatise on +Plants. _London_, 1694; folio. This must have been a posthumous work, as +he died in 1684. + +---- ILIFFE, in 1670, published in 12mo. The compleat Vineyard. + +JOHN REA, the author of "Flora, Ceres, and Pomona." It is enriched by a +frontispiece engraved by D. Loggan. He dedicates the above folio, in +1665, to Lord Gerard, of Gerard's Bromley. His lordship, it seems, about +that time, determined to erect that noble mansion, which Plot has given +us a plate of; and Rea, in this folio, enumerates those plants, fruits, +and flowers, which he thinks this then-intended garden ought to be +furnished with; and a small bit, or a piece or parcel, of which once +most sumptuous garden, Plot gives us. "Altho' (says Rea) our country +cannot boast the benignity of that beautiful planet which meliorates +their fruit in Italy, France, and Spain; yet, by reflection from good +walks, well gravelled walks, the choice of fit kinds, we may plentifully +partake the pleasure, and yearly enjoy the benefit, of many delicious +fruits: as also the admiration and delight in the infinite varieties of +elegant forms, various colours, and numerous kinds of noble plants, and +beautiful flowers, some whereof have been heretofore handled by a +renowned person of your name; but since his time, nature hath discovered +many new varieties, not known to former ages, as I hope shortly will +appear in your own collections, gloriously adorning your spacious +garden, which I wish may correspond, both in fashion and furniture, with +that noble structure to which it appertaineth. Accept then, my honoured +lord, this humble offering, which may possibly live to do you service, +when I am dust and ashes, and, according to my highest ambition, remain +as a testimony of my sincerest gratitude for the many favours I have +received from your honour, your most accomplished lady, and that noble +family from whence she is descended. I should here add my prayers for +your honour's preservation, did I not reserve them for my morning +sacrifice, daily to be presented to the immortal deities by him that +is, your most humble and most devoted servant, John Rea." He addresses +also a long poem to Lady Gerard, on Flora inviting her to walk in this +garden, in which he celebrates her "bright beauty." + + Self-loved _Narcissus_, if he look + On your fair eyes, will leave the brook, + And undeceived, soon will rue + He ever any loved but you. + If to the _hyacinth_ you turn, + He smiles, and quite forgets to mourn. + The enamoured _heliotrope_ will run + To your bright stars, and leave the sun. + Our _lilies_ here do make no show, + They whiter on your bosom grow, + And _violets_ appear but stains, + Compared with your bluer veins. + + * * * * * + + New-blown buds, all scents excelling, + As you pass by, invite your smelling. + + * * * * * + + Mark the glorious _tulips_ rise + In various dress, to take your eyes, + And how the fairest and all the rest + Strive which shall triumph on your breast. + + * * * * * + + Thus your rich beauty and rare parts + Excel all flowers, exceed all arts. + Live then, sweet lady, to inherit + Your father's fortune, and his spirit, + Your mother's face and virtuous mind.[33] + +Throughout this long poem, John Rea's warmth much exceeds that of the +most romantic lovers. One of the latter only observes, that the flowers +courted the tread of his fair one's foot; that the sky grew more +beautiful in her presence, and that the atmosphere borrowed new +splendour from her eyes. Rea's passion seems even warmer than this. In +his address to the reader, he says, "I have continued my affection to +this honest recreation, without companion or encouragement; and now in +my old age, (wearied and weaned from other delights) find myself more +happy in this retired solitude, than in all the bustles and busie +employments of my passed days." He thus concludes his book:-- + + ---- this is all I crave: + Some gentle hand with flowers may strew my grave, + And with one sprig of bays my herse befriend, + When as my life, as now my book, doth end. + + Laus Deo. + +Rea gives us also another very long poem, being that of "Flora to the +Ladies," which he thus concludes:-- + + Silent as flow'rs may you in virtues grow, + Till rip'ning time shall make you fit to blow, + Then flourish long, and seeding leave behind + A numerous offspring of your dainty kind; + And when fate calls, have nothing to repent, + But die like flow'rs, virtuous and innocent. + Then all your fellow flow'rs, both fair and sweet, + Will come, with tears, to deck your winding-sheet; + Hang down their pensive heads so dew'd, and crave + To be transplanted to your perfum'd grave. + +These love poems seem all to have been written in his old age; and that +passion causes him thus to open his first book:--"Love was the inventor, +and is still the maintainer, of every noble science. It is chiefly that +which hath made my flowers and trees to flourish, though planted in a +barren desert, and hath brought me to the knowledge I now have in plants +and planting; for indeed it is impossible for any man to have any +considerable collection of plants to prosper, unless he love them: for +neither the goodness of the soil, nor the advantage of the situation, +will do it, without the master's affection; it is that which renders +them strong and vigorous; without which they will languish and decay +through neglect, and soon cease to do him service. I have seen many +gardens of the new model, in the hands of unskilful persons, with good +walls, walks and grass-plots; but in the most essential adornments so +deficient, that a green meadow is a more delightful object; there nature +alone, without the aid of art, spreads her verdant carpets, +spontaneously embroidered with many pretty plants and pleasing flowers, +far more inviting than such an immured nothing. And as noble fountains, +grottoes, statues, &c. are excellent ornaments and marks of +magnificence, so all such dead works in gardens, ill done, are little +better than blocks in the way to intercept the sight, but not at all to +satisfy the understanding. A choice collection of living beauties, rare +plants, flowers and fruits, are indeed the wealth, glory, and delight of +a garden." He seems enamoured with tulips. He describes no less than one +hundred and ninety different sorts. He calls them "Flora's choicest +jewels, and the most glorious ornaments of the best gardens. Such is +their rarity and excellence, and so numerous are the varieties, that it +is not possible any one person in the world should be able to express, +or comprehend the half of them, every new spring discovering many new +diversities never before observed, either arising from the seeds of some +choice kinds, the altering of off-sets, or by the busy and secret +working of nature upon several self-colours, in different soils and +situations, together with the help of art."[34] Switzer says, "the +practical and plain method in which he has delivered his precepts, are +admirable." There is a second edition of the Flora, _with additions_. +What these are, I know not; unless they are the cuts of parterres, which +were omitted in the first edition. There is an edition in 1696. + + +JOHN WORLIDGE published his Systema Agriculturæ in folio, 1668; second +edition in 1675, folio: fourth edition in 1687, folio. An octavo edition +1716, with its English title of "A compleat System of Husbandry and +Gardening, or the Gentleman's Companion in the Business and Pleasures of +a Country life." In the preface to this, and indeed throughout all his +works, we may trace his fondness for gardens. The great variety of rural +subjects treated on in this book, may be seen in its Index, or full +Analysis. In his second section "Of the profits and pleasures of +fruit-trees," he strongly enforces the planting of vineyards. + +His Systema Horticulturæ, or the Art of Gardening, was published in +1677, 8vo.; a third edition 1688; a fourth edition 1719. + +Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise on Cyder, and other Wines and Drinks, +extracted from Fruits: to which is added, a Discourse on Bees; 8vo., +_second impression, much enlarged_, 1678. He therein thus paints the +pleasures of a garden:--"The exercises of planting, grafting, pruning, +and walking in them, very much tendeth to salubrity, as also doth the +wholesome airs found in them, which have been experienced not only to +cure several distempers incident to our nature, but to tend towards the +prolongation of life. For nothing can be more available to health and +long life, than a sedate quiet mind, attended with these rural delights, +a healthful air, and moderate exercise, which may here be found in all +seasons of the year." + +He also published, The Second Parts of Systema Agriculturæ, 8vo. 1689. + +The Second Part of Vinetum Britannicum, 8vo. 1689. This is usually bound +with the above. + +His attachment to whatever concerns a rural life, shines through most of +his pages. Take the few following for a specimen:-- + +In his description of the month of _April_, he says, "In this month your +garden appears in its greatest beauty, the blossoms of the fruit-trees +prognosticate the plenty of fruits for all the succeeding summer months, +unless prevented by untimely frosts or blights. The bees now buz in +every corner of your garden to seek for food; the birds sing in every +bush, and the sweet nightingale tunes her warbling notes in your +solitary walks, whilst the other birds are at their rest. The beasts of +the woods look out into the plains, and the fishes of the deep sport +themselves in the shallow waters. The air is wholesome, and the earth +pleasant, beginning now to be cloathed in nature's best array, exceeding +all art's glory. This is the time that whets the wits of several nations +to prove their own country to have been the _Garden of Eden_, or the +terrestrial paradise, however it appears all the year besides. In case +unseasonable weather hinders not, the pleasantness and salubrity of the +air now tempts the sound to the free enjoyment of it, rather than to +enjoy the pleasures of _Bacchus_ in a smoaky corner." In his month of +_May_, he says, "He that delights not in physick, let him now exercise +himself in the _garden_, and take the smell of the earth with the rising +sun, than which to the virtuously inclined, there is nothing more +pleasant; for now is nature herself full of mirth, and the senses stored +with delights, and variety of pleasures." His month of _July_ thus +recommends itself: "Grotts and shady groves are more seasonable to +recreate yourself in than the open air, unless it be late in the +evening, or early in the morning, to such that can afford time to take a +nap after noon." + +In his Syst. Hort. he observes, that "A fair stream or current flowing +through or near your _garden_, adds much to the glory and pleasure of +it: on the banks of it you may plant several aquatick exoticks, and have +your seats or places of repose under their umbrage, and there satiate +yourself with the view of the curling streams, and its nimble +inhabitants. These gliding streams refrigerate the air in a summer +evening, and render their banks so pleasant, that they become resistless +charms to your senses, by the murmuring noise, the undulation of the +water, the verdant banks and shades over them, the sporting fish +confined within your own limits, the beautiful swans; and by the +pleasant notes of singing birds, that delight in groves, on the banks of +such rivulets."[35] + +And in his preface to this last work, he says, "My principal design +being not only to excite or animate such as have fair estates, and +pleasant seats in the country, to adorn and beautifie them; but to +encourage the honest and plain countryman in the improvement of his +Ville, by enlarging the bounds and limits of his _Gardens_, as well as +his _Orchards_, for the encrease of such esculent plants as may be +useful and beneficial to himself and his neighbors." + + +FRANCIS DROPE, B. D., who died at Oxford, and whose father was Vicar of +Cumner, in Berkshire. Wood, in his Athenæ, says, "he hath written on a +subject which he much delighted in, and wherein he spent much time, but +which was not published till his death: A short and sure guide to the +practice of raising, and ordering of fruit trees, _Oxford_, 1672, 12mo., +a large and laudable account of which you may see in the Phil. Trans. +No. 86, p. 10, 49." + + +MOSES COOKE, Gardener to the Earl of Essex, at Cashiobury, afterwards a +partner with Lucre, Field and London, in the Brompton Park Nursery. He +wrote "The Art of making Cyder," published in Mr. Evelyn's works. The +manner of raising Forest Trees, 4to. 1696. Other editions in 8vo. in +1717, 1724, and 1770. Mr. Evelyn (speaking of Cashiobury) says, "The +gardens are very rare, and cannot be otherwise, having so skilful an +artist to govern them as Cooke." Moses Cooke, in his preface, justly +says, "Planting and Gardening add much to the health and content of man; +and these two jewels no man that well understands himself, would +willingly be without; for it is not only set down for a certain truth by +many wise men, but confirmed by experience. The learned Lord Bacon +commends the following of the plough in fresh ground, to be very +healthful for man; but more, the digging in gardens." His pages, here +and there, record some of "the fine stately trees that we have growing +in the woods at Cashiobury." Cooke unfortunately fancied himself a poet; +but gratitude to his noble master, and loyalty to his king, seem to have +been the motives of his inspiration. "One night (methought) walking up +one of my Lord's lime-walks, I heard the grateful trees thus paying the +tribute of their thanks to his lordship:-- + + Like pyramids our stately tops we'll raise, + To sing our noble benefactor's praise; + Freshly we will to after-ages show + What noble Essex did on us bestow: + For we our very being owe to him, + Or else we had long since intombed been + In crop of bird, or in beast's belly found, + Or met our death neglected on the ground. + By him we cherish'd were with dung and spade, + For which we'll recompense him with our shade. + And since his kindness saw us prun'd so well, + We will requite him with our fragrant smell; + In winter (as in gratitude is meet) + We'll strew our humble leaves beneath his feet. + Nay, in each tree, root, trunk, branch, all will be + Proud to serve him and his posterity." + +And he thus invokes the stately oak, after enumerating many of the rich +commodities which this tree bears through our Thames:-- + + Of silks and satins fine, to clothe the back; + Of wines, Italian, French, and Spanish sack. + + * * * * * + + 'T was faithful oak preserved our king, that we + Might thence learn lessons of true loyalty. + + * * * * * + + When in salt seas Sir Francis Drake did steer, + Sailing in oak he say'd one day i'th'year. + His oak, which the terrestrial globe did measure, + Through dangers led him t' honour, profit, pleasure. + No wood like oak that grows upon the ground, + To make our house and ships last long and sound; + No oak like ours: by love to oak let's then + Appear true subjects, and right Englishmen. + + +ANTHONY LAWRENCE published in 4to. 1677, Nurseries, Orchards, Profitable +Gardens, and Vineyards Encouraged. + + +JOHN READ, "one of the earliest Scotch gardening writers." He wrote "The +Scotch Gardener," 1683, 4to. An Edinburgh edition in 8vo. 1766; to which +is added, a short Treatise of Forest Trees, by the Earl of Haddington. + + +J. GIBSON, who wrote A Short Account of several Gardens near London, as +viewed in 1681, in vol. xii of the Archæologia. + + +T. LANGFORD wrote Plain and Full Instructions to raise all sorts of +Fruit Trees that prosper in England; with Directions for making Liquors +of all sorts of Fruits; 8vo. 1681. To the second edition, in 1696, is +prefixed a very handsome epistle from Mr. Evelyn, in which he says, "As +I know nothing extant that exceeds it, so nor do I of any thing which +needs be added to it." Also, + +The Practical Planter of Fruit Trees; 8vo. 1681. Also, Systemæ +Agriculturæ, being the Mystery of Husbandry Discovered; folio, 1681. + + +LEONARD MEAGER'S Portrait perhaps we may not be very desirous to +discover, when he tells his readers, neither to "sow, plant, nor graft, +or meddle with any thing relating to gardening, when the sun or moon is +eclipsed, or on that day, nor when the moon is afflicted by either of +the unfortunate planets, viz. Mars or Saturn."[36] His English Gardner, +in 4to. with cuts, came out in 1683; the ninth edition came out in 1699, +4to.; it contains several clearly pointed plates of knots, or parterres. + +Meager also published The New Art of Gardening, with the Gardener's +Almanack; 8vo. 1697; and + +The Mystery of Husbandry; 12mo. 1699. + +The many editions that came out of Meager's English Gardner, +sufficiently shews the estimation in which his book was held. + +GEORGE LONDON and HENRY WISE, so eminent in their day, that, as a +contemporary says, "If the stock of their nurseries at Brompton Park, +were valued at one penny a plant, the amount would exceed £40,000. Mr. +Evelyn declares, that we may place the above nursery above the greatest +works of that kind ever seen or heard of, either in books or travels." +Mr. Evelyn again calls it "that vast ample collection which I have +lately seen, and well considered, at Brompton Park; the very sight of +which alone, gives an idea of something that is greater than I can well +express. One needs no more than to take a walk to Brompton Park, (on a +fair morning) to behold and admire what a magazine these industrious men +have provided." The Rev. John Laurence, in his Clergyman's Recreation, +willingly attests their skill, integrity, and reputation, "so well +established amongst the nobility and gentry." + +Mr. London's grateful apprentice, Switzer, thus affectionately and +zealously records them in his History of Gardening, prefixed to his +Iconologia:--"But now let us look amongst the nobility and gentry, which +at this time were every where busied in making and adorning their +gardens and plantations. To enumerate and set down the history of +gardening in its several particulars in this reign, would require a +volume of itself, but will be for the most part summed up in the person +and character of _George London, Esq._ Superintendent of their Majesties +gardens, and Director-General of most of the gardens and plantations of +Great Britain. I am not well enough informed, neither is it material I +should go back to the birth and education of this eminent gardener; his +industry and natural parts soon and sufficiently recommended him to the +nobility and gentry, that he was _courted and caressed by all_; so true +it is, _That the gifts of nature are much more valuable than those of +original birth and fortune, or even learning itself_. And to the eternal +honour of the present age be it spoken, never was virtue, laudable +industry, nor art more encouraged, of which the person we are here +speaking of is an undeniable instance. I shall content myself therefore +to find him under the care and instruction of Mr. _Rose_ (whose +character has been already drawn). The early and vigorous appearances he +made in business were soon discovered by his master, who spared no +pains, nor hindered him of any liberty, whereby he might improve +himself. After he had been with him about four or five years, he sent +him (if I am right informed) into France, the great seat of learning at +that time in the world, especially in the errand he went about. Soon +after he returned, he was preferred to the Bishop of London's service +before-mentioned; and, in a few years more, he (with his associates) +entered on that great undertaking of Brompton Park; and upon the +Revolution, was made superintendant of all their Majesties gardens, for +which he had £200. a year, and a Page of the Back Stairs to Queen Mary. +Mr. London and Mr. Wise being joined partners, and thus, as it were, +both possessed of the royal favour, and the purses of the king, queen, +and nobility, left no stone unturned to carry on their designs. Soon +after the peace of Reswyck, Mr. London took another journey into France, +with the Right Honourable the Earl of Portland, that was sent, by King +William, Ambassador-Extraordinary on that occasion; and then it was that +he made those observations on the fruit gardens at Versailles, which are +published in the preface to their abridgement. After the death of the +Queen, and not many years after her the King, their royal successor, +Queen Anne, of pious memory, committed the care of her gardens in chief +to Mr. Wise, Mr. London still pursuing his business in the country. It +will perhaps be hardly believed in time to come, that this one person +actually saw and gave directions once or twice a year in most of the +noblemen's and gentlemen's gardens in England. And since it was common +for him to ride fifty or sixty miles in a day, he made his northern +circuit in five or six weeks, and sometimes less; and his western in as +little time; as for the south and east, they were but three or four +days' work for him; most times twice a year visiting all the country +seats, conversing with gentlemen, and forwarding the business of +gardening in such a degree as is almost impossible to describe. In the +mean time his colleague managed matters nearer home with a dexterity and +care equal to his character; and in truth they have deserved so much of +the world, that it is but common justice to transmit their memory to +ages to come. To speak more particularly of the knowledge Mr. London was +supposed to be master of in this matter, the little opportunity he had +in laying a foundation of learning, was, without doubt, a great +obstruction to his progress in occult philosophy, which is involved in +so many hard terms; this, nevertheless, he overcame purely by industry; +and what he wanted in one, he abounded with in the other. He was +perfectly well skilled in fruit, which seemed to be his master-piece; as +for other parts, as greens, trees, flowers, exoticks, and the like, he +certainly had as much knowledge as any one man living; and though he +might not come up to the highest pitch of design always, yet that might +be attributed to the haste he was generally in; and it can be no great +blemish to his character, that he was not the greatest person in every +thing, when it is surprising to find he could possibly know so much; so +great a surprise indeed, that we must hardly ever expect his equal, much +less any one that will exceed him. The planting and raising of all sorts +of trees is so much due to this undertaking, that it will be hard for +any of posterity to lay their hands on a tree in any of these kingdoms, +that have not been a part of their care. Mr. London, by his great +fatigues in heat and cold, notwithstanding naturally of a healthy, +strong constitution, was at last seized with an illness, which carried +him off after a few months' sickness. I shall take no other notice of +him than what relates to my purpose in gardening, in which he has left a +laudable example to all that shall have the encouragement to enter, and +the courage and strength to perform what he did. He died towards +Christmas in the year 1713." + +In the preface to his Iconologia, he again mentions them:--"Had their +leisure been equal to their experience, the world might from them have +reasonably expected the compleatest System of Gardening that any age or +country has produced. It is to them we owe most of those valuable +precepts in gardening now in use, and their memory ought to be +transmitted to posterity, with the same care as those of the greatest +and most laborious philosophers and heroes, who by their writing and +practice have deserved so well of the world." + +He again mentions his old master, Mr. London:--"In fine, he was the +person that refined the business and pleasure of kitchen and fruit +gardens to a pitch beyond what was ever till that time seen, and more +than was thought possible for one man ever to do; and (till the +succession of two eminent persons in these kingdoms, who have very much +outstript him) has not had his fellow in any century that history gives +us account of." + +Switzer, speaking of Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, says, "He was a +great encourager of Mr. London, and probably very much assisted him in +his great designs. This reverend father was one of the first that +encouraged the importation, raising and increase of exoticks, in which +he was the most curious man in that time, or perhaps will be in any +age. He had above one thousand species of exotick plants in his stoves +and gardens." + +No monument has, I believe, been erected to Mr. London's memory, +deservedly eminent and esteemed as he was in his day, _courted and +caressed by all_, nor can I find out even where he was born or buried. +If one could obtain a resemblance of him, one hopes his Picture, or his +Bust, may not deserve the censure of our noble poet: + + What is the end of fame? 'tis but to fill + A certain portion of uncertain paper; + + * * * * * + + To have, when the original is dust, + A name, a wretched _picture_, and worse _bust_.[37] + +The two following works were published by them:-- + +The Complete Gardener, &c. by Mons. de la Quintinye. Now compendiously +abridged, and made of more use; with very considerable Improvements. By +George London and Henry Wise. To which is prefixed, An Address to the +Nobility and Gentry, by J. Evelyn, Esq.; folio, 1693; octavo, 1699, +1717. Seventh edition in 1719. There is a curious plate of a garden +prefixed, and two neat ones at page 22. There are also other cuts. Mr. +Evelyn wrote this Address purposely to recommend their "extraordinary +and rare industry." And he also wrote the Preliminary Discourse to that +part which relates to Fruit-trees, wherein he thus breaks out:--"Let us +but take a turn or two in a well-contrived and planted garden; and see +what a surprising scene presents itself in the vernal bloom, diffusing +its fragrant and odoriferous wafts, with their ravishing sweets; the +tender blossoms curiously enamelled; the variously-figured shapes of the +verdant foliage, dancing about, and immantling the laden branches of the +choicest fruit; some hiding their blushing cheeks; others displaying +their beauties, and even courting the eye to admire; others the hand to +gather, and all of them to taste their delicious pulps. Can any thing be +more delightful, than to behold an ample square (in a benign aspect) +tapestried and adorned with such a glorious embroidery of festoons, and +fruitages, depending from the yielding boughs, pregnant with their +offspring, and pouring forth their plenty and store, as out of so many +Amalthean horns? Some tinctured with the loveliest white and red; others +an azurine-purple; others striped with an incarnadine, as over a tissue +of vegetable gold. Colours of an oriency, that mock the pencil of the +most exquisite artist; and with which their native beauty, perfume, +fragrancy, and taste, gratify and entertain more senses at once, than +does any sublunary object in all unvitiated nature besides." + +Their other Work was thus announced in one of the original numbers of +the Spectator, which came out in small folio weekly numbers, and a +portion of each number was appropriated to advertisements. It was thus +advertised in that of May 5th, 1711:--"The Retired Gardener. Vol. i. +Being a Translation of Le Jardinier Solitaire; or, Dialogues between a +Gentleman and a Gardener: containing the methods of making, ordering, +and improving a fruit and kitchen garden; together with the manner of +planting and cultivating flowers, plants, and shrubs, necessary for the +adorning of gardens, &c. Vol. ii. containing the manner of planting and +cultivating all sorts of flowers, plants, and shrubs, necessary for the +adorning of gardens; in which is explained, the art of making and +disposing of parterres, arbours of greens, wood works, arches, columns, +and other pieces and compartments usually found in the most beautiful +gardens of country seats. The whole enriched with variety of Figures, +being a Translation from the Sieur Louis Liger. To this volume is added, +a Description and Plan of Count Tallard's Garden, at Nottingham. The +whole revised by George London and Henry Wise. Printed for Jacob Tonson, +at Shakspeare's Head, over against Catherine-street in the Strand." This +book, after giving the mode of culture of most flowers, generally gives +what the author calls _its history_. I will merely give its history of +one flower:--"On a day when they were keeping holiday in heaven, Flora +summoned all the deities that preside over gardens, and, when they were +met, addressed herself to them in this manner: 'You, who have always +been the shining ornaments of my court, I have now called together, to +consult in a matter of great importance. I know I am the sovereign of +all the flowery kind; but for the more firm establishment of my empire, +I am thinking to choose them a Queen of a spotless and unblemished +reputation; but will do nothing of this nature without your counsel and +assistance.' To these words, all the deities that were present, having +first filled the court with murmurs, answered in this manner: 'Great +goddess, be pleased to reflect a little on the animosities such a choice +may create among the rival flowers; even the worthless Thistle will +pretend to deserve the crown, and if denied, will perhaps grow factious, +and disturb your peaceful reign.' 'Your fears are groundless,' replied +the goddess; 'I apprehend no such consequence; my resolution is already +fixed; hear, therefore, what I have determined:--In the deep recesses of +a wood, where formerly the oaks were vocal, and pronounced oracles to +mortals, at the foot of a little hill is a grotto, whose structure is +nature's master-piece, there a wood nymph passed her quiet days; she was +extremely beautiful, and charmed all that beheld her; her looks, her +mien, and her behaviour had something of more than human; and indeed she +was the daughter of a Dryad, and of a sylvan god. Her chastity and +devotion equalled her beauty, she was perfectly resigned to the will of +heaven, and never undertook any thing without having first implored our +assistance; her heart was pure, and her hands undefiled. This nymph is +dead, and my intention is to raise a flower from her precious remains, +to be Queen of all the flowery race. The applauding gods straight +prepared for the ceremony; _Priapus_ put on a grave countenance; +_Vertumnus_ loaded himself with perfumes of an excellent scent; _Pomona_ +heaped up canisters with all sorts of richest fruits; _Venus_ was +attended with a train of smiles and graces; _Vesta_ promised wonders; +and _Bacchus_ supplied rivers of nectar, and crowned vast goblets with +that divine liquor. In this equipage they left their celestial mansions, +and repaired to the grotto, where they saw the dead body of the nymph +stretched along on a soft couch of turf, and approaching it with +profound awe and silence, prepared to pay the sacred rites; and Flora, +having thrice bowed herself to the ground, was heard to pronounce this +prayer:--'Almighty Jupiter, great ruler of the universe, exert thy +creating power, and from the dead corpse of this lovely nymph let a +plant arise, and bear no less lovely flowers, to be Queen of all thou +hast already created.' Scarce had she made an end, when, behold a +wondrous change! The nymph's extended limbs were turned into branches, +and her hair into leaves; a shrub sprung up, adorned with sprouting +buds, which straight unfolding, disclosed a fragrant and vermilion +flower; a sudden light filled all the grotto, and the well-pleased +goddess breathed thrice on the new-born babe, to spread it into life, +and give it an odorous soul. Then seeing the vegetable Queen adorned +with every grace, she kissed her thrice, and, breaking the general +silence, revealed her secret joy. 'Approach,' said she, 'at my command, +oh, all ye flowers, and pay your grateful homage to your Queen, the +ROSE, for that is the name I give her.' Then taking a crown in her hand, +that had been made on purpose in heaven, she placed it on the head of +the new-made majesty; while to complete the ceremony, the attending gods +sung joyful _Io Pæans_, amidst a symphony of flutes, harps, and all +other tuneful instruments, with which the air resounded, while Flora and +her bright celestial train ascended back rejoicing into heaven."[38] + + +JOHN JAMES, who translated Le Blond's "Theory and Practice of Gardening, +wherein is fully handled all that relates to fine gardens, commonly +called Pleasure-gardens," cuts, 4to. 1712. + + +M. STEVENSON published in small 4to. 1661, a book called The Twelve +Months, being a Treatise on Husbandry and Gardening. + + +The Rev. HENRY STEVENSON, of East Retford, published "The Young +Gardener's Director," 1716, 12mo. He has introduced Mr. Evelyn's advice +as to having salads in each month. There is a neat cut of flower-knots, +and the frontispiece exhibits a curious old garden. In the preface he +says, "not to mention the profit to a family, nothing conduces more to a +man's health, especially to one that lives a sedentary life. If these +observations and experiments I have made in gardening, be of use to any +by drawing him to a way of diversion that will preserve his health, and +perhaps put him upon a meditation on the great works of the creation, +let him give the Creator the praise." He also published "The Gentleman +Gardener Instructed;" eighth edition, 12mo. 1769. + + +DAVID STEVENSON, in 1746, published in 12mo. The Gentleman Gardener +Instructed. Is this the same book as the above? + + +STEPHEN SWITZER, of whose private history so very little is known, but +whose works shew him to have been an honest, unassuming, humane, +religious, most industrious, and ingenious man. We only know that he had +a garden on Milbank, and another _near_ Vauxhall; and that he died, I +believe, about 1745. He dates his Letter on the Cythesis, from New +Palace Yard, 1730. He was a native of _Hampshire_; for in his Fruit +Gardener, speaking of walnut-trees, he says, "The best I ever saw are +those that grow upon chalk. Such are those that grow about _Ewell_, near +_Epsom_, and in many places of my own native county of _Hampshire_, +there being one cut down some few years ago in the Park belonging to the +Right Honourable the Lady _Russell_, at _Stratton_, that did spread, at +least, fifty yards diameter." He acknowledges, without murmuring, his +meanness of fortune, and his having industriously submitted "to the +meanest labours of the scythe, spade, and wheel-barrow." He became, +however, eminent in his day, and added much to the beauty and +magnificence of the gardens of many of our chief nobility and gentry. He +wrote a history of the art he so loved, and therefore his classic +History of Gardening, prefixed to his Ichnographia Rustica, merits the +perusal of every one attached to gardens; and paints in strong colours +his own devotion to that art; and which he thus concludes:--"In short, +next to the more immediate duties of religion, 'tis in the innocency of +these employs, thus doing, thus planting, dressing, and busying +themselves, that all wise and intelligent persons would be found, when +Death, the king of terrors, shall close their eyes, and they themselves +be obliged to bid an eternal farewell to these and all other sublunary +pleasures;" and he who was thus fond of breathing the sweet and fragrant +air of gardens, thus expresses his own (perhaps expiring) wish in the +lines of Cowley: + + Sweet shades, adieu! here let my dust remain, + Covered with flowers, and free from noise and pain; + Let evergreens the turfy tomb adorn, + And roseate dews (the glory of the morn) + My carpet deck; then let my soul possess + The happier scenes of an eternal bliss. + +He asks "What solid pleasure is there not to be found in gardening? Its +pursuit is easy, quiet, and such as put neither the body nor mind into +those violent agitations, or precipitate and imminent dangers that many +other exercises (in themselves very warrantable) do. The end of this is +health, peace, and plenty, and the happy prospect of felicities more +durable than any thing in these sublunary regions, and to which this is +(next to the duties of religion) the surest path." His attachment to +some of our own poets, and to the classic authors of antiquity, +discovers itself in many of his pages; and his devout turn of mind +strongly shines throughout. His allusion to Homer, in vol. iii. page 7, +sufficiently shews how ardently this industrious servant, this barrow +wheeler, must have searched the great writers of ancient times, to +discover their attachment to rural nature, and to gardens. His candid +and submissive mind thus speaks:--"If we would, therefore, arrive at any +greater perfection than we are in gardening, we must cashiere that +mathematical stiffness in our gardens, and imitate nature more; how that +is to be done, will appear in the following chapters, which though they +may not be, as new designs scarce ever are, the most perfect, it will at +least excite some after-master to take pen and pencil in hand, and +finish what is here thus imperfectly begun, and this is my comfort, that +I shall envy no man that does it. I have, God be praised, learned to +admire, and not envy every one that outgoes me: and this will, I hope, +go a great way in making me easy and happy under the pressures of a very +narrow fortune, and amidst the ruffles of an ill-natured world. I have +tasted too severely of the lashes of man, to take any great +satisfaction in any thing but doing my duty."[39] In his devout and +magnificent Essay on the Sun, he says, "'tis admirable that this planet +should, through so many ages of the world, maintain an uninterrupted +course, that in so many thousands of revolving years, it should retain +the same light, heat, and vigour, and every morning renew its wonted +alacrity, and dart its cherishing beams on these dull and gloomy scenes +of melancholy and misery, and yet that so few of us rightly consider its +power, or are thankful to Divine Omnipotence for it. The great Roscommon +(not greater than good) speaks of it with divine transport, and exhorts +mankind to admire it, from the benefits and celestial beams it displays +on the world:-- + + Great eye of all, whose glorious ray + Rules the bright empire of the day; + O praise his name, without whose purer light + Thou hadst been hid in an abyss of night."[40] + +Switzer (as appears from the Preface to his Iconologia) was so struck +with the business and pleasures of a country life, that he collected, or +meant to collect, whatever he could respecting this subject, scattered +up and down as they were in loose irregular papers and books; but this +work, we regret to say, never made its appearance. That he would have +done this well, may be guessed at from so many of his pages recording +what he calls "the eternal duration" of Virgil's works, or those of "the +noble and majestic" Milton:-- + + Flowers worthy of Paradise, which no nice art + In beds, and curious knots, but nature boon + Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. + +Though prim regularity, and "parterres embroidered like a petticoat," +were in his time in high vogue, yet his pages shew his enlarged views on +this subject, and the magnificent ideas he had formed, by surrounding +them by rural enclosures, (probably by reading Mr. Addison), perfumed +with blossoms, and bespangled with the rich tufts of nature. Nothing, he +says, is now so much wanted to complete the grandeur of the British +nation, as noble and magnificent gardens, statues, and water-works; long +extended shady walks, and groves, and the adjacent country laid open to +view, and not bounded by high walls. The pleasant fields, and paddocks, +in all the beautiful attire of nature, would then appear to be a part of +it, and look as if the adjacent country were all a garden. Walls take +away the rural aspect of any seat; wood, water, and such like, being the +noble and magnificent decorations of a country villa. Switzer calls +water the spirit and most enchanting beauty of nature. He is so struck +with "the beautifulness and nobleness of terrace walks," and +particularly with that truly magnificent and noble one, belonging to the +Right Honourable the Earl of Nottingham, at _Burleigh-on-the-Hill_, that +"for my own part I must confess, that that design creates an idea in my +mind greater than I am well able to express." In his chapter of "Woods +and Groves," he enforces "a particular regard to large old oaks, beech, +and such like trees; in which case, one would as soon fire one's house, +as cut them down, since it is the work of so many years, I may say ages, +to rear them; those ancient trees which our forefathers had all along +preserved with much care."[41] In some of the romantic embellishments +which he proposed in the midst of a grove, or coppice, he hints at +having "little gardens, with caves, little natural cascades and grotts +of water, with seats, and arbors of honeysuckles and jessamine, and, in +short, with all the varieties that nature and art can furnish." He +advises "little walks and paths running through such pastures as adjoin +the gardens, passing through little paddocks, and corn fields, sometimes +through wild coppices, and gardens, and sometimes by purling brooks, and +streams; places that are set off not by _nice art_, but by luxury of +nature." And again, "these hedge-rows mixed with primroses, violets, and +such natural sweet and pleasant flowers; the walks that thus lead +through them, will afford as much pleasure, nay, more so, than the +largest walk in the most magnificent and elaborate fine garden."[42] He +concludes his interesting Chapter of Woods and Coppices, with these +lines of Tickell:-- + + Sweet solitude! when life's gay hours are past, + Howe'er we range, in thee we fix at last: + Tost thro' tempestuous seas, the voyage o'er, + Pale we look back, and bless the friendly shore. + Our own strict judges, our past life we scan, + And ask if glory have enlarg'd the span. + If bright the prospect, we the grave defy, + Trust future ages, and contented die. + +The following appear to have been his works:-- + + 1. The Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener's Recreation; or an + Introduction to Gardening, Planting, Agriculture, and the other + Business and Pleasures of a Country Life. By Stephen Switzer; 1715, + 8vo. Another edition in 1717, 8vo. The year afterwards, it was + published with the following title:-- + + 2. Icknographia Rustica; or, the Nobleman, Gentleman, and + Gardener's Recreation: containing Directions for the general + Distribution of a Country Seat into rural and extensive Gardens, + Parks, Paddocks, &c.; and a General System of Agriculture; + illustrated by a great variety of Copperplates, done by the first + hands, _from the Author's Drawings_. By Stephen Switzer, Gardener: + several years Servant to Mr. London, and Mr. Wise. 3 vols. 8vo. + 1718. + + 3. A Compendious Method for Raising Italian Brocoli, Cardoon, + Celeriac, and other Foreign Kitchen Vegetables; as also an Account + of Lucerne, St. Foyne, Clover, and other Grass Seeds, with the + Method of Burning of Clay; 8vo. 1729. Fifth edition, 8vo. 1731, 1s. + 6d.[43] + + 4. An Introduction to a General System of Hydrostaticks and + Hydraulicks, wherein the most advantageous Methods of Watering + Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Seats, Buildings, Gardens, &c. are laid + down. With Sixty Copper Cuts of Rural and Grotesque Designs for + Reservoirs, Cataracts, Cascades, Fountains, &c.; 2 vols. 4to. + 1729.[44] + + 5. A Dissertation on the True Cythesus of the Ancients; 8vo. 1731; + 1s. 6d. A classic production. At the end, he gives a Catalogue of + the Seeds, &c. sold by him at the Flower-pot, _over against the + Court of Common Pleas, in Westminster; or at his garden on + Millbank_.[45] + + 6. Country Gentleman's Companion, or Ancient Husbandry Restored, + and Modern Husbandry Improved; 8vo. 1732, 1s. 6d. + + 7. Switzer was the chief conductor of Monthly Papers on + Agriculture, in 2 vols. 8vo., and he himself designed the Two + Frontispieces. To be sold at his Seed Shop _in Westminster Hall_. + + 8. The Practical Fruit Gardener; 8vo. Cuts, 1717. Other editions, + 8vo. 1724, 1731, Revised and recommended by the Rev. Mr. Lawrence + and Mr. Bradley, with their Two Letters of Recommendation. + +In this later edition of 1731, are a few additions. In one of its +concluding chapters, he mentions "my worthy and ingenious friend, Sir +James Thornhill." This pleasing volume, after stating the excellency of +fruits, observes, "if fruit trees had no other advantage attending them +than to _look_ upon them, how pleasurable would _that_ be? Since there +is no flowering shrub excels, if equals that of a _peach_, or _apple +tree_ in bloom. The tender enamelled blossoms, verdant foliage, with +such a glorious embroidery of festoons and fruitages, wafting their +odours on every blast of wind, and at last bowing down their laden +branches, ready to yield their pregnant offspring into the hands of +their laborious planter and owner."[46] + + +JOHN TAVERNER published, in 1660, a little Treatise, called The Making +of Fish Ponds, Breeding Fish, and _Planting Fruits_. Printed several +times, says Wood, in his Athenæ. + + +RICHARD BRADLEY. The Encyclopædia of Gardening pronounces him "a popular +writer of very considerable talent, and indefatigable industry;" and +speaks highly of the interesting knowledge diffused through his very +numerous works, and gives a distinct list of them; so does Mr. Nicholls, +in his Life of Bowyer; and Mr. Weston, in his Tracts, and Dr. Watts, in +his Bib. Britt. In Mr. Bradley's "New Improvements of Planting and +Gardening," he has added the whole of that scarce Tract of Dr. Beale's, +the _Herefordshire Orchards_. One could wish to obtain his portrait, +were it only from his pen so well painting the alluring charms of +flowers:--"_Primroses_ and _Cowslips_, may be planted near the edges of +borders, and near houses, for the sake of their pretty smell. I +recommend the planting some of the common sorts that grow wild in the +woods, in some of the most rural places about the house; for I think +nothing can be more delightful, than to see great numbers of these +flowers, accompanied with _Violets_, growing under the hedges, avenues +of trees, and wilderness works. _Violets_, besides their beauty, perfume +the air with a most delightful odour."[47] Mr. Bradley, it appears, from +the Fruit Garden Kalendar, of the Rev. Mr. Lawrence, resided at Camden +House, Kensington. They each of them in their letters, in 1717, +subscribe themselves, "Your most affectionate friend." Mr. Lawrence +frequently styles him "the most ingenious Mr. Bradley." Dr. Pulteney +says he "was the author of more than twenty separate publications, +chiefly on Gardening and Agriculture; published between the years 1716 +and 1730. His 'New Improvement of Planting and Gardening, both +Philosophical and Practical,' 8vo. 1717, went through repeated +impressions; as did his 'Gentleman's and Gardener's Kalendar,' (which +was the fourth part of the preceding book) both at home, and in +translations abroad. His 'Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature,' +4to. 1721, was a popular, instructive, and entertaining work, and +continued in repute several years. The same may be said of his 'General +Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening,' 8vo. 2 vols. 1726; and of his +'Practical Discourses concerning the Four Elements, as they relate to +the Growth of Plants,' 8vo. 1727. His '_Dictionarium Botanicum_,' 8vo. +1728, was, I believe, the first attempt of the kind in England." On the +whole (says Dr. Pulteney) Bradley's writings, coinciding with the +growing taste for gardening, the introduction of exotics, and +improvements in husbandry, contributed to excite a more philosophical +view of these arts, and diffuse a general and popular knowledge of them +throughout the kingdom."[48] Mr. Bradley has given at the end of his +curious "Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature," which is +embellished with neat engravings, a chapter "Of the most curious Gardens +in Europe, especially in Britain." In this chapter he justly observes, +that "a gentle exercise in a fresh air, where the mind is engaged with +variety of natural objects, contributes to content; and it is no new +observation, that the trouble of the mind wears and destroys the +constitution even of the most healthful body. All kinds of gardens +contribute to health." This volume also preserves the account of Lord +Ducie's noted old chesnut tree at Tortworth, supposed to be more than a +thousand years old; and of an elm belonging to his lordship, of a truly +gigantic growth.[49] Switzer thus speaks of Bradley:--"Mr. Bradley has +not only shewn himself a skilful botanist, but a man of experience in +other respects, and is every where a modest writer." Mr. Bradley died in +1732. Some writers have dwelt much upon his dissipation; let us +remember, however, that + + _Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues + We write in water._ + +Mr. Weston, in a communication inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for +November, 1806, says, "Although this country had a great loss by the +death of Evelyn, yet he was succeeded, in twenty years after, by another +of equal abilities, and indefatigable in endeavouring to improve the art +of gardening, as Bradley's numerous works will testify." + + +TIMOTHY NOURSE, whose "Campania Foelix," 8vo. 1700, has prefixed to +it, a very neat engraving by Vander Gucht, of rural life. He has +chapters on Fruit Trees; on the several kinds of Apple Trees, and on +Cyder and Perry. In page 262 he, with great humanity, strongly pleads to +acquit Lord Chancellor Bacon from the charge against him of corruption +in his high office. His Essay "Of a Country House," in this work, is +curious; particularly to those who wish to see the style of building, +and the decorations of a country seat at that period. Mr. Nourse also +published "A Discourse upon the Nature and Faculties of Man, with some +Considerations upon the Occurrences of Humane Life." Printed for Jacob +Tonson, at the Judge's Head, in Chancery-lane, 1686, 8vo. His chapter on +Solitude, wherein he descants on the delights of rural scenery and +gardens; and his conclusion, directing every man towards the attainment +of his own felicity, are worth perusing. That on Death is forcibly +written; he calls it "no more than for a man to close up all the +travails, pains, and misfortunes of life, with one sweet and eternal +sleep; he is now at everlasting rest; the fears and misery of poverty, +the anxieties of riches, the vexations of a process, do not devour him. +He does not fear the calumnies of the base, nor the frowns of the great. +'Tis death which delivers the prisoner from his fetters, and the slave +and captive from his chain; 'tis death which rescues the servant from +the endless toils of a laborious life, the poor from oppression, and +makes the beggar equal with princes. Here desperation finds a remedy, +all the languors of disease, all the frustrations and tediousness of +life, all the infirmities of age, all the disquiets of the passions, and +all the calamities of fortune, with whatever can make a man miserable, +vanish in these shades." In his very curious "Essay of a Country House," +he thus moralizes:--"The variety of flowers, beautiful and fragrant, +with which his gardens are adorned, opening themselves, and dying one +after another, must admonish him of the fading state of earthly +pleasures, of the frailty of life, and of the succeeding generations to +which he must give place. The constant current of a fountain, or a +rivulet, must remind of the flux of time, which never returns." + + +SAMUEL COLLINS, ESQ. of Archeton, Northamptonshire, author of "Paradise +Retrieved; 1717, 8vo. In the Preface to the Lady's Recreation, by +Charles Evelyn, Esq. he is extremely severe on this "Squire Collins," +whom he accuses of ignorance and arrogance. + + +JOHN EVELYN, son of the author of _Sylva_. His genius early displayed +itself; for when little more than fifteen, he wrote a Greek poem, which +must have some merit, because his father has prefixed it to the second +edition of his _Sylva_. In Mr. Nicoll's Collection of Poems, are some by +him. There are two poems of his in Dryden's Miscellany. He translated +Plutarch's Life of Alexander from the Greek; and the History of Two +Grand Viziers, from the French. When only nineteen, he translated from +the Latin, Rapin on Gardens. He died in 1698. The Quarterly Review, in +its review of Mr. Bray's Memoirs of Evelyn, thus speaks of this son, and +of his father:--"It was his painful lot to follow to the grave his only +remaining son, in the forty-fourth year of his age, a man of much +ability and reputation, worthy to have supported the honour of his name. +Notwithstanding these repeated sorrows, and the weight of nearly +fourscore years, Evelyn still enjoyed uninterrupted health, and +unimpaired faculties; he enjoyed also the friendship of the wise and the +good, and the general esteem beyond any other individual of his +age."[50] + + +THOMAS FAIRCHILD, whose garden and vineyard at Hoxton, Mr. Bradley +mentions in high terms, in numberless pages of his many works. I will +merely quote from one of his works, viz. from his Philosophical Account +of the Works of Nature:--"that curious garden of Mr. Thomas Fairchild, +at Hoxton, where I find the greatest collection of fruits that I have +yet seen, and so regularly disposed, both for order in time of ripening +and good pruning of the several kinds, that I do not know any person in +Europe to excel him in that particular; and in other things he is no +less happy in his choice of such curiosities, as a good judgement and +universal correspondence can procure." Mr. Fairchild published The City +Gardener; 8vo. 1722, price 1s. He corresponded with Linnæus. He left +funds for a Botanical Sermon to be delivered annually at St. Leonard, +Shoreditch, on each Whitsun Tuesday, "On the wonderful works of God in +the creation, or on the certainty of the resurrection of the dead, +proved by the certain changes of the animal and vegetable parts of the +creation."[51] Dr. Pulteney thus speaks of Mr. Fairchild:--"My plan does +not allow me to deviate so far as to cite authors on the subject of +gardening, unless eminent for their acquaintance with English botany. +Some have distinguished themselves in this way; and I cannot omit to +mention, with applause, the names of Fairchild, Knowlton, Gordon, and +Miller. The first of these made himself known to the Royal Society, by +some 'New Experiments relating to the different, and sometimes contrary +motion of the Sap;' which were printed in the Phil. Trans. vol. xxxiii. +He also assisted in making experiments, by which the sexes of plants +were illustrated, and the doctrine confirmed. Mr. Fairchild died in +November, 1729." + + +GEORGE RICKETS, of Hoxton, was much noted about 1688 and 1689. Rea, in +his Flora, says of him, "Mr. Rickets, of Hogsden, often remembered, the +best and most faithful florist now about London." Rea describes, in his +Flora, one hundred and ninety different kinds of tulips, and says, "All +these tulips, and _many others_, may be had of Mr. Rickets." Worlidge +thus speaks of him:--"he hath the greatest variety of the choicest +apples, pears, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, malacolones, +noctorines, figgs, vines, currans, gooseberries, rasberries, mulberries, +medlars, walnuts, nuts, filberts, chesnuts, &c. that any man hath, and +can give the best account of their natures and excellencies." And again +he says, "the whole nation is obliged to the industry of the ingenious +Mr. George Rickets, gardner at Hoxton or Hogsden without Bishopsgate, +near London, at the sign of the Hand there; who can furnish any planter +with all or most of the fruit trees before mentioned, having been for +many years a most laborious and industrious collector of the best +species of all sorts of fruit from foreign parts. And hath also the +richest and most complete collection of all the great variety of +flower-bearing trees and shrubs in the kingdom. That there is not a day +in the year, but the trees, as well as the most humble plants, do there +yield ornaments for Flora; with all sorts of curious and pleasant +winter-greens, that seemed to perpetuate the spring and summer, from the +most humble myrtle, to the very true cedar of Libanus. Not without +infinite variety of tulips, auriculaes, anemones, gillyflowers, and +all other sorts of pleasant, and delicate flowers, that he may be truly +said to be the master-flowrist of England; and is ready to furnish any +ingenious person with any of his choicest plants." + + +JOHN COWEL appears to have been a noted gardener at Hoxton, about 1729. +He was the author of the "Curious and Profitable Gardener." + + +HUGH STAFFORD, ESQ. of Pynes, in Devonshire, who published, in 1729, "A +Treatise on Cyder Making, with a Catalogue of Cyder Apples of Character; +to which is prefixed, a Dissertation on Cyder, and Cyder-Fruit." Another +edition in 1753. + + +BENJAMIN WHITMILL, Sen. and Jun. Gardeners at Hoxton, published the +sixth edition, in small 8vo. of their "Kalendarium Universale: or, the +Gardener's Universal Calendar." The following is part of their +Preface:--"The greatest persons, in all ages, have been desirous of a +country retirement, where every thing appears in its native simplicity. +The inhabitants are religious, the fair sex modest, and every +countenance bears a picture of the heart. What, therefore, can be a more +elegant amusement, to a good and great man, than to inspect the +beautiful product of fields and gardens, when every month hath its +pleasing variety of plants and flowers. And if innocence be our greatest +happiness, where can we find it but in a country life? In fields and +gardens we have pleasures unenvied, and beauties unsought for; and any +discovery for the improvement of them, is highly praiseworthy. In the +growth of a plant, or a tree, we view the progress of nature, and ever +observe that all her works yield beauty and entertainment. To cultivate +this beauty, is a task becoming the wealthy, the polite, and the +learned; this is so generally understood, that there are few gentlemen +of late, who are not themselves their chief gardeners. And it certainly +redounds more to the honour and satisfaction of a gardener, that he is a +preserver and pruner of all sorts of fruit trees, than it does to the +happiness of the greatest general that he has been successful in killing +mankind." + + +SAMUEL TROWEL, of Poplar, published, in 1739, A New Treatise of +Husbandry and Gardening; 12mo. 2s. 6d. This was translated in Germain, +at Leipsig, 1750, in 8vo. + + +REV. FRANCIS COVENTRY, who wrote an admirable paper in the _World_, (No. +15,) on the absurd novelties introduced in gardens. He wrote Penshurst, +in Dodsley's Poems. + + +JAMES JUSTICE, ESQ. published the "Scot's Gardener's Director," 8vo. A +new edition, entitled "The _British_ Gardener's Director, chiefly +adapted to the Climate of the Northern Counties," was published at +_Edinburgh_, 1764, 8vo. The Encyclopædia of Gardening calls his book +"an original and truly valuable work;" and in page 87, 846, and 1104, +gives some interesting particulars of this gentleman's passion for +gardening. + + +JOHN GIBSON, M.D. author of "The Fruit Gardener," to which he has +prefixed an interesting Preface on the Fruit Gardens of the Ancients. In +this Preface he also relates the origin of fruit gardens, by the +hermits, and monastic orders. In his Introduction, he says, that "every +kind of fruit tree seems to contend in spring, who shall best entertain +the possessor with the beauty of their blossoms. Mankind are always +happy with the prospect of plenty; in no other scene is it exhibited +with such charming variety, as in the fruit garden and orchard. Are +gentlemen fond of indulging their tastes? Nature, from the plentiful +productions of the above, regales them with a variety of the finest +flavours and exalted relishes. To cool us in the heat of summer, she +copiously unites the acid to an agreeable sweetness. Flowering shrubs +and trees are often purchased by gentlemen at a high price; yet not one +of them can compare in beauty with an _apple tree_, when beginning to +expand its blossoms."[52] Speaking of the greengage, he says, "its taste +is so exquisitely sweet and delicious, that nothing can exceed it." He +enlivens many of his sections on the cultivation of various fruits, by +frequent allusions to Theophrastus, Virgil, Pliny, and other _Rei +rustica scriptores_. His chapter on Pears, (the various kinds of which +possess "a profusion of sweets, heightened by an endless variety of +delicious flavours,") is particularly profuse. So is that on Apples. + + +JAMES RUTTER published, in 1767, Modern Eden, or the Gardener's +Universal Guide; 8vo. + + +JOHN DICKS published, in 1769, The New Gardener's Dictionary; in sixty +numbers, small folio, 30s. Blyth. + + +JAMES GARTON published, in 1769, The Practical Gardener; 8vo. 3s. Dilly. + + +---- WILDMAN published, in 1768, a Treatise on the Culture of Pear +Trees: to which is added, a Treatise on the Management of Bees; 12mo. +Dublin. + + +ANTHONY POWEL, ESQ. Gardener to George II. published The Royal Gardener; +12mo. 1769. + + +---- OCKENDEN, ESQ. published, in 1770, Letters, describing the Lake of +Killarney, and Rueness's Gardens; 8vo. Dublin. + + +THOMAS HITT published his Treatise on Fruit Trees, 8vo. 1775. A third +edition in 1768. Mr. Loudon calls it "an original work, valuable for its +mode of training trees." He also published, in 1760, a Treatise on +Husbandry; 8vo. 3s. + + +ADAM TAYLOR, Gardener to J. Sutton, Esq. at New Park, near Devizes, +published a Treatise on the Ananas, or Pine Apple: containing Plain and +Easy Directions for Raising this most excellent Fruit without Fire, and +in much higher perfection than from the Stove; to which are added, Full +Directions for Raising Melons. Devizes, 8vo. 1769. + + +JAMES MEADER, Gardener at Sion House, and afterwards to the Empress +Catharine. He published, in 1771, in 12mo. The Modern Gardener, &c. in a +manner never before published; selected from the Diary MSS. of the late +Mr. Hitt. Also, The Planter's Guide, or Pleasure Gardener's Companion; +with plates, 1779, oblong 4to. + + +RICHARD WESTON, ESQ. an amateur gardener, who has given, at the end of +his "Tracts on Practical Agriculture, and Gardening," 1762, 8vo. a +Catalogue of English Authors on Agriculture, Gardening, &c. There is +another edition in 1773, with additions. His intelligent Catalogue is +brought down to the end of the year 1772. This volume of Tracts contains +an infinity of ingenious and curious articles. One of the chapters +contains "A Plan for Planting all the Turnpike Roads in England with +Timber Trees."[53] He most zealously wishes to encourage planting. "I +believe (says this candid writer) that one of the principal reasons why +few persons plant, springs from a fearful conjecture that their days +will have been passed, before the forest can have risen. But let not the +parent harbour so selfish an idea; it should be his delight, to look +forward to the advantage which his children would receive from the +timber which he planted, contented if it flourished every year beneath +his inspection; surely there is much more pleasure in planting of trees, +than in cutting of them down. View but the place where a fine tree +stands, what an emblem does it afford of present beauty and of future +use; examine the spot after the noble ornament shall have been felled, +and see how desolate it will appear. Perhaps there is not a better +method of inducing youth to have an early inclination for planting, +than for fathers, who have a landed estate, to persuade those children +who are to inherit it, as soon as they come to years of discretion, to +make a small nursery, and to let them have the management of it +themselves; they will then see the trees yearly thriving under their +hands: as an encouragement to them, they should, when the trees are at a +fit growth to plant out, let them have the value of them for their +pocket money. This will, in their tender years, fix so strong an idea of +the value, and the great consequence of planting, as will never be +eradicated afterwards; and many youths, of the age of twenty-five, +having planted quick growing trees, may see the industry of their +juvenile years amply rewarded at that early age, a time when most young +men begin to know the value of money."[54] Mr. Pope, in one of his +letters to Mr. Allen, thus discovers his own generous mind:--"I am now +as busy in planting for myself as I was lately in planting for another. +I am pleased to think my trees will afford shade and fruit to others, +when I shall want them no more." Mr. Addison's admirable recommendation +of planting, forms No. 583 of the Spectator. He therein says, "When a +man considers that the putting a few twigs in the ground, is doing good +to one who will make his appearance in the world about fifty years +hence, or that he is perhaps making one of his own descendants easy or +rich, by so inconsiderable an expence; if he finds himself averse to it, +he must conclude that he has a poor and base heart. Most people are of +the humour of an old fellow of a college, who, when he was pressed by +the society to come into something that might redound to the good of +their successors, grew very peevish. _We are always doing_, says he, +_something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something +for us._"[55] Mr. Weston also published The Universal Botanist and +Nursery; 1770, 1774, 4 vols. 8vo. The Gardener and Planter's Calendar, +containing the Method of Raising Timber Trees, Fruit Trees, and Quicks +for Hedges; with Directions for Forming and Managing a Garden every +Month in the Year; also many New Improvements in the Art of Gardening; +8vo. 1773. Mr. Weston then appears to have lived at Kensington Gore. The +Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1806, says, that he died at +Leicester, in 1806, aged seventy-four. He was formerly a thread hosier +there. It gives an amusing and full list of his various publications, +particularly of his intended "Natural History of Strawberries." + + +GEORGE MASON. The best edition of his "Essay on Design in Gardening," +appears to have been that of 1795, in 8vo. Two Appendixes were published +in 1798, which are said to have been written by Mr. U. Price. In Mr. +Nichols's fourth volume of Illustrations of the Literary History of the +Eighteenth Century, are some particulars of Mr. Mason. He published +Hoccleve's Poems, with a Glossary; an Answer to Thomas Paine; the Life +of Lord Howe; a Supplement to Johnson's Dictionary: in the ill-tempered +preface to which, he thus strangely speaks of that Dictionary:--"this +muddiness of intellect sadly besmears and defaces almost every page of +the composition." This is only a small instance of his virulence against +Johnson in this preface. One would have thought that Mr. Mason's +sarcasms would have been softened, or even subdued, by its glowing and +eloquent preface, which informs us that this great work was composed +"without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile +of favour." I am sorry to say, that Mr. Mason, even in the above Essay, +discovers, in three instances, his animosity to our "Dictionary writer," +for so he calls Dr. Johnson. Mr. Boswell, speaking of Johnson's preface, +says, "We cannot contemplate without wonder, the vigorous and splendid +thoughts which so highly distinguish that performance;" and on the +Dictionary he observes, that "the world contemplated with wonder, so +stupendous a work, achieved by one man, while other countries had +thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies." Linnæus and +Haller styled Ray's History of Plants, _opus immensi laboris_. One may +justly apply the same words to this Dictionary. It was well for Mr. +Mason that he escaped (what Miss Seward called) "the dead-doing +broadside of Dr. Johnson's satire." George Mason omits no opportunity of +censuring Mr. Whateley's Observations on Modern Gardening. In the above +Essay, he censures him in seven different pages, and in his distinct +chapter or division on this book of Mr. Whateley's, (consisting of +thirteen pages) there are no less than thirty-three additional sneers, +or faults, found with his opinions. He does not acknowledge in him one +single solitary merit, except at page 191. In page 160, he nearly, if +not quite, calls him a _fool_, and declares that _vanity_ is the passion +to which he is constantly sacrificing.[56] It would be an insult to any +one who has read Mr. Whateley's work, to endeavour to clear him from +such a virulent and ill-founded attack. Neither Dr. Johnson, with all +his deep learning, nor Mr. Whateley, with all the cultivated fancy of a +rich scholastic mind, would either of them have been able to comprehend, +or to understand, or even to make head or tail of the first half of Mr. +George Mason's poem, with which he closes the above edition of his +Essay. As he has been so caustically severe against Dr. Johnson, it +cannot be ungenerous if one applies to the above part of his own poem, +the language of a French critic on another subject:--"Le style en est +dur, et scabreux. Il semble que l'auteur a ramassé les termes les plus +extraordinaires pour se rendre inintelligible." Percy, Bishop of +Dromore, in vol. x. page 602, of the British Critic, has given a +critique of Mr. Mason's edition of Hoccleve, in which he chastises its +injustice, arrogance, and ignorance. Mr. Mason has been more liberal in +warmly praising Kent, and Shenstone, in acknowledging the great taste +and elegance of Mr. Thomas Warton, when the latter notices Milton's line +of + + _Bosom'd high in tufted trees,_ + +which picturesque remark of Mr. Warton's could not have been excelled +even by the nice and critical pen of the late Sir U. Price; and when he +informs us, in more than one instance, of the great Earl of Chatham's +"turning his mind to the embellishment of rural nature." + +THOMAS WHATELEY, on whose "Observations on Modern Gardening," the +Encyclopædia of Gardening (that most comprehensive assemblage of every +thing delightful and curious in this art,) observes, "It is remarkable, +that so little is known of a writer, the beauty of whose style, and the +justness of whose taste, are universally acknowledged." The same work +further says, "his excellent book, so frequently referred to by all +succeeding writers on garden scenery, ought to be in the hands of every +man of taste." And the same work still further observes, that "its style +has been pronounced by Ensor, inimitable, and the descriptions with +which his investigations are accompanied, have been largely copied, and +amply praised by Alison, in his work On Taste. The book was soon +translated into the continental languages, and is judiciously praised in +the _Mercure de France_, _Journal Encyclopédique_, and Weiland's +_Journal_. G. Mason alone dissents from the general opinion, enlarging +on the very few faults or peculiarities which are to be found in the +book. Wheatley, or Whately (for so little is known of this eminent man, +that we have never been able to ascertain satisfactorily the orthography +of his name,) was proprietor of Nonsuch Park, in Surrey; and was +secretary to the Earl of Suffolk. He published only this work, soon +after which he died. After his death, some remarks on Shakspeare, from +his pen, were published in a small 12mo." A second edition of this +elegant little work was published in 1808, by Parson, Oxford; or +Rivington, St. Paul's; in which, the advertisement to the reader informs +us, that "the respectable author intended to have gone through eight or +ten of the principal characters of Shakspeare, but suspended his design, +in order to finish his Observations on Modern Gardening, first published +in the year 1770; immediately after which time, _he was engaged in such +an active scene of public life_, as left him but little leisure to +attend to the Belles Lettres; and in the year 1772 he died."[57] + +His remarks on some of the characters of Shakspeare (whom, in his +_Observations_, he calls _the great master of nature_) breathe in many +of his pages, that fire, which he could have caught only from those of +the great poet. Such was his eagerness to complete his _Observations_, +that he for a short while "suspended his design" of examining other +characters of the poet, when the bright effusions of his genius "fled up +to the stars from whence they came." This elegant little work is merely +a fragment, nay, even an unfinished fragment. It must, then, cause deep +regret, that death should so prematurely have deprived us of that rich +treasure of animated thoughts, which, no doubt, would have sprung from +his further tracing the poet's deep and piercing knowledge of the human +heart. One may safely apply to Mr. Whateley, what he himself applies to +the poet:--"He had a genius to express all that his penetration could +discover." The Journal Encyclopédique, Juilliet, 1771, when speaking of +the French translation of Whateley's Observations, says, "On ne peut +guères se faire une idée de ces jardins, si l'on n'a été à Londres. +Accoutumés à la symétrie des nôtres, nous n'imaginons pas qu'on puisse +établir une forme irregulière, comme une regle principale: cependant +ceux qui sentent combien la noble simplicité de la nature est supérieure +à tous les rafinemens symétriques de l'art, donneront peuetêtre la +préference aux jardins Anglois. C'est l'effet que doit produire la +lecture de cet ouvrage, qui quoique destiné aux amateurs et aux +compositeurs des jardins, offre aux gens de goût, aux artistes et +sur-tout aux peintres, des observations fines et singulieres sur +plusieurs effets de perspective et sur les arts en général; aux +philosophes, des réflections justes sur les affections de notre ame; aux +poëtes, des descriptions exactes, quoique vives, des plus beaux jardins +d'Angleterre dans tous les genres, qui décèlent dans l'Auteur un oeil +infiment exercé, une grande connoissance des beaux arts, une belle +imagination et un esprit accoutumé à penser." + +The "bloom of an orchard, the festivity of a hay field, and the carols +of harvest home," could not have met with a more cheerful and benevolent +pen than Mr. Whateley's; a love of country pervades many of his pages; +nor could any one have traced the placid scenery, or rich magnificence +of nature, with a happier pen than when he records the walk to the +cottage at Claremont, the grandeur and majesty of the scene at +_Blenheim_, or _Stowe_, _Persfield_, _Wotton_ in the vale of +Aylesbury--the rugged, savage, and craggy points of _Middleton Dale_, "a +chasm rent in the mountain by some convulsion of nature, beyond the +memory of man, or perhaps before the island was peopled," with its many +rills, springs, rivulets, and water-falls--the vast cliffs of rocks at +_Matlock_, _Bath_, that "scene of romantic magnificence; from such +scenes, probably, was conceived the wild imagination, in ancient +mythology, of the giants piling _Pelion_ upon _Ossa_; the loftiness of +the rocks, and the character of the _Derwent_, a torrent in which force +and fury prevail; the cascades in it are innumerable; before the water +is recovered from one fall, it is hurried down another; and its +agitation being thus increased by repeated shocks, it pushes on with +restless violence to the next, where it dashes against fragments of +rocks, or foams among heaps of stones which the stream has driven +together"--the dusky gloom at the iron forge, "close to the cascade of +the Weir, (between _Ross_ and _Monmouth_) where the agitation of the +current is increased by large fragments of rocks, which have been swept +down by floods from the banks, or shivered by tempests from the brow; +and the sullen sound, at stated intervals, from the strokes of the great +hammers in the forge, deadens the roar of the water-fall"--the solitude, +the loveliness, and the stillness of _Dovedale_, "the whole of which has +the air of enchantment; grotesque as chance can cast, wild as nature can +produce"--the monkish tomb-stones, and the monuments of benefactors long +since forgotten, which appear above the green sward, at _Tintern Abbey_, +with its maimed effigies, and sculpture worn with age and weather--his +view to the approach to Lord _Cadogan's_, near _Reading_--his feeling +and enchanting description of the _Leasowes_--"the wonderful efforts +which art has made at _Painshill_ to rival nature;" where the massy +richness of its hanging wood "gives an air of grandeur to the +whole"--the _Tinian_, and other lawns, and noble and magnificent views +in that vast sylvan scene _Hagley_, where, in a spot which once +delighted Mr. Pope, is inscribed an urn to his memory, "which, when +shewn by a gleam of moonlight through the trees, fixes that +thoughtfulness and composure to which the mind is insensibly led by the +rest of this elegant scene." + +His section "Of the Seasons," where he descants on the _spirit_ of the +morning, the _excess_ of noon, or the _temperance_ of evening," must +strike every one by its felicity of style; and the reader may judge of +the rich pages which this book contains, even from what he says of +water:--"It accommodates itself to every situation; is the most +interesting object in a landscape, and the happiest circumstance in a +retired recess; captivates the eye at a distance, invites approach, and +is delightful when near; it refreshes an open exposure; it animates a +shade; cheers the dreariness of a waste, and enriches the most crowded +view; in form, in style, and in extent, may be made equal to the +greatest compositions, or adapted to the least; it may spread in a calm +expanse to soothe the tranquillity of a peaceful scene; or hurrying +along a devious course, add splendour to a gay, and extravagance to a +romantic, situation. So various are the characters which water can +assume, that there is scarcely an idea in which it may not concur, or an +impression which it cannot enforce; a deep stagnated pool, dank and dark +with shades which it dimly reflects, befits the seat of melancholy; even +a river, if it be sunk between two dismal banks, and dull both in motion +and colour, is like a hollow eye which deadens the countenance; and over +a sluggard, silent stream, creeping heavily along all together, hangs a +gloom, which no art can dissipate, nor even the sunshine disperse. A +gently murmuring rill, clear and shallow, just gurgling, just dimpling, +imposing silence, suits with solitude, and leads to meditation; a +brisker current, which wantons in little eddies over a bright sandy +bottom, or babbles among pebbles, spreads cheerfulness all around; a +greater rapidity, and more agitation, to a certain degree are animating; +but in excess, instead of wakening, they alarm the senses; the roar and +the rage of a torrent, its force, its violence, its impetuosity, tend to +inspire terror; that terror, which, whether as cause or effect, is so +nearly allied to sublimity."[58] + + +DANIEL MALTHUS, ESQ. purchased, in 1759, the Rookery, near Dorking, +noted for its beauties of hill, dale, wood, and water; he sold it in +1768. He translated Gerardin, _De la Composition des Paysages_, 12mo. +1783, to which he prefixed a preface, being, chiefly, remarks on what +the gardens of the Greeks and Romans were; a view of Rosseau's tomb is +prefixed. Mr. Malthus justly observes, that this Essay "is full of the +most insinuating eloquence, that it is wrote by the friend of Rousseau, +and from scenes which realize some of its most beautiful descriptions." +He further observes, that "trifling as this enquiry will appear in +itself, it may add something towards the benevolent purpose of M. +d'Ernonville, which is to make men sensible of the exhaustless charms of +nature, to lead them back to their simple and original tastes, to +promote the variety and resources of a country life, and to unite its +usefulness with its embellishment."[59] + + +JOHN KENNEDY published a Treatise upon Planting, Gardening, &c. 8vo. +_York_, 1776. + + +N. SWINDEN, "an ingenious gardener and seedsman at Brentford-End," +wrote The Beauties of Flora Displayed; 8vo. 1778. + + +SAMUEL FULMER wrote The Young Gardener's Best Companion for the Kitchen, +and Fruit Garden; 12mo. 1781. + +CHARLES BRYANT published Flora Dietetica; or, the History of Esculent +Plants: 8vo. 1785. Also, a Dictionary of Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and +Plants; 8vo. _Norwich_, 1790. + + +JOSEPH HEELEY, ESQ. author of Letters on the Beauties of Hagley, Envil, +and the Leasowes; with Critical Remarks on the Modern Taste in +Gardening; 1777, 2 vols. 12mo. + + +THOMAS KYLE, or KEIL, "one of the first gardeners in Scotland, of his +time," published a Treatise on the Management of the Peach and Nectarine +Trees: to which is added, the Method of Raising and Forcing Vines; 8vo. +_Edinb._ 1785. A second edition in 1787. + + +WILLIAM MARSHALL, ESQ. who, in his "Planting and Rural Ornament," has +very properly transcribed the whole of that masterly production of Mr. +Walpole's pen, his _History of the Modern Taste in Gardening_. He +observes, that "a pen guided by so masterly a hand, must ever be +productive of information and entertainment, when employed upon a +subject so truly interesting. Desirous of conveying to our readers all +the information which we can compress, with propriety, within the limits +of our plan, we wished to have given the _substance_ of this valuable +paper; but finding it already in the language of simplicity, and being +aware of the mischiefs which generally ensue in _meddling_ with the +productions of genius, we had only one alternative: either wholly to +transcribe, or wholly to reject." Mr. Marshall, alluding to the above +work of his, says, "Wheatley, Mason, and Nature, with some Experience, +and much Observation, are the principal sources from which this part of +our work was drawn; it was planned, and in part written, among the +magnificent scenes of nature, in Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, and +Gloucestershire, where the rich and the romantic are happily blended, in +a manner unparalleled in any other part of the island." In this same +work is preserved, Mr. Gray's letter on the scenery of _Grasmere Water_. +His descriptions of many trees and shrubs are extremely interesting; and +he has rendered them more so by his frequent quotations from Mr. +Hanbury. He also published, in 8vo. The Rural Economy of the Southern +Counties; 2 vols.--of the Midland Counties, 2 vols.--of Gloucestershire, +2 vols.--of Norfolk, 2 vols.--of Yorkshire, 2 vols.--Agriculture of the +Southern Counties, 2 vols.--Minutes of Agriculture--and a Review of the +Landscape, a didactic poem--and of an Essay on the Picturesque. The +Encyclop. of Gardening, after relating varied information respecting +him, says, that he "finally retired to a considerable property he +possessed in his native county, in the Vale of Cleveland, in 1808, where +he died, at an advanced age, in 1819. He was a man of little education, +but of a strong and steady mind: and pursued, in the most consistent +manner, from the year 1780 to his death, the plan he originally laid +down; that of collecting and condensing the agricultural practices of +the different counties of England, with a view to a general work on +Landed Property, which he published; another on Agriculture, which he +did not live to complete, and a _Rural Institute_, in which he was +supplanted by the Board of Agriculture." His observations on the +_Larch_, in vol. i. of his "Planting and Rural Ornament," and the zeal +with which he recommends the planting of it on the infertile heathy +flats of Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, on the bleak and barren heights +of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cornwall, and Devon, and on the Welch and +Salopean hills; and the powerful language with which he enforces its +valuable qualities, merit the attention of every man of property. + + +WILLIAM SPEECHLY. He wrote Hints on Domestic Rural Economy; 8vo. On the +Culture of the Vine and Pine Apple, with Hints on the Formation of +Vineyards in England. On the Culture of the Pine Apple, and the +Management of the Hot-House; 8vo. He made a tour in Holland, chiefly to +observe the Dutch mode of cultivating the Pine, and the Grape. Mr. +Loudon, in his Encyclop. calls him "the Moses of modern British vine +dressers;" and in the Gardener's Magazine for January, 1828, has given +an interesting and honourable character of him. He died at Great Milton, +in 1819, aged eighty-six.[60] Marshall, in his Planting and Rural +Ornament, has given us Mr. Speechley's sensible letter on the Duke of +Portland's Plantations. Mr. Johnson says "he perhaps surpassed every +practical gardener of his age." + + +PHILIP LE BROCQ, chaplain to the Duke of Gloucester, wrote, + +1, A Description of Certain Methods of Planting, Training, and Managing +all Kinds of Fruit Trees, Vines, &c. London, 8vo. 1786. + +2, Sketch of a Plan for making the New Forest, a Real Forest. +_Stockdale_, 8vo. 1793. + + +WALTER NICHOL, whom Mr. Loudon, in his Encyclopædia, calls an author of +merit, and informs us that Mr. Nichol, "in the year 1810, undertook an +extensive journey through England, for the purpose of visiting the +principal seats and plantations, with a view, on his return, to compose +the _Planter's Calendar_. This work had scarcely commenced, when he was +seized with an illness which carried him off suddenly, in March, 1811." +His works appear to be the following:-- + +The Gardener's Kalendar; or, Monthly Directory of every Branch of +Horticulture; 8vo. + +The Planter's Kalendar; or, the Nurseryman's and Forester's Guide; 8vo. + +The Villa Garden Directory; or, Monthly Index of Work to be done in +Gardens, Shrubberies, &c.; 12mo. + +Scotch Forcing Gardener; 8vo. + +The Practical Planter. + +Mr. Johnson says "his works are of the first authority, and rank as the +equals of those of Abercrombie, being the result of long practice during +an enlightened era of our art." + + +JAMES MADDOCK, of the Society of Friends, and commercial florist, at +Walworth, where, about the middle of last century, he established the +florist garden there, now belonging to Milliken and Curtis. He died +about 1806. He published the Florist's Directory, and Complete Treatise +on the Culture of Flowers; 8vo. 1792. New editions in 1810 and 1822. + +THOMAS S. D. BUCKNALL, Esq. published the Orchardist; extracted from the +Society's Trans. for the Encouragement of Arts, &c.; _with additions_. +8vo. 1797. + +I had omitted the following, for which I am indebted to Mr. Johnson's +History of English Gardening:-- + +RICHARD RICHARDSON. De cultu Hortorum, Carmen. 4to. London, 1669. + +Of either of the above enumerated Authors on Gardening, I have not been +able to discover any Portrait. + +[Illustration] + + Of the following we _have_ Portraits:-- + +LEONARD MASCALL'S portrait appears at the bottom of the curious title +page to his "Government of Cattle," 4to. and is _scarce_. He published, +in 1572, "The New Art of Planting and Grafting;" 4to. and in 12mo. +Another edition in 1652. + +DR. WILLIAM BULLEYN practised physic at Durham. He died in 1576. He had +the misfortune to lose great part of his library by shipwreck. He was +thrown into prison for debt, where he wrote a great part of his medical +treatises. Bishop Tanner says he was a man of acute judgment, and true +piety. He was universally esteemed as a polished scholar, and as a man +of probity, benevolence, and piety. I gather the following from Dr. +Pulteney:--"Of Dr. Bulleyn there is a profile with a long beard, before +his "Government of Health," and a whole length of him, in wood, prefixed +to the "Bulwarke of Defence;" which book is a collection of most of his +works. He was an ancestor of the late Dr. Stukely, who, in 1722, was at +the expence of having a small head of him engraved. He proves that we +had excellent apples, pears, plums, cherries and hops, of our own +growth, (before the importation of these articles into England), by +London and Kentish gardeners. His zeal for the promotion of the useful +arts of gardening, the general culture of the land, and the commercial +interests of the kingdom, deserved the highest praise; and for the +information he has left of these affairs, in his own time, posterity owe +him acknowledgments." In a note to his Life, in the Biog. Dict., 7 vols. +folio, 1748, is a curious account of many fruits, &c. then in our +gardens. The same note is in Kippis. Richardson's portraits to Granger +gives us the above profile. Mr. Johnson, at page 51 of his History of +English Gardening, pointedly says, "Dr. Bulleyn deserves the veneration +of every lover of gardening, for his strenuous advocating its cause, at +a time when it had become a fashion to depreciate the products of our +English gardens." And at page 57, pays him a further just tribute. + +THOMAS HYLL, who, in 1574, published, in 4to., "The Profitable Arte of +Gardeninge." Another edition in 1593, 4to. His interesting chapter on +Bees is annexed to these editions."[61] There appears another edition in +small 12mo. imprinted at London, in Flete-strete, neare to St. +Dunstone's Church, by Thomas Marshe, 1658. There are other editions, as +1570 and 1574, 4to.; 1568, 12mo.; and 1563 and 1594, 16mo. Bromley thus +mentions a portrait of him:--"Thomas Hill, wooden cut, prefixed to his +Physiognomie; 12mo. 1571. Aged 42. A friend to Hyll, in a complimentary +letter, prefixed to the above book, thus, in part, addresses the +reader:-- + + _With painfull pen the writer hath exprest in English plane, + The needfull ayd, and mightie force, that doth in hearbes remaine, + The time to set, the time to plant, the time to raise again, + This man by treble diligence hath brought to light with paine._ + +The portraits of the Lord Chancellor BACON are well known; but in Mr. +Montagu's late edition of his works, a new or juvenile portrait is +added, namely, a most expressive, intelligent, and beautiful miniature +of him at his age of eighteen, by Hilyard, of whom Dr. Donne said, + + ----_a hand or eye + By Hilyard drawn, is worth a history + By a worse painter._ + +This fine edition of his works is illustrated by five portraits, taken +at different periods of his lordship's life; by engravings of his +residence, and monument, fac-similes, and other embellishments. In +Mallett's edition are two portraits, one by Vertue, finely +engraved.[62] + +GERARDE'S portrait (a fine one) is prefixed to his own edition of his +Herbal. Two coats of arms are at the bottom. No painter, or engraver's +name, except the initials, W. R. intertwined, which I suppose are those +of W. Rogers, the engraver. There is another good head of Gerarde, a +small oval one, in the title page to Johnson's edition. A portrait, in +oil, of Gerarde, was sold by Mr. Christie, Nov. 11, 1826. Dr. Pulteney +reviews both these Herbals. Gerarde is highly extolled by Dr. Bulleyn, +and indeed attained deserved eminence in his day. Dr. Pulteney relates +that "the thousand novelties which were brought into England by our +circumnavigators, Raleigh and Cavendish, in 1580 and 1588, excited a +degree of attention, which at this day cannot, without the aid of +considerable recollection, be easily conceived. Raleigh himself appears +to have possessed a larger share of taste for the curious productions of +nature, than was common to the seafaring adventurers of that period. And +posterity will rank these voyagers among the greatest benefactors to +this kingdom, in having been the means, if tradition may be credited, of +introducing the most useful root that Providence has held forth for the +service of man. A voyage round the globe, howsoever familiarized in +ours, was, in that age, a most interesting and fruitful occasion of +enquiry. The return of Raleigh, and the fame of his manifold discoveries +and collections, brought over from the continent the celebrated Clusius, +then in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He, who added more to the stock +of botany, in his day, than all his contemporaries united, visited +England for the third time, to partake, at this critical juncture, in +the general gratification. At this eventful period, Gerarde was in the +vigour of life, and, without doubt, felt the influence, and reaped +the advantage of all the circumstances I have enumerated." One +of the editions of Gerarde thus appears in a bookseller's +catalogue:--"Gerarde's Herball; or Generall Historie of Plants, very +much enlarged by Johnson, folio, _beautiful impression of the +frontispiece by Payne, fine copy, old Russia, gilt back, £3. 18s. +1633_.[63] + + +WALTER BLYTHE'S whole-length portrait (exhibiting a pensive and +penetrating aspect), is prefixed to his "English Improver Improved;" and +which work Professor Martyn terms "an original and incomparable work for +the time." Dr. Beale calls him "honest Captain Blithe." + + +GERVASE MARKHAM'S portrait is prefixed to his "Perfect Horseman;" 8vo. +It is re-engraved for Richardson's portraits to Granger. Markham +appears to have been a good soldier, as well as a good scholar. He +published in 4to. 1623, "The Country House-Wife's Garden." He wrote +Herod and Antipater, a tragedy. Langbaine speaks very much in his +praise, and seemingly not without reason. Dr. Dibden, in his "Library +Companion," says, "on many accounts does Markham seem entitled to more +notice and commendation." He translated Leibault's Maison Rustique, in +1616, in 4to. or small folio, and augmented it with many additions from +Oliver de Serres, and others. Weston, in his Catalogue, says he +re-printed the editions in 1614 and 1631, of Barnaby Gooche's Husbandry. +He published many books on husbandry, on fowling, on angling, on +military discipline, on horsemanship. Many of their titles are +enumerated in Langbaine, and in Weston, and they appear all to be more +fully stated in Watts's Bibl. Brit. Much information, as to Markham, may +be seen in vol. ii. of the Censura Literaria; and in Sir E. Brydges's +edition of Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, appears, perhaps, +the best list of his works, with a brief memoir.[64] + + +PARKINSON'S excellent portrait, by Marshall, appears in the title page +to his _Theatrum Botanicum_, in 1640. Some one _may_ now possess the +original. In his _Paradisus_, 1635, there is a very scurvy engraving of +his healthy, and hearty-looking old countenance. In this miserable cut, +which is on wood, the graver, Christopher Switzer, does not seem to have +had a strife "_with nature to outdo the life_." Marshall's head is +re-engraved for Richardson's Illustrations to Granger. Parkinson rose to +such a degree of reputation, as to be appointed Apothecary to King +James. He was appointed herbalist to Charles I. Dr. Pulteney speaks +highly of both the above works, particularly of the _Theatrum_. All the +memorials we have of the private history of this most industrious and +zealous herbalist, are very scanty. He died about 1645, aged about 78. +The curious contents of his _Paradisus_ are diffusively narrated in +Johnson's English Gardening. When perusing the pages of either of the +above, one may exclaim, + + ----"not a tree, + A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains + A folio volume. We may read, and read, + And read again; and still find something new, + Something to please, and something to instruct, + E'en in the humble weed." + +[Illustration] + +The above is scarcely better than Switzer's. There appears no faithful +portrait of Parkinson, but Marshall's, who _had the felicity_ to draw +other portraits besides his. + +Hollar's striking portraits of the TRADESCANTS, are well known. On their +tomb, at Lambeth, the following lines form part of the inscription:-- + + These famous Antiquarians, that had been + Both Gardeners to the rose and lily Queen, + Transplanted now themselves, sleep here; and when + Angels shall with their trumpets waken men, + And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise, + And change this Garden for a Paradise. + +In the Ashmolean Museum, is a portrait of the SON, _in his garden_, with +a spade in his hand. In Mr. Nichols's "Illustrations to Granger," +consisting of seventy-five portraits, appear those of the Tradescants, +father and son. Smith also engraved John Tradescant, with his son, and +their monument, 1793. Mr. Weston, in his Catalogue, fully describes the +_Museum Tradescantium_. Dr. Pulteney observes, that "in a work devoted +to the commemoration of Botanists, their name stands too high not to +demand an honourable notice; since they contributed, at an early period, +by their garden and museum, to raise a curiosity that was eminently +useful to the progress and improvement of natural history in general. +The reader may see a curious account of the remains of this garden, +drawn up in the year 1749, by the late Sir W. Watson, and printed in +vol. xlvi. of the Phil. Trans. The son died in 1662. His widow erected a +curious monument, in memory of the family, in Lambeth church-yard, of +which a large account, and engravings from a drawing of it in the +Pepysian Library, at Cambridge, are given by the late learned Dr. +Ducarel, in vol. lxiii. of the Phil. Trans." + + +SIR HENRY WOTTON, Provost of Eaton. His portrait is given in Isaac +Walton's Lives of Wotton, and others. It, of course, accompanies +Zouch's, and the other well-known editions of Isaac Walton's Lives. In +Evans's Illustrations to Granger, is Sir H. Wotton, from the picture in +the Bodleian Library, engraved by _Stow_. In Sir Henry's Reflections on +Ancient and Modern Learning, is his chapter "On Ancient and Modern +Agriculture and Gardening." Cowley wrote an elegy on him, which thus +commences:-- + + What shall we say since silent now is he, + Who when he spoke, all things would silent be; + Who had so many languages in store, + That only Fame can speak of him with more. + +Isaac Walton published the "_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, or, Lives, Letters, +Poems, &c. by Sir Henry Wotton," 12mo. 1654, with portraits of Wotton, +Charles I., Earl of Essex, and Buckingham. Sir E. Brydges printed at his +private press, at Lee Priory, Sir Henry's Characters of the Earl of +Essex and Buckingham. In the _Reliquiæ_, among many curious and +interesting articles, is preserved Sir Henry's delicately complimentary +letter to Milton on receiving from him _Comus_. Sir Henry, when a +resident at Venice, (where he was sent on three several embassies by +James) purchased for that munificent encourager of painting, the Duke of +Buckingham, several valuable pictures, which were added to the Duke's +magnificent collection. Isaac Walton's Life of Wotton thus +concludes:--"Dying worthy of his name and family, worthy of the love of +so many princes, and persons of eminent wisdom and learning, worthy of +the trust committed unto him for the service of his prince and country." +And, in his Angler, he thus sweetly paints the warm attachment he had +for Wotton:--"a man with whom I have often fished and conversed, whose +learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of +the delights of mankind. Peace and patience, and a calm content, did +cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton." + + +SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Mr. Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, mentions +the following portrait of Sir Thomas:--"At Devonshire-house is a family +groupe, by Dobson, of Sir Thomas Browne. He is smiling with the utmost +complacency upon his children, who surround him." His portrait is also +prefixed to his works. The Biograph. Dict., folio, 1748, says, "his +picture, in the College of Physicians, shews him to have been remarkably +handsome, and to have possessed, in a singular degree, the blessings of +a grave, yet cheerful and inviting, countenance." The same work farther +gives him a most amiable character. Mr. Ray, in his Ornithology, does +not omit paying a just compliment to his assistant and friend, "the +deservedly famous Sir Thomas Browne." Evelyn, in 1671, mentions Sir +Thomas Browne's garden at Norwich, as containing a paradise of +varieties, and the gardens of all the inhabitants as full of excellent +flowers. Switzer says, "The noble elegance of his style has since +induced many to read his works, (of which, that of _Cyrus's gardens_ is +some of the brightest,) though they have had little inclination to the +practice of gardening itself. There remains nothing that I have heard of +his putting gardening actually into practice himself; but some of his +last works being observations on several scarce plants mentioned in +Scripture; and of Garlands and Coronary garden plants and flowers, 'tis +reasonable to suppose he did; and the love he had so early and late +discovered toward it, was completed in the delightful practice thereof." +He further says, " his elaborate and ingenious pen has not a little +added to the nobleness of our subject."[65] His works were published in +1 vol. folio, 1686, with his portrait, engraved by White. His portrait +appears also to his "Certain Miscellany Tracts," 8vo. A list of his +numerous works may be seen in the Biogr. Dictionaires, or in Watts's +Bibl. Britt. To his "Christian Morals," Dr. Johnson has prefixed his +Life. It is so masterly written, that it is impossible to give even an +abstract. Dr. Kippis has, however, in part, transcribed it. He was +chosen Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians, as a man _virtute +et literas ornatissimus_. In 1671, he received the honour of Knighthood +from Charles II., a prince, (says Dr. Johnson) "who, with many frailties +and vices, had yet skill to discover excellence, and virtue to reward it +with such honorary distinctions, at least, as cost him nothing, yet, +conferred by a king so judicious and so much beloved, had the power of +giving merit new lustre and greater popularity." Thus he lived in high +reputation, till, in his seventy-sixth year, an illness, which tortured +him a week, put an end to his life, at Norwich, on his birth-day, +October 19, 1682. "Some of his last words (we are told by _Whitefoot_) +were expressions of submission to the will of God, and fearlessness of +death." Dr. Johnson observes, "It is not on the praises of others, but +on his own writings, that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity; +of which he will not be easily deprived, while learning shall have any +reverence among men: for there is no science in which he does not +discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or +sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated +with success. His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, +sometimes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the clearness of +his decisions. On whatever subject he employed his mind, there started +up immediately so many images before him, that he lost one by grasping +another. His memory supplied him with so many illustrations, parallel or +dependent notions, that he was always starting into collateral +considerations. But the spirit and vigour of his pursuit always gives +delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, through his +mazes, of themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point +originally in view. There remains yet an objection against the writings +of _Browne_, more formidable than the animadversions of criticism. There +are passages from which some have taken occasion to rank him among +deists, and others among atheists. It would be difficult to guess how +any such conclusion should be formed, had not experience shewn that +there are two sorts of men willing to enlarge the catalogue of infidels. +When _Browne_ has been numbered among the contemners of religion by the +fury of its friends, or the artifices of its enemies, it is no difficult +task to replace him among the most zealous professors of christianity. +He may perhaps, in the ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an +expression, which a mind intent upon faults may interpret into heresy, +if considered apart from the rest of his discourse; but a phrase is not +to be opposed to volumes. There is scarcely a writer to be found, whose +profession was not divinity, that has so frequently testified his belief +of the sacred writings, has appealed to them with such unlimited +submission, or mentioned them with such unvaried reverence." + + +JOHN EVELYN, ESQ. His portrait by Nanteuil, and that by Kneller, holding +his _Sylva_ in his hand, are well engraved in Mr. Bray's Memoirs. The +following remark is from the Quarterly Review, in its review of the same +work, in 1818:--"At four years old he was taught to read by the parish +school-master, whose school was over the church porch; and 'at six his +picture was drawn by one Chanteral, no ill painter.' If this portrait, +as is not unlikely, be preserved in the family, it should have been +engraved for the present work; it would have been very interesting to +compare the countenance of such a person, in childhood, in the flower of +years, when his head was engraved by Nanteuil, and in ripe old age, when +he sat to Sir G. Kneller." In Aubrey's Surrey, vol. iv. are many +interesting particulars of Mr. Evelyn, and his family, and he gives a +list of his works. He says "his picture was thrice drawn in oil; first, +in 1641, by one Vanderborcht, brought out of Germany at the same time +with Hollar, the graver, by the Earl of Arundel; a second time in 1648, +by Walker; and the third time by Sir G. Kneller, for his friend Mr. +Pepys, of the Admiralty, of which that at the Royal Society is a copy. +There is a print of him by Nanteuil, who likewise drew him more than +once in black and white, with Indian ink; and a picture, in crayon, by +Luterel." Mr. Evelyn lived in the busy times of Charles I., Cromwell, +Charles II., James II., and William. He had much personal intercourse +with Charles II. and James II., and was in the habits of great intimacy +with many of the ministers of those two monarchs, and of the eminent men +of those days. Foreigners, distinguished for learning or arts, who came +to England, did not leave it without visiting him. His manners we may +presume to have been of the most agreeable kind, for his company was +sought by the greatest men, not merely by inviting him to their own +tables, but by their repeated visits to him at his own house. Mr. Evelyn +lived to the great age of eighty-six, and wished these words to be +inscribed on his tomb:--"all is vanity that is not honest, and there is +no solid wisdom but in real piety."[66] Cowley, in a letter to him, +says, "I know nobody that possesses more private happiness than you do +in your garden; and yet no man who makes his happiness more publick, by +a free communication of the art and knowledge of it to others. All that +I myself am able yet to do, is only to recommend to mankind the search +of that felicity, which you instruct them how to find and to enjoy." The +Quarterly Review thus speaks of his _Sylva_:--"The Sylva remained a +beautiful and enduring memorial of his amusements, his occupations, and +his studies, his private happiness, and his public virtues. The greater +part of the woods, which were raised in consequence of Evelyn's +writings, have been cut down; the oaks have borne the British flag to +seas and countries which were undiscovered when they were planted, and +generation after generation has been coffined in the elms. The trees of +his age, which may yet be standing, are verging fast toward their decay +and dissolution: but his name is fresh in the land, and his reputation, +like the trees of an Indian Paradise, exists, and will continue to exist +in full strength and beauty, uninjured by the course of time." Mr. +Loudon, in his Encycl. of Gardening, thus speaks of him:--"Evelyn is +universally allowed to have been one of the warmest friends to +improvements in gardening and planting, that has ever appeared. He is +eulogized by Wotton, in his _Reflections on Ancient and Modern +Learning_, as having done more than all former ages." Switzer calls him +"that good esquire, the king of gardeners." His life (says Mr. Walpole) +"was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction, and +benevolence. He knew that retirement, in his own hands, was industry and +benefit to mankind; in those of others, laziness and inutility." + +There appears the following more modern publications respecting Mr. +Evelyn:-- + +1. Sylva, with Notes by Hunter; in 4to, and 8vo. + +2. Memoirs and Correspondence of Mr. Evelyn. Edited by Mr. Bray. 5 vols. +8vo. _Portraits_, and other plates. £3. 10s. Another edition, in 2 +vols., 4to. + +3. Evelyn's Miscellaneous Writings, collected and edited, with Notes, by +Mr. Upcott. Forming a Supplement to the Evelyn Memoirs. 1 vol. 4to. with +plates, 1825. £3. 10s. + +The Encycl. of Gardening enumerates the whole of Mr. Evelyn's works. So +does Dr. Watts in his Bibl. Britt.; and Mr. Johnson in his History of +English Gardening.[67] + +ABRAHAM COWLEY. The portraits of him are well known. That in Bishop +Hurd's edition is very neat. This same portrait is also well engraved +for Ankars's edition of Cowley; and also in that by Aikens, in 8vo. Dean +Sprat has prefixed to his edition of Cowley, his portrait, engraved by +Faithorne, and, in his preface, pays a warm and just tribute to his +memory. When his death was announced to Charles II., he declared, that +Mr. Cowley had not left a better man behind him in England. Cowley +addresses his chapter _Of Gardens_ (which strongly paints his delight in +them) to Mr. Evelyn. He wrote this epitaph for himself:-- + + From life's superfluous cares enlarg'd, + His debt of human toil discharg'd, + Here COWLEY lies, beneath this shed, + To ev'ry worldly interest _dead_: + With decent poverty content; + His hours of ease not idly spent; + To fortune's goods a foe profess'd, + And, hating wealth, by all caress'd. + 'Tis sure he's _dead_; for, lo! how small + A spot of earth is now his all! + O! wish that earth may lightly lay, + And ev'ry care be far away! + Bring flow'rs, the short-liv'd roses bring, + To _life deceased_ fit offering! + And sweets around the poet strow, + Whilst yet with life his ashes glow. + + +JOHN ROSE, head gardener to the Lord Essex, at Essex-house, in the +Strand. He sent him to study the celebrated beauties in the gardens of +Versailles. He became afterwards the chief gardener to Charles II., at +the royal gardens in St. James's Park. His portrait may be seen at +Kensington, in an oil painting, where he is presenting a pine to his +Majesty, whilst on a visit to the Duchess of Cleveland, at Downey Court, +Buckinghamshire. It has lately been engraved in mezzotinto. He was the +author of "The English Vineyard Vindicated, and the Way of Making Wine +in France;" first printed with Evelyn's French Gardener, in 1672, 12mo. +Other editions in 1675, 1676, and 1690, in 8vo. The preface is by +Evelyn, as well as The Art of Making Wine. Rose brought to great +perfection dwarf fruit trees, in the gardens at Hampton Court, Carlton, +and Marlborough House. Switzer thus speaks of him:--"He was esteemed to +be the best of his profession in those days, and ought to be remembered +for the encouragement he gave to a servant of his, that has since made +the greatest figure that ever yet any gardener did, I mean Mr. London. +Mr. Rose may be well ranked amongst the greatest virtuosos of that time, +(now dead) who were all well pleased to accept of his company while +living." + + +CHARLES COTTON. He published "The Planter's Manual," 12mo. 1675. There +is prefixed to it a rural frontispiece, by Van Houe. Mr. Johnson +properly calls him "one of the _Scriptores minores_ of horticulture." +His "devoted attachment to Izaak Walton, forms the best evidence we have +of his naturally amiable disposition." His portrait is finely engraved +in Mr. Major's extensively illustrated and most attractive editions of +the Angler; a delightful book, exhibiting a "matchless picture of rural +nature." Mr. Cotton's portrait is also well engraved in Zouch's Life of +Walton; and in the many other curious and embellished editions of Walton +and Cotton's Angler. He translated with such truth and spirit, the +celebrated Essays of Montaigne, that he received from that superior +critic, the Marquis of Halifax, a most elegant encomium. Sir John +Hawkins calls it "one of the most valuable books in the English +language." A complete list of Mr. Cotton's works appears in Watts's +Bibl. Britt. When describing, in his _Wonders of the Peake_, the Queen +of Scot's Pillar, he thus breaks out:-- + + Illustrious _Mary_, it had happy been, + Had you then found a cave like this to skreen + Your sacred person from those frontier spies, + That of a sovereign princess durst make prize, + When Neptune too officiously bore + Your cred'lous innocence to this faithless shore. + Oh, _England_! once who hadst the only fame + Of being kind to all who hither came + For refuge and protection, how couldst thou + So strangely alter thy good nature now, + Where there was so much excellence to move, + Not only thy compassion, but thy love? + 'Twas strange on earth, save _Caledonian_ ground, + So impudent a villain could be found, + Such majesty and sweetness to accuse; + Or, after that, a judge would not refuse + Her sentence to pronounce; or that being done, + Even amongst bloody'st hangmen, to find one + Durst, though her face was veil'd, and neck laid down, + Strike off the fairest head e'er wore a crown. + And what state policy there might be here, + Which does with right too often interfere, + I 'm not to judge: yet thus far dare be bold, + A fouler act the sun did ne'er behold.[68] + +Plott, in his Staffordshire, calls Mr. Cotton "his worthy, learned, and +most ingenious friend." Sir John Hawkins thus speaks of him:--"He was +both a wit and a scholar; of an open, cheerful, and hospitable temper; +endowed with fine talents for conversation, and the courtesy and +affability of a gentleman." He farther thus speaks of one of his +poems:--"It is not for their courtly and elegant turn, that the verses +of Charles Cotton ought to be praised; there is such a delightful flow +of feeling and sentiment, so much of the best part of our nature mixed +up in them, and so much fancy displayed, that one of our most +distinguished living poets has adduced several passages of his Ode upon +Winter, for a general illustration of the characteristics of fancy." He +must have possessed many endearing qualities, for the benevolent and +pious Walton thus concludes a letter to his "most honoured friend, +Charles Cotton, Esq.:"--"though I be more than a hundred miles from you, +and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will forget both, and next +month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon: for I would die in your +favour, and till then will live, Sir, your most affectionate father and +friend, Isaac Walton." One cannot wonder at the good old man wishing to +visit the courteous and well-bred Mr. Cotton, and to enjoy the +intercourse of hospitable urbanity, near the pastoral streams of the +Dove, when he had received such an invitation as the following, +addressed to his "dear and most worthy friend, Mr. Isaac Walton:"-- + + Whilst in this cold and blustering clime, + Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar, + We pass away the roughest time + Has been of many years before; + + Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks + The chillest blasts our peace invade, + And by great rains our smallest brooks + Are almost navigable made; + + Whilst all the ills are so improved, + Of this dead quarter of the year, + That even you, so much beloved, + We would not now wish with us here; + + In this estate, I say, it is + Some comfort to us to suppose, + That, in a better clime than this, + You, our dear friend, have more repose; + + And some delight to me the while, + Though nature now does weep in rain, + To think that I have seen her smile, + And haply may I do again. + + If the all-ruling Power please + We live to see another May, + We'll recompense an age of these + Foul days in one fine fishing day. + + We then shall have a day or two, + Perhaps a week, wherein to try + What the best master's hand can do + With the most deadly killing fly: + + A day with not too bright a beam, + A warm, but not a scorching sun, + A southern gale to curl the stream, + and, master, half our work is done. + + There, whilst behind some bush we wait + The scaly people to betray,-- + We'll prove it just, with treacherous bait + To make the preying _Trout_ our prey. + + And think ourselves, in such an hour, + Happier than those, though not so high, + Who, like _Leviathans_, devour + Of meaner men the smaller fry. + + This, my best friend, at my poor home + Shall be our pastime and our theme; + But then--should you not deign to come, + You make all this a flattering dream. + +In wandering over the lovely scenes, the pleasant brooks, the +flower-bespangled meadows, which the moral pages of Isaac Walton so +unaffectedly delineate, it is impossible not to recur to the name of the +late author of _Salmonia_, and to reflect, that on these pages he oft +unbended his vigorous mind from his severe and brilliant discoveries. We +can now only lament the (almost) premature death of this high-ranked +philosopher, this great benefactor to the arts, and deep promoter of +science, whose mortal remains were consigned to his unostentatious tomb, +at Geneva, in one of the finest evenings of summer, followed by the +eloquent and amiable historian, De Sismondi, and by other learned and +illustrious men. One may apply to his last moments at Geneva, (where he +had arrived only one day before) these lines of his own favourite +Herbert:-- + + _Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, + The bridal of the earth and sky, + Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, + For thou must die!_[69] + + +SAMUEL GILBERT'S portrait is prefixed to his "Florist's Vade Mecum;" +12mo. In his "Gardener's Almanack," is a particular description of the +roses cultivated in the English gardens at that period. He was the +author of "Fons Sanitatis, or the Healing Spring at Willowbridge Wells." +He was son-in-law to John Rea, the author of Flora, and who planned the +gardens at Gerard's Bromley. Willowbridge Wells are at a little distance +from where these once superb gardens were. + +JACOB BOBART, the elder, is an admirable portrait, by D. Loggan, taken +at his age of eighty-one, and engraved by Burghers. Granger says it is +extremely scarce. Beneath the head, which is dated 1675, is this +distich:-- + + _Thou Germane prince of plants, each year to thee, + Thousands of subjects grant a subsidy._ + +It is a venerable countenance, of deep thought. Richardson re-engraved +this among his Illustrations to Granger. Granger mentions also a +whole-length of Bobart in a garden, dog, goat, &c. 4to. The Encycl. of +Gardening says, "Bobart's descendants are still in Oxford, and known as +coach proprietors." Do none of them possess the original painting? The +munificence of the Earl of Danby placed Bobart in the physic garden at +Oxford, in 1632, as supervisor; and this garden flourished many years +under his care, and that of his son Jacob, whose zeal and diligence Dr. +Pulteney records. The elder Bobart was the author of the _Hortus +Oxoniensis_, 1648. Wood, in his Athenæ, informs us, that "Jacob Bobart +died in his garden-house, in February, 1679, whereupon his body was +buried in the church of St. Peter, Oxon." He left two sons, _Jacob_ and +_Tillemant_. Tillemant became a master coachman between Oxford and +London, but having had the misfortune to break his leg, became one of +the beadles of the university. In the preface to Mr. Nicholls's late +curious work on autographs, among other _albums_, in the British Museum, +it mentions that of David Krein, in which is the autograph of Jacob +Bobart, with these verses;-- + + ----"virtus sua gloria. + + Think that day lost whose descending sun + Views from thy hand no noble action done. + + Yr success and happyness + is sincerely wished by + Ja. Bobart, Oxford." + +It appears from Ray's History of Plants, that Jacob Bobart, the son, was +a frequent communicator to him of scarce plants. It was this son who +published the second volume of Morrison's Oxford History of Plants, who +wrote its excellent preface, and who engaged _Burghers_ to engrave many +of the new plants; which engravings are highly commended by Pulteney. +Mr. Johnson, in page 148 of his History of Gardening, thus pays Bobart a +high compliment:--"a phalanx of botanists were then contemporaries, +which previous ages never equalled, nor succeeding ones surpassed. Ray, +Tournefort, Plumier, Plukenet, Commelin, Rivinus, _Bobart_, Petiver, +Sherard, Boccone, Linnæus, may be said to have lived in the same age." + +JAMES GARDINER. His portrait is engraved by Vertue, from after Verelst, +and prefixed to his translation of _Rapin on Gardens_, 8vo. second +edition; no date. A third edition, 8vo. 1728. I believe he also wrote +"On the Beatitudes;" 2 vols. 8vo. Switzer says, that this "incomparable +Latin poem was translated by an ingenious and worthily dignified +clergyman, and a great lover of gardening, Mr. Gardiner, Sub-Dean of +Lincoln." He became afterwards (I believe) Bishop of Lincoln; and a +Latin epitaph on this bishop is in Peck's _Desid. Curiosa._ There is a +print of "Jacobus Gardiner, Episc. Lincoln," engraved by George White, +from after Dahl. + +SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. The portraits of this worthy man are numerous. +Vanderbane's engraving, from Sir Peter Lely's, is particularly fine. +Vertue's engravings, from Sir Peter, in the folio editions of 1720 and +1740, are also fine. This same portrait is neatly engraved in the late +Mr. Nichol's Collection of Poems. Houbraken has also engraved the same +for Birch's Lives. Sir William Temple, after spending twenty years in +negociations with foreign powers, retired in 1680 from public life, and +employed his time in literary pursuits. He was ambassador for many years +at the court of Holland, and there acquired his knowledge and taste in +gardening. He had a garden at Sheen, and afterwards, another at Moor +Park, where he died in 1700; and though his body was buried in +Westminster Abbey, his heart was enclosed in a silver urn under a +sun-dial in the latter garden. His Essay "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus, +or of Gardening in the year 1685," is printed in all the editions of his +works.[70] These works are published in 2 vols. folio, and 4 vols. 8vo. +Switzer, in his History of Gardening, first published in 1715, says, +"That he was a great lover of gardening, appears by his own writings, +and several kinds of fruit brought over by him out of Holland, &c. as +well as by the testimony of his neighbours _yet living_, the greatest +consolation of his life being, in the lucid intervals he had from public +employs, in his beloved gardens at _Sheen_." And, in his Fruit Gardener +he says, that "the magnificence and generosity of this great lover of +planting, distributed vast numbers of the finest grapes among the +nurserymen about London, as well as amongst the nobility and gentry." +Lord Mountmorris thus speaks of him:--"The retirement of this great man +has bequeathed the most invaluable legacy to posterity. Of the taste and +elegance of his writings too much can never be said, illuminated as they +are by that probity and candour which pervade them, and those charms +which render truth irresistible. Though other writers may be more the +objects of imitation to the scholar, yet his style is certainly the best +adapted to the politician and the man of fashion; nor would such an +opinion be given, were it not for an anecdote of Swift, which I had from +the late Mr. Sheridan, who told me the dean always recommended him as +the best model, and had repeatedly said that the style of Sir William +Temple was the easiest, the most liberal, and the most brilliant +in our language. In a word, when we consider his probity, his +disinterestedness, his contempt of wealth, the genuine beauty of his +style, which was as brilliant, as harmonious, and as pure as his life +and manners; when we reflect upon the treasures which he has bequeathed +by his example and by his works to his country, which no man ever loved +better, or esteemed more; we cannot avoid considering Sir William Temple +as one of the greatest characters which has appeared upon the political +stage; and he may be justly classed with the greatest names of +antiquity, and with the most brilliant characters which adorn and +illustrate the Grecian or Roman annals." Mr. Mason, in his English +Garden, contrasts Sir William's idea of "a perfect garden," with those +of Lord Bacon, and Milton; but he candidly says, + + ----and yet full oft + O'er Temple's studious hour did truth preside, + Sprinkling her lustre o'er his classic page; + There hear his candour own, in fashion's spite, + In spite of courtly dulness hear it own, + _There is a grace in wild variety + Surpassing rule and order._ Temple, yes, + There is a grace; and let eternal wreaths + Adorn their brows who fixt its empire here." + +He then, in glowing lines, pays an animated tribute to Addison, Pope, +and Kent. Hume records that "he was full of honour and humanity." Sir +William thus concludes one of his philosophic essays:--"When this is +done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward +child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet +till it falls asleep, and then the care is over." His garden was one of +his last delights. He knew what kind of life was best fitted to make a +man's last days happy. Mr. Walpole, though he censures Sir William's +warm panegyric on the garden at Moor Park, yet scruples not doing him +full justice, in styling him an excellent man, and an admired writer, +whose style, as to his garden, is animated with the colouring and glow +of poetry. Mr. Cobbett, in his _English Gardener_, thus deplores the +fate of Moor Park:--"This really wise and excellent man, Sir W. Temple, +who, while he possessed the soundest judgment, and was employed in some +of the greatest concerns of his country, so ardently, yet so rationally +and unaffectedly, praises the pursuits of gardening, in which he +delighted from his youth to his old age; and of his taste in which, he +gave such delightful proofs in those gardens and grounds at Moor Park, +beneath the turf of one spot of which, he caused by his will, his heart +to be buried, and which spot, together with all the rest of the +beautiful arrangement, has been torn about and disfigured within the +last fifty years, by a succession of wine merchants, spirit merchants, +West Indians, and God knows what besides." And, in his _Woodlands_, he +says, "I have stood for hours, when a little boy, looking at this object +(the canal and borders of beautiful flowers at Moor Park); I have +travelled far since, and have seen a great deal; but I have never seen +any thing of the gardening kind so beautiful in the whole course of my +life." Mr. Johnson, in his History of English Gardening, after noticing +many general particulars of Sir William, devotes an interesting page to +Sir William's attachment to gardening; and every line in this generous +page, betrays his own delight in this art. He thus concludes this +page:--"Nothing can demonstrate more fully the delight he took in +gardening, than the direction left in his will, that his heart should be +buried beneath the sun-dial of his garden, at Moor Park, near Farnham, +in Surrey. In accordance with which, it was deposited there in a silver +box, affording another instance of the ruling passion unweakened even in +death. Nor was this an unphilosophical clinging to that which it was +impossible to retain; but rather that grateful feeling, common to our +nature, of desiring finally to repose where in life we have been happy. +In his garden, Sir William Temple had spent the calmest hours of a +well-spent life, and where his heart had been most peaceful, he wished +its dust to mingle, and thus, at the same time, offering his last +testimony to the sentiment, that in a garden + + _Hic secura quies, et nescia fallere vita._" + +JOHN LOCKE wrote "Observations upon the Growth of Vines and Olives; the +Production of Silk, the Preservation of Fruits. Written at the request +of the Earl of Shaftesbury; now first printed from the original +manuscript in the possession of the present Earl of Shaftesbury, 1s. 6d. +Sandby, 1766." Among the many portraits we have of this learned man, the +public are indebted to Lord King, for having prefixed to his Life of Mr. +Locke, a very fine portrait of him, from after Greenhill. This great and +good man possessed, in the highest degree, those virtues that have +given him a claim to the highest rank in the admiration of posterity. In +Rutter's delineations of a part of Somersetshire, he gives a neat +wood-cut of the cottage at Wrington, wherein Locke was born, and he +informs us, that in the garden belonging to Mrs. Hannah More, near that +village, she has placed an urn commemorative of Locke, which was a gift +to her from the justly celebrated Mrs. Montague. He was drawn also by +Kneller. Bromley gives a list of many of his engraved portraits. +Houbraken engraved one for Birch's Lives. Vertue gave two engravings +from Kneller. + +WILLIAM FLEETWOOD, successively Bishop of St. Asaph and Ely, and who +died in 1723, was author of "Curiosities of Nature and Art in Husbandry +and Gardening," 8vo. 1707. His portrait is prefixed to his "Sermons on +the Relative Duties," 8vo. 1716; and also to his "Essay on the +Miracles." His works were published in a collected form in 1 vol. folio, +1737. He was incontestibly the best preacher in his time. Dr. Doddridge +calls him "silver tongued." Pope's line of + + _The gracious dew of pulpit eloquence_, + +might, no doubt, have been justly applied to him. Dr. Drake, in the +third volume of his Essays, to illustrate the Tatler, Spectator, and +Guardian, has some interesting pages respecting him. His benevolent +heart and exemplary life, added great effect to his persuasive eloquence +in the pulpit. "His sermons (says Lempriere), and divinity tracts, were +widely circulated; but the firmness of his opinions drew upon him the +censure of the House of Commons. His preface to his sermons on the +deaths of Mary, the Duke of Gloucester, and of William, and on the +accession of Anne, gave such offence to the ministry, that the book was +publicly burnt in 1712; but it was more universally read, and even +appeared in the Spectator, No. 384." As to this burning, Dr. Johnson +remarked, that fire is a conclusive, but not a convincing argument; it +will certainly destroy any book, but it refutes none.[71] In an +_Obituary_, preserved in Peck's Desid. Curiosa, it thus mentions the +death of a Jeffery Fleetwood, "leaving a wife and six little children +behind him. God bless them. One of these little children was the famous +William Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely." + +JOSEPH ADDISON, Esq. There is an original portrait of this eminent man, +at Holland House. Another at Oxford. Noble's continuation of Granger +enumerates several engravings of him, from Kneller's portraits. Dayl, +the painter, also drew him. His portrait appears in the Kit Cat Club. In +Ireland's "Picturesque Views on the River Avon," he gives an interesting +description of Mr. Addison's house at Bilton, near Rugby, two miles from +Dunchurch; with a view of the same. The house "remains precisely in the +state it was at the decease of its former possessor, nor has the +interior suffered much change in its former decoration. The furniture +and pictures hold their places with an apparent sacred attention to his +memory. Among the latter, are three of himself, at different periods of +his life; in each of which is strongly marked with the pencil, the ease +of the gentleman, and the open and ingenuous character of the friend to +humanity." From Dr. Drake's Biographical Sketch of Addison, it appears, +that these portraits were still remaining in his house in 1797. A copy +of the above view is given in the Monthly Magazine for February, 1822, +and it there says, that "the spacious gardens retain the fashion of the +age of the Spectator." The origin of the modern style of landscape +gardening, or the first writers on that subject, were unquestionably Mr. +Addison, in Nos. 414 and 477 of the _Spectator_, and Mr. Pope in his +celebrated _Guardian_. The first artists who practised in this style, +were Bridgman and Kent.[72] Mr. Addison's pure taste on these subjects +is visible even where he prefers Fontainebleau to the magnificent +Versailles, in his paper in the _Guardian_, No. 101:--"It is situated +among rocks and woods, that give you a fine variety of savage prospects. +The king has humoured the genius of the place, and only made use of so +much art as is necessary to help and regulate nature, without reforming +her too much. The cascades seem to break through the clefts and cracks +of rocks that are covered over with moss, and look as if they were piled +upon one another by accident. There is an artificial wildness in the +meadows, walks, and canals; and the garden, instead of a wall, is fenced +on the lower end by a natural mound of rock-work that strikes the eye +very agreeably. For my part, I think there is something more charming in +these rude heaps of stone than in so many statues, and would as soon see +a river winding through woods and meadows, as when it is tossed up in so +many whimsical figures at Versailles." In No. 414 of his Spectator, he +says, "English gardens are not so entertaining to the fancy as those in +France, and Italy, where we see a large extent of ground covered over +with an agreeable mixture of garden, and forest, which represent every +where an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatness and +elegancy which we meet with in those of our own country." Mr. Murphy +thus compares Addison with Johnson:--"Addison lends grace and ornament +to truth; Johnson gives it force and energy. Addison makes virtue +amiable; Johnson represents it as an awful duty." Addison has been +called the English Fenelon. Johnson calls him the Raphael of essay +writers. The imposing and commanding attitude of the statue erected a +few years since in the Poets' Corner, seems to have arisen, and to have +been devoted to his memory, from his _Reflections on the Tombs in the +Abbey_. Those reflections I here subjoin; and I am sure my reader will +agree with me, that I could not offer a purer honour to his genius and +memory:--"No.26, Friday, March 30. + + _Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas + Regumque turres, O beate sexti. + Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam, + Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque manes, + Et domus exilis Plutonia._--HOR. + + With equal foot, rich friend, impartial fate + Knocks at the cottage, and the palace gate: + Life's span forbids thee to extend thy cares, + And stretch thy hopes beyond thy tender years: + Night soon will seize, and you must quickly go + To storied ghosts, and _Pluto's_ house below.--CREECH. + +"When I am in a serious humour, I very often walk by myself in +Westminster Abbey; where the gloominess of the place, and the use to +which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building, and the +condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a +kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. +I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the church-yard, the cloisters, +and the church, amusing myself with the tomb-stones and inscriptions +that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them +recorded nothing else of the buried person, but that he was born upon +one day and died upon another: the whole history of his life being +comprehended in those two circumstances, that are common to all mankind. +I could not but look upon these registers of existence, whether of brass +or marble, as a kind of satire upon the departed persons; who had left +no other memorial of them, but that they were born and that they died. +They put me in mind of several persons mentioned in the battles of +heroic poems, who have sounding names given them, for no other reason +but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being +knocked on the head. + + _Glaucumque, Medontaque, Thersilochumque._--VIRG. + +"The life of these men is finely described in holy writ by _the path of +an arrow_, which is immediately closed up and lost. Upon my going into +the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave; and saw in +every shovel-full of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or +skull intermixed with a kind of fresh mouldering earth that some time or +other had a place in the composition of an human body. Upon this I began +to consider with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay +confused together under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men +and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and +prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in +the same common mass; how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, +weakness, and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous +heap of matter. After having thus surveyed this great magazine of +mortality, as it were in the lump; I examined it more particularly by +the accounts which I found on several of the monuments which are raised +in every quarter of that ancient fabrick. Some of them were covered with +such extravagant epitaphs, that if it were possible for the dead person +to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praises which his +friends have bestowed upon him. There are others so excessively modest, +that they deliver the character of the person departed in _Greek_ or +_Hebrew_, and by that means are not understood once in a twelvemonth. In +the poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments, and +monuments which had no poets. I observed indeed that the present war had +filled the church with many of these uninhabited monuments, which had +been erected to the memory of persons whose bodies were buried in the +plains of _Blenheim_, or in the bosom of the ocean. I could not but be +very much delighted with several modern epitaphs, which are written with +great elegance of expression and justness of thought, and therefore do +honour to the living as well as to the dead. As a foreigner is very apt +to conceive an idea of the ignorance or politeness of a nation from the +turn of their public monuments and inscriptions, they should be +submitted to the perusal of men of learning and genius before they are +put in execution. Sir_Cloudesly Shovel's_ monument has very often given +me great offence: instead of the brave rough _English_ admiral, which +was the distinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is +represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long +periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of +state. The inscription is answerable to the monument; for, instead of +celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the service +of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in +which it was impossible for him to reap any honour. The _Dutch_, whom we +are apt to despise for want of genius, shew an infinitely greater taste +of antiquity and politeness in their buildings and works of this nature, +than what we meet with in those of our own country. The monuments of +their admirals, which have been erected at the public expense, represent +them like themselves; and are adorned with rostral crowns and naval +ornaments, with beautiful festoons of sea-weed, shells, and coral. But +to return to our subject. I have left the repository of our English +kings for the contemplation of another day, when I shall find my mind +disposed for so serious an amusement. I know that entertainments of this +nature are apt to raise dark and dismal thoughts in timorous minds, and +gloomy imaginations; but, for my own part, though I am always serious, +I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a view +of nature in her deep and solemn scenes, with the same pleasure as in +her most gay and delightful ones. By this means I can improve myself +with those objects which others consider with terror. When I look upon +the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read +the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I +meet with the grief of parents upon a tomb-stone, my heart melts with +compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider +the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: When I see +kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed +side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests +and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little +competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several +dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred +years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be +contemporaries, and make our appearance together."[73] + + +REV. JOHN LAWRENCE published "The Clergyman's Recreation, shewing the +Pleasure and Profit of the Art of Gardening;" 8vo. 1714. Also a poem, +called "Paradise Regained, or the Art of Gardening;" 8vo. 1728. The +sixth edition of "The Clergyman's Recreation" has "the effigies of the +author, engraved by Vertue." I have seen eight copies of this sixth +edition, and in neither of them has this portrait been. No doubt the +collecting to form Granger's, has deprived each copy of its portrait. +This is an expressive portrait, ornamented with a vine wreath, and with +a rich cornucopia or clusters of ripe fruit. The original picture from +which Vertue's print was taken, was at Pallion, near Durham, the seat of +his grandson, John Goodchild, Esq. In Rodd's catalogue of engraved +portraits, printed a few years ago, was "John Lawrence, prebend of +Salisbury, _original drawing by Vertue_, price 5s." Mr. Lawrence +published also, in folio, in 1726, his System of Agriculture and +Gardening. Mr. Nichols, in vol. iv. of his Literary Anecdotes, has given +a list of all his works, has preserved a few particulars respecting him, +and pays a just tribute to him. A list of his works may also be seen in +Watts's Bibl. Brit., and in Mr. Johnson's work. The Encycl. of Gardening +informs us that he was "of a hospitable and benevolent disposition, +taking great pleasure in presenting a rich dessert of fruit to his +friends." He was presented to the rectory of Yelvertoft, +Northamptonshire, in 1703, "by the extraordinary uncommon bounty of a +generous patron." In 1721, he was presented to that of Bishop's +Wearmouth, Durham, where he died in 1732. He was also a prebend of +Salisbury.[74] + +Mr. Lawrence thus enforces the pleasures of a garden, to his own +order:--"to make them happy by loving an innocent diversion, the +amusements of a garden being not only most delightful to those that love +them, but most wholesome to those that use them. A good man knows how to +recapitulate all his pleasures in a devout lifting up of his hands, his +eyes and his heart, to the great and bountiful author of nature, who +gives beauty, relish, and success to all our honest labours." His pen +likewise paints with "soft and tempting colours," the extreme beauty of +our fruit-trees, when clothed with their different coloured blossoms, +(what Lord Byron calls _the sweet and blooming fruits of +earth_):--"What a pleasing entertainment is it to the eye, to behold +the apricot in its full blossom, white as snow, and at the same time the +peach with its crimson-coloured blooms; both beginning to be +interspersed with green leaves! These are succeeded by the pear, the +cherry, and the plum, whose blossoms and leaves make a very beautiful +mixture in the spring; and it cannot be a less pleasant sight to see +clusters of swelling fruit all the summer, as the earnest of the full +gratification of another sense in autumn. And now we have come hither, +what painter can draw a landskip more charming and beautiful to the eye, +than an old Newington peach-tree laden with fruit in August, when the +sun has first begun to paint one side of the fruit with such soft and +tempting colours? The apricot, the pear, the cherry and plum, when they +appear in plenty as they ought, present themselves to the eye at the +time of ripening in very inviting blushes. In short, all the several +sorts of fruit trees have such pleasing varieties, that were there no +other sense to be gratified but the sight, they may vie with a parterre +even of the finest flowers." He thus mentions the month of _July_:--"How +beautiful and refreshing are the mornings and evenings of such days, +when the very air is perfumed with pleasant odours, and every thing that +presents itself to the eye gives fresh occasion to the devout admirer to +praise and adore the Great Creator, who hath given such wisdom and power +to man to diversify nature in such various instances, and (for his own +use, pleasure, and profit,) to assist her in all her operations." This +worthy clergyman might have applied to the delights of a garden, the +sacred words of scripture:--"her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all +her paths are peace."[75] + +ALEXANDER POPE. Numerous are the engraved portraits of this graceful and +harmonious poet. Noble's continuation of Granger, gives all, or the +greater part of the engravings from his portraits, from which it will be +seen, that he was drawn by Kneller, by Richardson, by many others, and +particularly by his friend Jervas. As a portrait painter, Mr. Jervas +was far from eminent. Pope's attachment to him, however, has enshrined +his name in glowing lines to future generations. The portraits of Pope +which Jervas drew, were done _con amore_. Mr. Jennings, of Cheapside, +has prefixed to his elegant folio edition of the "Essay on Man," a +_whole-length_ of Mr. Pope, from after Jervas. In Dodsley's Collection +of Poems, vol. iii. is a very striking bust of Mr. Pope, as an +accompaniment to Mr. Dodsley's affecting poem to his memory, which he +entitles _The Cave of Pope_. Surely this bust must have strongly +resembled Pope, or Mr. Dodsley would not have inserted it. The profile +to Ruffhead's Life, in 4to. 1769, _must_ have been a likeness, or Bishop +Warburton would not have permitted its insertion. His age was then +twenty-four. It is finely engraved by Ravenet, from Kneller. It is a +striking portrait. A copy of this is admirably engraved in Bell's Poets, +richly ornamented. A copy from that by Richardson is prefixed to +Warton's edition. Among the portraits at _Hagley_, is that of Pope, and +his dog Bounce, by Richardson.[76] Lord Chesterfield thus speaks of +Pope:--"His poor, crazy, deformed body, was a mere Pandora's box, +containing all the physical ills that ever afflicted humanity. This, +perhaps, whetted the edge of his satire, and may, in some degree, excuse +it. I will say nothing of his works; they speak sufficiently for +themselves; they will live as long as taste and letters shall remain in +this country, and be more and more admired, as envy and resentment shall +subside. But I will venture this piece of classical blasphemy: which is, +that however he may be supposed to be obliged to Horace, Horace is more +obliged to him." Mr. Ruffhead (generally supposed to have had his +information from Dr. Warburton) thus states:--"Mr. Pope was low in +stature, and of a diminutive and misshapen figure, which no one +ridiculed more pleasantly than himself. His constitution was naturally +tender and delicate, and in his temper he was naturally mild and +gentle, yet sometimes betrayed that exquisite sensibility which is the +concomitant of genius. His lively perception and delicate feeling, +irritated by wretched ill health, made him too quickly take fire, but +his good sense and humanity soon rendered him placable. With regard to +the extent of his genius, it was so wide and various, that perhaps it +may not be too much to say, that he excelled in every species of +composition; and, beside his excellence as a poet, he was both an +antiquarian and an architect, and neither in an inferior degree.[77] No +man ever entertained more exalted notions of friendship, or was ever +more sincere, steady, warm, and disinterested, in all his attachments. +Every inch of his heart was let out in lodgings for his friends." Lord +Orrery thus speaks of him:--"His prose writings are little less +harmonious than his verse; and his voice, in common conversation, was so +naturally musical, that I remember honest Tom Southern used to call him +the Little Nightingale; his manners were delicate, easy, and engaging; +he treated his friends with a politeness that charmed, and a generosity +that was much to his honour. Every guest was made happy within his +doors; pleasure dwelt under his roof, and elegance presided at his +table." One may trace Mr. Pope's hospitality throughout his letters. I +will merely select one or two instances. In a letter to _Swift_, he +says, "My house is too large; my gardens furnish too much wood and +provision for _my_ use. My servants are sensible and tender of me. They +have intermarried, and are become rather low friends than servants. +Would to God you would come over with Lord Orrery, whose care of you in +the voyage I could so certainly depend on; and bring with you your old +housekeeper, and two or three servants. I have room for all, a heart for +all, and (think what you will) a fortune for all." In another letter to +Swift, he says, "I wish you had any motive to see this kingdom. I could +keep you; for I am rich, that is, I have more than I want. I can afford +room for yourself and two servants. I have, indeed, room enough, nothing +but myself at home: the kind and hearty housewife is dead! the agreeable +and instructive neighbour is gone! yet my house is enlarged, and the +gardens extend and flourish, as knowing nothing of the guests they have +lost. I have more fruit trees and kitchen garden than you have any +thought of; nay, I have good melons and pineapples of my own growth." In +a letter to _Mr. Allen_, he says, "Let me know your day for coming, and +I will have every room in my house as warm for you as the owner always +would be." Mr. Mathias, in his Pursuits of Literature, (besides +expatiating with fond delight, in numerous pages, on the genius of +Pope,) thus speaks of him:--"Familiar with the great, intimate with the +polite, graced by the attentions of the fair, admired by the learned, a +favourite with the nation, independent in an acquired opulence, the +honourable product of his genius, and of his industry; the companion of +persons distinguished for their virtue, birth, high fashion, rank, or +wit, and resident in the centre of all public information and +intelligence; every avenue to knowledge, and every mode of observation +were open to his curious, prying, piercing, and unwearied +intellect."[78] + +One may with truth further apply to Mr. Pope what was said of Buchanan, +that his mind was stored with all the fire, and all the graces of +ancient literature. Mr. Pope's attachment to _gardens_, appears not only +in his letter to Martha Blount, describing Sir W. Raleigh's seat--but in +his own garden at Twickenham, (where, as Mr. Loudon feelingly observes, +_only the soil of which now remains_)--and in his letter to Mr. Blount, +describing his grotto--but it also bursts forth in many passages +throughout his works--and in his celebrated _Guardian_ (No. 173), which +attacks, with the keenest wit, "our study to recede from nature," in our +giants made out of yews, and lavender pigs with sage growing in their +bellies. His epistle to Lord Burlington confirms the charms he felt in +studying nature. Mr. Mason, in a note to his English Garden, says, "I +had before called Bacon the prophet, and Milton, the herald of true +taste in gardening. The former, because, in developing the constituent +properties of a princely garden, he had largely expatiated upon that +adorned natural wildness which we now deem the essence of the art. The +latter, on account of his having made this natural wildness the leading +idea in his exquisite description of Paradise. I here call Addison, +_Pope_, Kent, &c. the champions of this true taste." As Mr. Mason has +added an _&c._, may we not add to these respected names, that of honest +old Bridgman? It was the determination of Lord Byron (had his life been +longer spared), to have erected, at his own expence, a monument to +Pope.[79] We can gather even from his rapid and hurried "Letter on the +Rev. W. L. Bowles's Strictures," his attachment to the high name of +Pope:--"If Lucretius had not been spoiled by the Epicurean system, we +should have had a far superior poem to any now in existence. As mere +poetry, it is the first of Latin poems. What then has ruined it? His +ethics. Pope has not this defect; his moral is as pure as his poetry is +glorious."--"Pope's charities were his own, and they were noble and +extensive, far beyond his fortune's warrant."--"I have loved and +honoured the fame and name of that illustrious and unrivalled man, far +more than my own paltry renown, and the trashy jingle of the crowd of +schools and upstarts, who pretend to rival, or even surpass him. Sooner +than a single leaf should be torn from _his_ laurel, it were better that +all which these men, and that I, as one of their set, have ever +written, should + + Line trunks, clothe spice, or, fluttering in a row, + Befringe the rails of Bedlam, or Soho." + +"The most _perfect_ of our poets, and the purest of our moralists."--"He +is the _moral_ poet of all civilization; and, as such, let us hope that +he will one day be the national poet of mankind. He is the only poet +that never shocks; the only poet whose _faultlessness_ has been made his +reproach. Cast your eye over his productions; consider their extent, and +contemplate their variety:--pastoral, passion, mock-heroic, translation, +satire, ethics,--all excellent, and often perfect. If his great charm be +his _melody_, how comes it that foreigners adore him even in their +diluted translations?"[80] + +Mr. Mason has also farther recorded the resplendent fame of this +celebrated man; for in his _Musæus_, a monody to the memory of Pope, he +invokes the shades of Chaucer, Spencer, and Milton, to do homage to his +departing spirit:-- + + ----to cheer thee at this rueful time + While black death doth on thy heart-strings prey. + So may we greet thee with a nobler strain, + When soon we meet for aye in yon star-sprinkled plain. + +Milton thus begins _his_ homage:-- + + Thrice hail, thou heaven-taught warbler, last and best + Of all the train! Poet, in whom conjoin'd + All that to ear, or heart, or head, could yield + Rapture; harmonious, manly, clear, sublime! + Accept this gratulation: may it cheer + Thy sinking soul; or these corporeal ills + Ought daunt thee, nor appal. Know, in high heav'n + Fame blooms eternal on that spirit divine, + Who builds immortal verse."[81] + +Sir E. Brydges, in his "Letters on the Genius of Lord Byron," thus +characterizes the grace and sweetness of his pathetic powers, in his +_Eloisa_:--"When either his passions or imaginations _were_ roused, they +were deep, strong, and splendid. Notwithstanding _Eloisa_ was an +historical subject, his invention of circumstances of detail, his +imagery, the changes and turns of passion, the brilliancy of hues thrown +upon the whole, the eloquence, the tenderness, the fire, the inimitable +grace and felicity of language, were all the fruits of creative genius. +This poem stands alone in its kind; never anticipated, and never likely +to be approached hereafter." + +Young uttered this sublime apostrophe when the death of Pope was first +announced to him:-- + + _Thou, who couldst make immortals_, art thou dead? + +Of his _Essay on Man_, the Nouveau Dict. Hist. Portatif thus +speaks:--"Une metaphysique lumineuse, ornée des charmes de la poësie, +une morale touchante, dont les leçons pénetrent le coeur et +convainquent l'esprit, des peintures vives, ou l'homme apprend a se +connoître, pour apprendre à deviner meilleur; tels sont les principaux +caracteres qui distinguent le poëme Anglois. Son imagination est +également sage et féconde, elle prodigue les pensées neunes, et donne le +piquant de la nouveanté, aux pensées anciennes; il embelloit les +matieres les plus seches, par la coloris d'une élocution noble, facile, +energèque, variée avec un art infini." + +In the gardens of Stowe is the following inscription to + + ALEXANDER POPE, + Who, uniting the correctness of judgment + To the fire of genius, + By the melody and power of his numbers, + Gave sweetness to sense, and grace to philosophy. + He employed the pointed brilliancy of his wit + To chastise the vices, + And the eloquence of poetry + To exalt the virtues of human nature; + And, being without a rival in his own age, + Imitated and translated with a spirit equal to the originals, + The best Poets of antiquity. + + +WILLIAM KENT, whose portrait appears in Mr. Dallaway's rich edition of +the Anecdotes of Painting. Kent, with Bridgman, Pope, and Addison, have +been termed the fathers of landscape gardening.[82] Mr. Walpole, after +reviewing the old formal style of our gardens, in language which it is +painful to me thus only to advert to, instead of copying at length, (for +I am fully "aware of the mischiefs which generally ensue in _meddling_ +with the productions of genius"); and after stating that when _nature_ +was taken into the plan, every step pointed out new beauties, and +inspired new ideas: "at that moment appeared Kent, painter enough to +taste the charms of landscape, bold and opiniative enough to dare and to +dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a great system from the +twilight of imperfect essays. He leaped the fence, and saw that all +nature was a garden. Thus the pencil of his imagination bestowed all the +arts of landscape on the scenes he handled. But of all the beauties he +added to the face of this beautiful country, none surpassed his +management of water. Thus, dealing in none but the colours of nature, +and catching its most favourable features, men saw a new creation +opening before their eyes." And again he calls him "the inventor of an +art that realizes painting, and improves nature: Mahomet imagined an +elysium, but Kent created many." The greatest of all authorities tells +us, that in Esher's peaceful grove, both + + Kent and Nature vied for Pelham's love. + +Mr. Mason, in his English Garden, thus panegyrises his elysian scenes:-- + + ---- Kent, who felt + The pencil's power; but fix'd by higher hopes + Of beauty than that pencil knew to paint, + Work'd with the living lives that _nature_ lent, + And realized his landscapes. + +Mr. Pope, as well as Kent, would, and Mr. Walpole, and Mr. Mason, must +each of them have read with high approbation the following remark of the +late Sir Uvedale Price:--"the noble and varied works of the eminent +painters of every age and every country, and those of their supreme +mistress, Nature, should be the great models of imitation." + +Mr. Whateley paints in glowing language, the genius of Kent, both at +Stowe, and at Claremont. Mr. George Mason thus honestly and finely +pleads for him:--"According to my own ideas, all that has since been +done by the most deservedly admired designers, as Southcote, Hamilton, +Lyttleton, Pitt, Shenstone, Morris, for themselves, and by Wright for +others, all that has been written on the subject, even the gardening +didactic poem, and the didactic essay on the picturesque, have proceeded +from Kent. Had Kent never exterminated the bounds of regularity, never +actually traversed the way to freedom of manner, would any of these +celebrated artists have found it of themselves? Theoretic hints from the +highest authorities, had evidently long existed without sufficient +effect. And had not these great masters actually executed what Kent's +example first inspired, them with, the design of executing, would the +subsequent writers on gardening have been enabled to collect materials +for precepts, or stores for their imaginations? Mr. Price acknowledges +himself an admirer of the water-scene at Blenheim. Would it ever have +appeared in its present shape, if no Kent had previously abolished the +stiffness of canals! If this original artist had barely rescued the +liquid element from the constraint of right lines and angles, that +service alone would have given him an indubitable claim to the respect +of posterity." The Rev. Mr. Coventry, in his admirable exposure of the +grotesque absurdities in gardening, (being No. 15 of the World) thus +speaks of Kent:--"The great Kent at length appeared in behalf of nature, +declared war against the taste in fashion, and laid the axe to the root +of artificial evergreens. Gardens were no longer filled with yews in the +shape of giants, Noah's ark cut in holly, St. George and the Dragon in +box, cypress lovers, laurustine bears, and all that race of root-born +monsters which flourished so long, and looked so tremendous round the +edges of every grass-plat. The great master above mentioned, truly the +disciple of nature, imitated her in the agreeable wildness and beautiful +irregularity of her plans, of which there are some noble examples still +remaining, that abundantly show the power of his creative genius." Mr. +Dallaway, when treating on architecture, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, +says, "Kent designed the noble hall at Holkham, terminated by a vast +staircase, producing, in the whole, an imposing effect of grandeur not +to be equalled in England." Kent died in 1748. He was a contemporary +therefore of Horace Walpole. He was buried in the vault at Chiswick, +belonging to his friend and patron, Lord Burlington. + + +BRIDGMAN'S portrait was a private plate. It exhibited a kind-hearted, +hale old countenance. As he has the honour of being classed with Mr. +_Addison_, and with _Pope_, and _Kent_, as one of the champions who +established the picturesque scenery of landscape gardening, (which +_Bacon_, and _Spencer_, and _Milton_, as hath been observed, foresaw) +his portrait must surely be interesting. The engraved portrait which I +saw of him more than fifty years ago, made then a strong impression on +me. I think it was an etching. It marked a venerable healthy man. I +neither recollect its painter nor engraver; and it is so scarce, that +neither Mr. Smith, of Lisle Street, nor Mr. Evans, of Great Queen +Street, the intelligent collectors and illustrators of Granger, have +been able to obtain it. Perhaps it will be discovered that it was a +private plate, done at the expence of his generous and noble employer, +Lord Cobham. Of this once able and esteemed man, I can procure little +information. The Encycl. of Gardening says, "Lord Cobham seems to have +been occupied in re-modelling the grounds at _Stowe_, about the same +time that Pope was laying out his gardens at Twickenham. His lordship +began these improvements in 1714, _employing Bridgman_, whose plans and +views for altering old Stowe from the most rigid character of the +ancient style to a more open and irregular design, are still in +existence. Kent was employed a few years afterwards, first to paint the +hall, and afterwards in the double capacity of architect and +landscape-gardener; and the finest scenes there are his creation." The +finest views of Stowe gardens were drawn by Rigaud, and published by +_Sarah Bridgman_, in 1739. The fine and magnificent amphitheatre at the +Duke of Newcastle's, at Claremont, was designed, I believe, by Bridgman. +When Queen Caroline added nearly three hundred acres from Hyde Park to +the gardens at Kensington, they were laid out by him. He also laid out +the gardens at Shardeloes, near Amersham. Mr. Walpole thus mentions +Bridgman, after alluding to the shears having been applied to the lovely +wildness of nature: "Improvements had gone on, till _London_ and _Wise_ +had stocked our gardens with giants, animals, monsters, coats of arms, +and mottos, in yew, box and holly. Absurdity could go no farther, and +the tide turned. _Bridgman_, the next fashionable designer of gardens, +was far more chaste; and whether from good sense, or that the nation had +been struck and reformed by the admirable paper in the Guardian, No. +173, he banished verdant sculpture, and did not even revert to the +square precision of the foregoing age. He enlarged his plans, disdained +to make every division tally to its opposite; and though he still +adhered much to straight walks with high clipped hedges, they were only +his great lines, the rest he diversified by wilderness and with loose +groves of oak, though still within surrounding hedges. I have observed +in the garden at Gubbins, in Hertfordshire, many detached thoughts, that +strongly indicate the dawn of modern taste. As his reformation gained +footing, he ventured farther, and in the royal garden at Richmond, dared +to introduce cultivated fields, and even morsels of a forest appearance, +by the sides of those endless and tiresome walks that stretched out of +one into another without intermission. But this was not till other +innovators had broke loose too from rigid symmetry. But the capital +stroke, the leading step to all that has followed, was (_I believe the +first thought was Bridgman's_) the destruction of walls for boundaries, +and the invention of fosses,--an attempt then deemed so astonishing, +that the common people called them ha! ha's! to express their surprise +at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk.[83] One of the +first gardens planted in this simple though still formal style, was my +father's at Houghton. It was laid out by Mr. Eyre, an imitator of +Bridgman." + + +PHILIP MILLER died at the age of eighty, and was emphatically styled by +foreigners _hortulanorum princeps_. Switzer bears testimony to his +"usual generosity, openness and freedom." Professor Martyn says, "he +accumulated no wealth from his respectable connection with the great, or +from the numerous editions of his works. He was of a disposition too +generous, and too careless of money, to become rich, and in all his +transactions observed more attention to integrity and honest fame, than +to any pecuniary advantages." There is a finely engraved portrait of Mr. +Miller, by Maillet, prefixed to the "Dictionnaire des Jardiniers, de +Philipe Miller, traduit de l'Anglois," en 8 tom. 4to. Paris, 1785. + +Dr. Pulteney says of him, "He raised himself by his merit from a state +of obscurity to a degree of eminence, but rarely, if ever before, +equalled in the character of a gardener." Mr. Loudon (in that "varied +and voluminous mass of knowledge," his Encyclopædia), thus +remarks:--"Miller, during his long career, had no considerable +competitor, until he approached the end of it, when several writers took +the advantage of his unwearied labours of near half a century, and fixed +themselves upon him, as various marine insects do upon a decaying +shell-fish. I except Hitt and Justice, who are both originals, as is +also Hill, after his fashion, but his gardening is not much founded in +experience." The sister of Mr. Miller married Ehret, whose fine taste +and botanical accuracy, and whose splendid drawings of plants, are the +finest ornaments of a botanical library. + +Mr. Miller fixed his residence adjoining that part of Chelsea +church-yard where he lies interred. He died December 18, 1771. Mr. +Johnson gives a list of his writings, and of the different editions of +his celebrated Dictionary, which he terms "this great record of our +art." He farther does full justice to him, by associating his name, at +p. 147 and p. 151, with that of "the immortal Swede, whose master mind +reduced the confusion and discord of botany to harmony." He calls Miller +"the perfect botanist and horticulturist."[84] The following spirited +tribute to Mr. Miller, appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for June, +1828:-- + + "_Chelsea, June 5._ + +"MR. URBAN,--In the first volume, page 250, of the second edition of +_Faulkner's History of Chelsea_, just published, which contains a very +copious fund of historical, antiquarian, and biographical information, I +find inserted the monument and epitaph of Philip Miller, who was so +justly styled 'the prince of horticulture' by contemporary botanists, +and whose well-earned fame will last as long as the sciences of botany +and horticulture shall endure. The epitaph of this distinguished man is +correctly given; but the historian appears not to have duly appreciated, +if he was even aware of, the circumstances which induced the Fellows of +the Linnæan and Horticultural Societies of London to erect this grateful +tribute of respectful esteem to him, who in his life-time, had done more +than any individual, ancient or modern, towards enlarging the boundaries +of the science of horticulture, and very extensively the far more +difficult one of botany likewise. These he accomplished in the numerous +editions of his unrivalled Dictionary, and in his elaborate +introductions to botanical knowledge. + +"The reasons which induced the above-mentioned societies to erect the +monument in question, were, chiefly, because neither monument, nor tomb, +nor even any recording public notice whatever (the 'monumentum ære +perennius' of his own immortal works excepted) had previously been +provided by any one. + +"The relatives of Miller were very few; he had no family, save two sons, +one of whom died early, and the other, Charles Miller, at the age of 78, +who spent the greater part of his long life in India, and returned not +until after his father's funeral; and over his grave, in the old +church-yard of Chelsea, a stone and sculptured brass record his name and +age and parentage, together with that of his aged and more distinguished +sire. This stone, too, was placed by the above-mentioned public-spirited +societies, (unto both which the writer has the honour to belong) at the +same time as the monument, stated by Faulkner, to the never-dying fame +of the father. + +"But it is even now scarcely known, that when those meritorious +testimonials of public gratitude were showered over the memory of Philip +Miller, who had laboured so long and so successfully in the sciences +which he loved, there was only one individual in existence, and that a +very aged person, who had seen and attended the funeral of Miller, and +who alone could point out the very spot where the 'Prince of +Horticulture' was inhumed. This venerable person's name was Goodyer; he +was the parish clerk of Chelsea church for half a century, and died as +such in 1818, at the great age of ninety-four. + +"Nevertheless, though last, it should not be concealed that I myself had +actually stated and published, in the winter of 1794-5, the neglectful +and opprobrious fact of Miller's having no single grave-stone, much less +a monument, nor even one funeral line, to designate the spot where +rested in its 'narrow house' the mortal relics of so great a man; see my +Observations on the Genus Mesembryanthemum, p. 311-14; and, as every +reader may not possess that publication, the following extract from it +is added:-- + +"'So much for Miller; he, alas! who pleased so well, or, rather let me +say, he who instructed and edified so much, and was even caressed by the +great while living, now lies, forgotten by his friends, inhumed amongst +the common undistinguished dead, in the bleak cold yard of Chelsea +church, the very theatre of his best actions, the physic gardens of the +Worshipful Company of Apothecaries, at Chelsea, not half a mile distant, +without a tomb! without a stone! nay, destitute of a single line to mark +the spot where rests, retired from all its cares and useful toils, the +time-worn frame of the 'Prince of Horticulture!' How are those +discerning foreigners, who so meritoriously rendered the language of his +Dictionary into their own, to judge of this? by what measure are they to +estimate the fact? Miller was the author of several publications, +besides the very numerous editions of his Dictionary and Kalendar.' + + Yours, &c. + + "A. H. HAWORTH." + + +SIR JOHN HILL. His works are many of them enumerated in the Encyclo. of +Gardening. The most full list is in Weston's Catalogue. His portrait is +engraved in metz by Houston, from after Coates. It is an oval, with a +_solitaire_. A short account of his life and writings was published at +Edinburgh in 1779. The most general account of him is in Hutchinson's +Biog. Medica. 2 vols. 8vo. See also the Biog. Dramatica, 2nd edit. +1782. + + +BATTY LANGLEY was born at Twickenham, where he resided. He was the +author of, + +1. Practical Geometry, 1726. + +2. New Principles of Gardening, or the laying out and planting +parterres, groves, wildernesses, labyrinths, avenues, parks, &c. cuts, +1728, 4to. + +3. The sure Method of Improving Estates by Trees, 8vo. One of his +chapters is "On the magnitude and prodigious Growth of Trees." + +4. Pomona, or the Fruit Gardener, _with plates_, fol. 1729. At the end +is a letter to Mr. Langley, on Cyder, from Hugh Stafford, Esq. of Pynes. + +There is a 4to. metz portrait of Mr. Langley, with the name of +Carwirtham, as the engraver or print-seller, 1741. + + +SIR WILLIAM WATSON, an eminent physician, who died in 1787, wrote + +1. On the Culture of Mushrooms. In vol. 42 and 43 of the Phil. Trans. + +2. Account of the Remains of Tradescant's Garden. In vol. 46 of the +Phil. Trans. + +3. Account of the Bishop of London's Garden, at Fulham. In vol. 47 of +the Phil. Trans. besides many valuable papers in several volumes of +these Transactions. + +He had the pleasure of introducing _Kalm_, as well as _Pallas_, to most +of the curious gardens in the environs of London. On the first +establishment of the British Museum, he was most active in furnishing +its garden, with no fewer than six hundred plants. His house (as Dr. +Pulteney observes) "became the resort of the most ingenious and +illustrious experimental philosophers that England could boast." Dr. +Pulteney has closed a very liberal memoir of him, by inserting Dr. +Garthshore's testimony to the humane feeling, the social politeness, and +benignity of Sir William. His portrait is painted by Abbot, and engraved +by Ryder, 1791. There is a full account of him in Chalmers. + + +The Rev. WILLIAM HANBURY, the intimate friend of Churchill, and of +Lloyd, in his singular "History of the Charitable Foundations at Church +Langton," (and which exhibits his own benevolent heart, and great love +for planting and gardening) mentions, at page 185, a full-length +portrait of himself, by Penny. Had there been any other portrait of him, +it is likely Mr. Nicholls would have mentioned it in his Leicestershire, +for that gentleman, as well as Joseph Cradock, Esq. (both of whom are +lately deceased), would have been most likely to have known, if any +other portrait of this zealous planter did exist; so would Dr. Thomas +Warton, who always spoke of Mr. Hanbury as a generous, disinterested, +and benevolent man. Earlom engraved, in 1775, a three-quarter +metzotinto, from the above portrait by Penny. Mr. Hanbury also published +"A Complete Body of Planting and Gardening;" 2 vols. folio. Also, "An +Essay on Planting, and a Scheme to make it conducive to the Glory of +God, and the Advantage of Society;" Oxford, 8vo. 1s. 1758. And "The +Gardener's New Calendar;" 8vo. 1758. + +Mr. Hanbury first conceived, in 1751, the establishing at Church +Langton, for benevolent purposes, his immense plantations; having +procured (particularly from North America) "almost every sort of seed +that could be procured." He proposed that an annual sermon should be +preached, either in praise of church music, the duty of decorating +religious houses, charity in general, or the wonders of the creation; +and that a hospital should be founded for the relief of the really +distressed. All these extensive plans were frustrated. Even when his +first twenty thousand trees had just been planted out, the cattle +belonging to the tenants of Mrs. Dorothy Pickering, and Frances Byrd, +(who a few years after died worth two hundred thousand pounds, and whose +village biography is curiously dispersed throughout the above history) +were _purposely_ turned amongst the young trees, and in a little time +destroyed them all. "Neither was this all; I was served for a trespass +with twenty-seven different copies of writs in one day (by their +attorney, Valentine Price, of Leicester); to such a degree of rage and +fury were these old gentlewomen raised, at what one should have thought +every heart would have rejoiced, and kindly lent an assisting hand." Mr. +Hanbury gives many instances of the "venomous rage and passion" of these +two old women. They had, says he, "the mortification to find themselves +totally despised. Not a gentleman or lady would go near them, two +neighbouring clergymen excepted, who were invited to dine with them upon +venison." They attempted making a tool of the sow-gelder's son, to +enable them to carry on their mean plans, and sent him word, that +nothing they could do for him in the parish should be wanting. His +answer was, "that favours granted from such people, on such terms, could +never prosper, and he desired the other to tell them, they were _two old +bitches_."--"This summer, (says Mr. Hanbury,) was murdered, in the most +barbarous manner, the best spaniel that perhaps ever entered the field, +and the best greyhound that ever run. With these I had been often +entertained in my morning walks. To deprive me of these pleasures, +afforded me in my morning recreations, I had discharges from Mrs. +Pickering, and Mrs. Byrd, for taking them with me in their manors. To +these I paid no regard, and as they never brought any action on that +account, it may be supposed they could find no just cause to ground one. +What then is to be done? Some method is to be contrived to deprive me of +my attendants; the spaniel therefore was the first object destined for +destruction. He was small, and of a beautiful black, and had been used +to the parlour; and being absent about an hour, came reeling home in the +agonies of death; and in about a quarter of an hour after, died in the +seemingly most excruciating tortures. Suspecting some villany, I ordered +him to be opened, but found everything perfect and entire; I then +directed him to be skinned, and coming to the loins, found the traces of +a table-fork, which was stuck into the kidneys, and which was the +occasion of his speedy and dreadful death. A few days after this, my +best greyhound was stuck in the loins, in the like barbarous manner, +which brought on the same kind of speedy and agonizing death; and this +was the catastrophe of these two noted dogs, which had been much talked +of, and were famous amongst sportsmen, as being most perfect in their +kind. Some time after this, their game-keeper, in company with his +nephew, _buried two dogs alive_; they were the property of Mr. Wade, a +substantial grazier, who had grounds contiguous to a place of cover, +called Langton Caudle, where was often game; and where the unfortunate +two dogs, straying from their master, had been used to hunt. The +game-keeper and his nephew being shooting in this place, the dogs, upon +the report of the gun, made towards them. Their shooting them or hanging +them would have been merciful, but they buried them alive; and what +words can express the abhorrence of such barbarity to such innocent +creatures following the dictates of nature? To prevent a possibility of +their scratching a way out, they covered them down with black thorns; +over these they laid a sufficient quantity of earth and one large stone, +which the rammed down with their heels. Day after day the dogs were +heard in this place, with the howling, barking noise of dogs that were +lost. Some people resorted to find them out, and wondered it was to no +purpose, for nobody could suspect the dogs were under ground; and thus +after calling and whistling them, and seeking them for some time, +returned, amazed that lost dogs should continue so long in that place; +but a sight of none could ever be had. The noise was fancied to come +sometimes from one quarter, sometimes from another; and when they came +near the place they were in, they ceased howling, expecting their +deliverance was at hand. I myself heard them _ten days_ after they had +been buried; and seeing some people at a distance, enquired what dogs +they were. _They are some dogs that are lost, Sir_, said they; _they +have been lost some time_. I concluded only some poachers had been there +early in the morning, and by a precipitate flight had left their dogs +behind them. In short, the howling and barking of these dogs was heard +for near three weeks, when it ceased. Mr. Wade's dogs were missing, but +he could not suspect those to be his; and the noise ceasing, the +thoughts, wonder, and talking about them, soon also ceased. Some time +after, a person being amongst the bushes where the howling was heard, +discovered some disturbed earth, and the print of men's heels ramming it +down again very close; and seeing Mr. Wade's servant, told him, he +thought something had been buried there. _Then_, said the man, _it is +our dogs, and they have been buried alive: I will go and fetch a spade, +and will find them, if I dig all Caudle over_. He soon brought a spade, +and upon removing the top earth, came to the blackthorns, and then to +the dogs, the biggest of which had eat the loins and greatest share of +the hind parts of the little one." Mr. Hanbury states the deaths of +these two sisters in the course of a few months after. The sums they +accumulated by their penurious way of living, were immense. They +bequeathed legacies by will to almost every body that were no kin to +them except their assiduous attorney, Valentine Price, to whom they left +nothing. "But what is strange and wonderful, though their charities in +their life-time at Langton were a sixpenny loaf a week only, which was +divided into as many parts as there were petitioners, and distributed by +eleven of the clock on a Sunday, unless they left the town the day +before, which was often the case, and when the poor were sure to fail of +their bounty; these gentlewomen, at the death of the last, bequeathed by +will upwards of twelve thousand pounds to the different hospitals and +religious institutions in the kingdom. A blaze of goodness issued from +them at last, and thus ended these two poor, unhappy, uncharitable, +charitable old gentlewomen." + +Mr. Marshall calls him, "the indefatigable Hanbury, whose immense +labours are in a manner lost to the public." No man delighted more than +Mr. Hanbury did, in describing the beauty of trees and shrubs: this is +visible in the extracts which Mr. Marshall has made in his "Planting and +Rural Ornament." + + +WILLIAM SHENSTONE, Esq., justly celebrated for his pure and classic +taste in landscape gardening. His tender and pathetic feelings shine +throughout most of his works; and the sweetness and simplicity of his +temper and manners, endeared him to the neighbourhood and to his +acquaintance. Dr. Johnson says, his life was unstained by any crime. He +farther says of him, "He began from this time to entangle his walks, and +to wind his waters; which he did with such judgment and such fancy, as +made his little domain the envy of the great and the admiration of the +skilful. His house was mean, and he did not improve it; his care was of +his grounds. When he came home from his walks, he might find his floor +flooded by a shower through the broken roof; but could spare no money +for its reparation. In time his expences brought clamours about him, +that overpowered the lamb's bleat and the linnet's song; and his groves +were haunted by beings very different from fawns and fairies. He spent +his estate in adorning it, and his death was probably hastened by his +anxieties. He was a lamp that spent its oil in blazing. It is said, that +if he had lived a little longer he would have been assisted by a +pension: such bounty could not have been ever more properly bestowed; +but that it was ever asked is not certain; it is too certain that it +never was enjoyed." + +His intimate friend, Robert Dodsley, thus speaks of him: "Tenderness, +indeed, in every sense of the word, was his peculiar characteristic; his +friends, his domestics, his poor neighbours, all daily experienced his +benevolent turn of mind. He was no economist; the generosity of his +temper prevented him from paying a proper regard to the use of money: he +exceeded, therefore, the bounds of his paternal fortune, which before he +died was considerably incumbered. But when one recollects the perfect +paradise he had raised around him, the hospitality with which he lived, +his great indulgence to his servants, his charities to the indigent, and +all done with an estate not more than three hundred pounds a year, one +should rather be led to wonder that he left any thing behind him, than +to blame his want of economy. He left, however, more than sufficient to +pay all his debts; and, by his will, appropriated his whole estate for +that purpose." + +His portrait is prefixed to his works, published in 3 vols. 8vo. 1764. +His second volume contains his "Unconnected Thoughts on Landscape +Gardening;" and the description of the celebrated _Leasowes_, in that +volume, was written by ("the modest, sensible, and humane") Robert +Dodsley. His Epistolary Correspondence appeared in 2 vols. 8vo. The +title pages of the above first three volumes are attractive from their +vignette, or rural embellishments. A portrait of Shenstone was taken in +1758, by Ross, which Hall engraved for Dodsley, in 1780; and this +picture by Ross was in the possession of the late most worthy Dr. +Graves, of Claverton, who died a few years ago, at the advanced age of +ninety. Bell's edition of the Poets has a neat copy of this portrait. +Dr. Graves wrote "Recollections of the late William Shenstone." He also +dedicated an urn to him, and inscribed these lines thereon:-- + + Stranger! if woods and lawns like these, + If rural scenes thy fancy please, + Ah! stop awhile, and pensive view + Poor Shenstone's urn: who oft, like you, + These woods and lawns well-pleased has rov'd, + And oft these rural scenes approv'd. + Like him, be thou fair virtue's friend, + And health and peace thy steps attend. + +Mr. Shenstone died in 1763, and is buried in Hales Owen church yard. An +urn is placed in the church to his memory, thus inscribed:-- + + Whoe'er thou art, with reverence tread + These sacred mansions of the dead.-- + Not that the monumental bust + Or sumptuous tomb HERE guards the dust + Of rich or great: (Let wealth, rank, birth, + Sleep undistinguish'd in the earth;) + This simple urn records a name + That shines with more exalted fame. + Reader! if genius, taste refined, + A native elegance of mind; + If virtue, science, manly sense; + If wit, that never gave offence; + The clearest head, the tenderest heart, + In thy esteem e'er claim'd a part; + Ah! smite thy breast, and drop a tear, + For, know, THY Shenstone's dust lies here. + +Mr. Mason thus speaks of Shenstone: + + ----"Nor thou + Shalt pass without thy meed, thou son of peace, + Who knew'st perchance to harmonize thy shades + Still softer than thy song; yet was that song + Nor rude nor unharmonious, when attuned + To pastoral plaint, or tales of slighted love." + +And Mr. Whateley pays his memory the following tribute, previous to his +masterly survey of his far-famed and enchanting seat: "An allusion to +the ideas of pastoral poetry evidently enters into the design of the +Leasowes, where they appear so lovely as to endear the memory of their +author, and justify the reputation of Mr. Shenstone, who inhabited, made +and directed that celebrated place. It is a perfect picture of his mind, +simple, elegant, and amiable, and will always suggest a doubt whether +the spot inspired his verses, or whether, in the scenes which he formed, +he only realized the pastoral images which abound in his songs."[85] +George Mason, in many pages, pays high compliments to Shenstone's taste: +"Paine's Hill has every mark of creative genius, and Hagley of +correctest fancy; but the most intimate _alliance with nature_ was +formed by Shenstone." Mr. Marshall, in his "Planting and Rural +Ornament," has some critical remarks on the _Leasowes_, the expences in +perfecting which threw Shenstone "on the rack of poverty, and probably +hastened the dissolution of an amiable and valuable man." He says that +_Enville_ was originally designed by Shenstone, and that the cascade +and chapel were spoken of, with confidence, as his.[86] + + +LORD KAMES. His portrait is prefixed to the memoirs of him, by Lord +Woodhouselee, in 2 vols. 4to. 1807. There is an edition of the same +work, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1814, with the same portrait, which is engraved +from a drawing by D. Martin. His "Gentleman Farmer" spread his fame +through Scotland. Its preface is particularly interesting. Mr. Smellie, +in his Literary Lives of Gregory, Home, Hume, Adam Smith, and Lord +Kames, after giving many interesting particulars of the latter, and +after noticing his benevolence to the poor, during the whole course of +his long life, proceeds:--"One great feature in the character of Lord +Kames, besides his literary talents, and his public spirit, was a +remarkable innocency of mind. He not only never indulged in detraction, +but when any species of scandal was exhibited in his company, he either +remained silent, or endeavoured to give a turn to the conversation. As +natural consequences of this amiable disposition, he never meddled with +politics, even when politics ran to indecent lengths in this country; +and what is still more remarkable, he never wrote a sentence, +notwithstanding his numerous publications, without a direct and a +manifest intention to benefit his fellow creatures. In his temper he was +naturally warm, though kindly and affectionate. In the friendships he +formed, he was ardent, zealous and sincere. So far from being inclined +to irreligion, as some ignorant bigots insinuated, few men possessed a +more devout habit of thought. A constant sense of Deity, and a +veneration for Providence, dwelt upon his mind. From this source arose +that propensity, which appears in all his writings, of investigating +final causes, and tracing the wisdom of the Supreme Author of Nature." +He had the honour to be highly esteemed by the celebrated Mrs. Montagu. + +The European Magazine of Nov. 1790, which gives an engraved portrait of +him, being a copy of the above, thus speaks: "He was one of the very +first who to great legal knowledge, added a considerable share of polite +literature. He arrived at the highest rank to which a lawyer could +attain in his own country; and he has left to the world such literary +productions, as will authorize his friends to place him, if not in the +highest, yet much above the lowest, class of elegant and polite writers. +He died in 1783, leaving to the world a proof, that an attention to the +abstrusest branches of learning, is not incompatible with the more +pleasing pursuits of taste and polite literature." He was kind-hearted +and humane. His pure taste in landscape scenery, is acknowledged by Mr. +Loudon, in p. 81 of the Encyclopædia of Gardening. _Blair Drummond_ will +long be celebrated as having been his residence, and he there displayed +his superior taste in planting and improving. + +In his "Elements of Criticism," (a truly original work) there is a +distinct chapter on architecture and gardening. He therein thus +addresses the reader:--"These cursory observations upon gardening, shall +be closed with some reflections that must touch every reader. Rough +uncultivated ground, dismal to the eye, inspires peevishness and +discontent: may not this be one cause of the harsh manners of savages? A +field richly ornamented, containing beautiful objects of various kinds, +displays in full lustre the goodness of the Deity, and the ample +provision he has made for our happiness. Ought not the spectator to be +filled with gratitude to his Maker, and with benevolence to his fellow +creatures? Other fine arts may be perverted to excite irregular and even +vicious emotions; but gardening, which inspires the purest and most +refined pleasures, cannot fail to promote every good affection. The +gaiety and harmony of mind it produceth, inclineth the spectator to +communicate his satisfaction to others, and to make them happy as he is +himself, and tends naturally to establish in him a habit of humanity and +benevolence." + + +JOHN ABERCROMBIE'S manly and expressive countenance is best given in the +portrait prefixed to an edition in 2 vols. 8vo. published Feb. 1, 1783, +by Fielding and Debrett. He is also drawn at full-length at his age of +seventy-two, in the sixteenth edition, printed in 1800, with a pleasing +view of a garden in the back-ground, neatly engraved. This honest, +unassuming man, persevered "through a long life of scarcely interrupted +health," in the ardent pursuit of his favourite science. The tenor of +his life exemplified how much a garden calms the mind, and tranquilly +sets at rest its turbulent passions. Mr. Loudon's Encyclop. of +Gardening, after giving some interesting points of his history, thus +concludes: "In the spring of 1806, being in his eightieth year, he met +with a severe fall, by which he broke the upper part of his thigh bone. +This accident, which happened to him on the 15th of April, terminated in +his death. After lying in a very weak exhausted state, without much +pain, he expired in the night, between April and May, as St. Paul's +church struck twelve. He was lamented by all who knew him, as cheerful, +harmless, and upright." One of his biographers thus relates of him: +"Abercrombie from a fall down stairs in the dark, died at the age of +eighty, and was buried at St. Pancras. He was present at the famous +battle of Preston Pans, which was fought close to his father's garden +walls. For the last twenty years of his life he lived chiefly on tea, +using it three times a-day: his pipe was his first companion in the +morning, and last at night.[87] He never remembered to have taken a dose +of physic in his life, prior to his last fatal accident, nor of having a +day's illness but once." A list of his works appears in Watts's Bibl. +Brit., and a most full one in Johnson's History of English Gardening, +who, with many collected particulars of Abercrombie, relates the great +and continually increasing sale of some of his works. + + +LAUNCELOT BROWNE, Esq. +His portrait was painted by Dance, and engraved by Sherwin. Under this +portrait are engraved the following lines, from the pen of Mr. Mason, +which are also inscribed on the tomb of Mr. Browne, in the church of +Fen-Staunton, Huntingdonshire: + + _Ye sons of elegance, who truly taste + The simple charms which genuine art supplies, + Come from the sylvan scenes his genius drew, + And offer here your tributary sighs. + But know, that more than genius slumbers here, + Virtues were his that art's best powers transcend, + Come, ye superior train! who these revere, + And weep the christian, husband, father, friend._ + +Mr. Walpole, too, pays Mr. Browne this elegant compliment: "Did living +artists come within my plan, I should be glad to do justice to Mr. +Browne; but he may be a gainer by being reserved for some abler pen." +This celebrated landscape gardener died suddenly, in Hertford Street, +May Fair, on the 6th of February, 1783, on his return from a visit to +his old friend the Earl of Coventry. Mr. Browne, though bred a common +gardener at Stowe, possessed a cultivated mind, and his society was much +courted. Joseph Cradock, Esq. called him "a most agreeable, unassuming +man." He amassed a large fortune. He was consulted by most of the +nobility and gentry, and the places he laid out or altered, were, as Mr. +Loudon observes, beyond all reckoning. Mr. Repton has given a list of +his principal works. + +It has been the fate of this eminent master of landscape embellishment, +to be severely censured by some, and lavishly praised by others. The +late keen and consummate observer of landscape scenery, Sir Uvedale +Price, harshly condemns the too frequent cold monotony and tameness of +many of Mr. Browne's creations, and his never transfusing into his works +any thing of the taste and spirit which prevail in the poet Mason's +precepts and descriptions; and in one of his acute, yet pleasant pages, +he alludes to his having but _one_ and the same plan of operation; +_Sangrado_-like, treating all disorders in the same manner. Perhaps the +too general smoothness and tameness of Mr. Browne's pleasure-grounds ill +accorded with Sir Uvedale's enthusiasm for the more sublime views of +forest scenery, rapid and stony torrents and cascades, wild entangled +dingles, and craggy breaks; or with the high and sublime notions he had +imbibed from the rich scenery of nature so often contemplated by him in +the landscapes of _Claude_, or in those of _Rubens_, _Gaspar Poussin_, +_Salvator Rosa_, or of _Titian_, "the greatest of all landscape +painters." Perhaps Sir Uvedale preferred "unwedgeable and gnarled oaks," +to "the tameness of the poor pinioned trees of a gentleman's plantation, +drawn up straight," or the wooded banks of a river, to the "bare shaven +border of a canal."[88] + +Daines Barrington happily said, "Kent has been succeeded by Browne, who +hath undoubtedly great merit in laying out pleasure-grounds; but I +conceive that in some of his plans, I see rather traces of the +kitchen-gardener of old Stowe, than of Poussin or Claude Lorraine: I +could wish, therefore, that Gainsborough gave the design, and that +Browne executed it."[89] Mr. Loudon observes, "that Browne must have +possessed considerable talents, the extent of his reputation abundantly +proves; but that he was imbued with much of that taste for picturesque +beauty, which distinguished the works of Kent, Hamilton, and Shenstone, +we think will hardly be asserted by any one who has observed attentively +such places as are known to be his creations." Mr. George Mason candidly +asks, "why Browne should be charged with all the defects of those that +have called themselves his followers, I have seen no good reason +alleged, nor can I suppose it possible to produce one." Many of his +imitators exhibited so little talent in their creations, that Mr. +Browne's name considerably suffered in the estimation of many. + +Mr. Gilpin speaks of Browne's improvements at Blenheim in high terms. +Mr. Marshall in his Survey of Stowe and Fisherwick, in vol. i. of his +"Planting and Rural Ornament," and at p. 384, pays a fair tribute to +him. Much general information respecting him may be seen in Mr. Loudon's +chapter "Of the rise, progress, and present state of gardening in the +British Isles." The candour and rich conciseness of this review, +embraces the whole _magic of the art_, as respects landscape +gardening.[90] + + +FRANCIS ZAVIER VISPRE wrote "A Dissertation on the Growth of Wine in +England", Bath, 8vo. 1786. Mr. Vispré died poor, between thirty and +forty years ago, in St. Martin's Lane. He excelled in painting portraits +in crayons: Sir Joshua much esteemed him. He was a most inoffensive man, +of the mildest manners, and of the purest integrity. I have seen his +portrait in crayons, in an oval, finely finished by himself, but know +not now where that is. On his mode of training the vine _very near the +ground_, see p. 757 of the Encyclop. of Gardening. + + +WILLIAM MASON, precentor and canon of York, died in 1797. His friend, +Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted an impressive portrait of him, which is +engraved by Doughty. A masterly copy of this fine portrait is in Mr. +Cadell's Contemporary Portraits. A copy is also prefixed to the edition +of his works, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1811, published by Mr. Cadell. His +portrait was also taken by Vaslet, and engraved by Carter, 1771. It is a +large metz etching. He translated Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, to which +Sir Joshua added some notes. Mr. Mason has prefixed an Epistle to Sir +Joshua, which thus concludes: + + And oh! if ought thy poet can pretend + Beyond his favourite wish, to _call thee friend_: + Be it that here his tuneful toil has dress'd + The muse of _Fresnoy_ in a modern vest; + And, with what skill his fancy could bestow, + Taught the close folds to take an easier flow; + Be it that here, thy partial smile approv'd + The pains he lavish'd on the art he lov'd. + +Mr. Mason's attachment to painting was an early one, is conspicuous in +many of his writings, and in his English Garden, is visible throughout: + + ----feel ye there + What _Reynolds_ felt, when first the Vatican + Unbarr'd her gates, and to his raptur'd eye + Gave all the god-like energy that flow'd + From _Michael's_ pencil; feel what _Garrick_ felt, + When first he breath'd the soul of _Shakspeare's_ page. + +Sir Joshua, in his will, bequeaths his then supposed portrait of Milton +to Mr. Mason. + +Mr. Gray thus observes of Mason, when at Cambridge:--"So ignorant of the +world and its ways, that this does not hurt him in one's opinion; so +sincere and so undisguised, that no mind with a spark of generosity +would ever think of hurting him, he lies so open to injury; but so +indolent, that if he cannot overcome this habit, all his good qualities +will signify nothing at all." + +Mr. Mason, in 1754, found a patron in the Earl of Holderness, who +presented him with the living of _Aston_, in Yorkshire. This sequestred +village was favourable to his love of poetry and picturesque scenery; +which displayed itself at large in his English Garden, and was the +foundation of his lasting friendship with Mr. Gilpin, who to testify his +esteem, dedicated to him his _Observations on the Wye_. A biographer of +the late Mr. Shore, of Norton Hall, (the friend of Priestley), thus +mentions _Aston_:--"That truly conscientious, and truly learned and +excellent man, Mr. Lindsey, spent a whole week in this neighbourhood. He +was during that time the guest of his friend Mr. Mason, who was residing +on his rectory at _Aston_, the biographer of Gray, and one whose taste, +gave beauty, and poetry, celebrity, to that cheerful village." His +friendship for Mr. Gray, terminated only with the life of the latter. In +1770 Mr. Mason was visited at Aston, for the last time, by him. His last +letter to Mr. Mason was from Pembroke-hall, in May, 1771, and on the +31st of the next month, and at that place, this sublime genius paid the +debt of nature. The following epitaph was written by Mr. Mason, and +inscribed on the monument in Westminster Abbey: + + No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns; + To Britain let the nations homage pay: + She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, + A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray. + +He farther evinced his attachment to this elegant scholar by publishing +his poems and letters, to which he prefixed memoirs of him. He commences +the third book of his English Garden with an invocation to his memory, +and records, in lofty language, his eye glistening and his accents +glowing, when viewing the charms of all-majestic Nature--the heights of +Skiddaw and the purple crags of Borrowdale. And on a rustic alcove, in +the garden at Aston, which he dedicated to Mr. Gray, he inscribed this +stanza from the celebrated elegy: + + _Here scatter'd oft, the loveliest of the year, + By hands unseen, are showers of violets found; + The red-breast loves to build and warble here, + And little footsteps lightly print the ground._ + +Mr. Mason married in 1765 a most amiable woman; she fell at length into +a rapid consumption, and at Bristol hot-wells she died. Gray's letter to +Mr. Mason while at that place, is full of eloquence; upon which the +latter observes, "I opened it almost at the precise moment when it would +be necessarily most affecting. His epitaph on the monument he erected on +this lady, in the Bristol cathedral, breathes such tender feeling and +chaste simplicity, that it can need no apology for being noticed here: + + Take, holy earth! all that my soul holds dear; + Take that best gift which heav'n so lately gave: + To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care + Her faded form: she bow'd to taste the wave + And died. Does youth, does beauty, read the line? + Does sympathetic fears their breasts alarm? + Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine: + E'en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. + Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee; + Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move; + And if so fair, from vanity as free; + As firm in friendship, and as fond in love. + Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die, + ('Twas e'en to thee) yet the dread path once trod, + Heav'n lifts its everlasting portals high, + And bids "the pure in heart behold their God." + +A very short time after Mrs. Mason's death, he began his English +Garden, and invokes the genius both of poetry and painting + + ----that at my birth + Auspicious smil'd, and o'er my cradle dropp'd + Those magic seeds of Fancy, which produce + A Poet's feeling, and a Painter's eye. + ----with lenient smiles to deign to cheer, + At this sad hour, my desolated soul. + For deem not ye that I resume the lyre + To court the world's applause; my years mature + Have learn'd to slight the toy. No, 'tis to soothe + That agony of heart, which they alone, + Who best have lov'd, who best have been belov'd, + Can feel, or pity: sympathy severe! + Which she too felt, when on her pallid lip + The last farewell hung trembling, and bespoke + A wish to linger here, and bless the arms + She left for heav'n.--She died, and heav'n is her's! + Be mine, the pensive solitary balm + That recollection yields. Yes, angel pure! + While memory holds her seat, thine image still + Shall reign, shall triumph there; and when, as now, + Imagination forms a nymph divine, + To lead the fluent strain, thy modest blush, + Thy mild demeanour, thy unpractis'd smile, + Shall grace that nymph, and sweet Simplicity + Be dress'd (ah, meek Maria!) in thy charms. + +Dr. Thomas Warton thus speaks of the above poem, when reviewing Tusser's +Husbandry:--"Such were the rude beginnings in the English language of +didactic poetry, which, on a kindred subject, the present age has seen +brought to perfection, by the happy combination of judicious precepts, +with the most elegant ornaments of language and imagery, in Mr. Mason's +English Garden." His Elfrida and Caractacus, are admired for boldness of +conception and sublime description. Elfrida was set to Music by Arne, +and again by Giardini. Caractacus was also set to music. Mr. Mason's +success with both these dramatic poems was beyond his most sanguine +expectation. + +Dr. Darwin wrote an epitaph on Mr. Mason; these lines are its concluding +part: + + Weave the bright wreath, to worth departed just, + And hang unfading chaplets on his bust; + While pale Elfrida, bending o'er his bier, + Breathes the soft sigh and sheds the graceful tear; + And stern Caractacus, with brow depress'd + Clasps the cold marble to his mailed breast. + In lucid troops shall choral virgins throng, + With voice alternate chant their poet's song. + And, oh! in golden characters record + Each firm, immutable, immortal word! + +"Those last two lines from the final chorus of Elfrida, (says Miss +Seward), admirably close this tribute to the memory of him who stands +second to Gray, as a lyric poet; whose English Garden is one of the +happiest efforts of didactic verse, containing the purest elements of +horticultural taste, dignified by freedom and virtue, rendered +interesting by episode, and given in those energetic and undulating +measures which render blank verse excellent; whose unowned satires, yet +certainly his, the heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers, and its +postscript, are at once original in their style, harmonious in their +numbers, and pointed in their ridicule; whose tragedies are the only +pathetic tragedies which have been written in our language upon the +severe Greek model. The Samson Agonistes bears marks of a stronger, but +also of an heavier hand, and is unquestionably less touching than the +sweet Elfrida, and the sublime Caractacus." + +Mr. Mason, in 1756 published four Odes. "It would be difficult to say, +(says the biographer of the annual Necrology of 1797,) which is most to +be admired, the vividness of the conception, or the spirit of liberty, +and the ardent love of independance throughout. The address to Milton in +his Ode to Memory, and to Andrew Marvel, in that to Independance, cannot +be too much admired. At the period when the Middlesex election was so +much agitated, he united with those independant freeholders, who, by +their declarations and petitions, throughout the nation, opposed +corruption, and claimed a reform in parliament; and when the county of +York assembled in 1779, he was of the committee, and had a great share +in drawing up their spirited resolutions. The animated vindication of +the conduct of the freeholders, and other papers, though printed +anonimously in the newspapers, and so printed in Mr. Wyvill's collection +of political tracts, in 3 vols. are well known to be Mr. Mason's +production. This conduct rendered him obnoxious to the court party. He +was at this time one of the king's chaplains, but when it became his +turn to preach before the royal family, the queen appointed another +person to supply his place. It has been observed, that his sentiments in +a later period of his life, took a colour less favourable to liberty. +Whether alarmed at the march of the French revolution, or from the +timidity of age, we know not. His friend Horace Walpole, charges him +with flat apostacy:" The _Heroic Epistle_ to Sir W. Chambers, and the +_Heroic Postscript_, are now positively said to have been written by Mr. +Mason. Mr. Thomas Warton observed, "they may have been written by +Walpole, and buckramed by Mason." + +The late Sir U. Price, in the generous and patriotic conclusion of his +letter to Mr. Repton, pays a delicate compliment to the genius of Mr. +Mason in whatever concerns rural scenery; and his respect for Mr. Mason, +and his high opinion of his talents, is farther shewn in pp. 295 and +371 of his first volume, and in p. 94 of vol. ii. Mr. Mathias, after +supposing Mr. Mason to have been the author of the Heroic Epistle, and +after paying a high compliment to his general poetry, thus concludes his +generous tribute: + + Whence is that groan? no more Britannia sleeps, + But o'er her lov'd Musæus bends and weeps. + Lo, every Grecian, every British muse + Scatter the recent flowers and gracious dews + Where MASON lies! + And in his breast each soft affection dwelt, + That love and friendship know; each sister art, + With all that colours, and that sounds impart, + All that the sylvan theatre can grace, + All in the soul of MASON found their place! + Low sinks the laurell'd head: in Mona's land + I see them pass, 'tis Mador's drooping band, + To harps of woe, in holiest obsequies, + In yonder grave, they chant, our Druid lies! + +ERASMUS DARWIN. In the life of this justly celebrated physician, by Miss +Seward, she informs us, that in the year 1770, he sat to Mr. Wright of +Derby; and that it was "a contemplative portrait, of the most perfect +resemblance." Whether it has been engraved I know not. He was then in +his thirty-eighth year. Dr. Thornton, in his superb work on botany, has +given a fine portrait of Dr. Darwin, at a more advanced period of his +life. It breathes intelligence in every feature, and is a masterly +likeness. The late Mr. Archdeacon Clive preserved a highly-finished +miniature portrait of him, which was ordered by Dr. Darwin for the +express purpose of being presented to this worthy clergyman, whom he so +much esteemed.[91] + +Dr. Darwin published, + +1. Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life. + +2. Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, 4to. +1800. "A vast field of treasured observation and scientific literature." + +3. The Botanic Garden. + +Lord Byron, and others, have been severe on this poem. The lines, +however, on the soldier's wife and infants, after watching the battle of +Minden--those animated ones to Mr. Howard--or when the mother, during +the plague in London, commits her children to the grave, + + _When o'er the friendless bier no rites were read, + No dirge slow chanted, and no pall outspread;_ + +these make one gladly acknowledge, that pathetic powers were the gift of +Darwin's muse. The sublimity of the following address to our _first_ +daring æronaut, merits insertion: + + --Rise, great Mongolfier! urge thy venturous flight + High o'er the moon's pale, ice-reflected light; + High o'er the pearly star, whose beamy horn + Hangs in the east, gay harbinger of morn; + Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing, + Jove's silver guards, and Saturn's dusky ring; + Leave the fair beams, which issuing from afar + Play with new lustres round the Georgian star; + Shun with strong oars the sun's attractive throne, + The burning Zodiac, and the milky Zone: + Where headlong comets with increasing force + Through other systems bend their burning course! + For thee Cassiope her chair withdraws, + For thee the Bear retracts his shaggy paws; + High o'er the north thy golden orb shall roll, + And blaze eternal round the wondering pole.[92] + +Miss Seward, after stating that professional generosity distinguished +Dr. Darwin's medical practice at Lichfield, farther says, that +"diligently also did he attend to the health of the poor in that city, +and afterwards at Derby, and supplied their necessities by food, and all +sorts of charitable assistance. In each of those towns, _his_ was the +cheerful board of almost open-housed hospitality, without extravagance +or pride; deeming ever the first unjust, the latter unmanly. Generosity, +wit and science, were his household gods."[93] She again states that +when he removed from Lichfield to Derby, "his renown, as a physician, +still increased as time rolled on, and his mortal life declined from its +noon. Patients resorted to him more and more, from every part of the +kingdom, and often from the continent. All ranks, all orders of society, +all religions, leaned upon his power to ameliorate disease, and to +prolong existence. The rigid and sternly pious, who had attempted to +renounce his aid, from a superstition that no blessing would attend the +prescriptions of a sceptic, sacrificed, after a time, their +superstitious scruples to their involuntary consciousness of his mighty +skill." Mr. Mathias, though he severely criticizes some of Dr. Darwin's +works, yet he justly calls him "this very ingenious man, and most +excellent physician, for such he undoubtedly was." + +[Illustration] + +From scattered passages in Miss Seward's Life of him, one can easily +trace the delight he took (notwithstanding his immense professional +engagements,) in the scenery of nature and gardens;--witness his +frequent admiration of the tangled glen and luxuriant landscape at +_Belmont_, its sombre and pathless woods, impressing us with a sense of +solemn seclusion, like the solitudes of _Tinian_, or _Juan Fernandes_, +with its "silent and unsullied stream," which the admirable lines he +addresses to the youthful owner of that spot so purely and temperately +allude to:-- + + O, friend to peace and virtue, ever flows + For thee my silent and unsullied stream, + Pure and untainted as thy blameless life! + Let no gay converse lead thy steps astray, + To mix my chaste wave with immodest wine, + Nor with the poisonous cup, which Chemia's hand + Deals (fell enchantress!) to the sons of folly! + So shall young Health thy daily walks attend, + Weave for thy hoary brow the vernal flower + Of cheerfulness, and with his nervous arm + Arrest th' inexorable scythe of Time. + +So early, and indeed throughout his whole life, did Dr. Darwin enforce +the happy consequences of temperance and sobriety; from his conviction +of the pernicious effects of all kinds of intemperance on the youthful +constitution. He had an absolute horror of spirits of all sorts, however +diluted. Pure water was, throughout the greater part of his temperate +life, his favourite beverage. He has been severely censured (no doubt +very justly so), for some of his religious prejudices. Old Walter Mapes, +the jovial canon of Salisbury, precentor of Lincoln, and arch-deacon of +Oxford, in the eleventh century, considered _water_ as fit only for +_heretics_. + +One may again trace his fondness for the rich scenery of nature, when he +in 1777 purchased a wild umbrageous valley near Lichfield, with its +mossy fountain of the purest water. This spot he fondly cultivated. The +botanic skill displayed by him on this spot, did not escape the +searching eye of Mr. Loudon, for in p. 807 of his Encyclop. of +Gardening, he pays a deserved compliment to him.[94] Miss Seward wrote +some lines on this favoured valley, and these are part of them: + + O! may no ruder step these bowers profane, + No midnight wassailers deface the plain; + And when the tempests of the wintry day + Blow golden autumn's varied leaves away, + Winds of the north, restrain your icy gales, + Nor chill the bosom of these hallow'd vales. + +His attachment to gardens, induced him to honour the memory of Mr. +Mason, by lines once intended for his monument; and he was suggesting +improvements at the priory at Derby (and which he had just described the +last morning of his life in a sprightly letter to a friend), when the +fatal signal was given, and a few hours after, on the 18th of April, +1802, and in his sixty-ninth year, he sunk into his chair and expired. +"Thus in one hour (says his affectionate biographer) was extinguished +that vital light, which the preceding hour had shone in flattering +brightness, promising duration; (such is often _the cunning flattery of +nature_), that light, which through half a century, had diffused its +radiance and its warmth so widely; that light in which penury had been +cheered, in which science had expanded; to whose orb poetry had brought +all her images; before whose influence disease had continually +retreated, and death so often "turned aside his levelled dart!"[95] That +Dr. Darwin, as to his religious principles or prejudices, displayed +great errors of judgment in his _Zoonomia_, there can be no doubt. An +eminent champion of Christianity, truly observed, that Dr. Darwin "was +acquainted with more links in the chain of _second_ causes, than had +probably been known to any individual, who went before him; but that he +dwelt so much, and so _exclusively_ on second causes, that he too +generally seems to have forgotten that there is a first." For these +errors he must long since have been called to his account, before one +who can appreciate those errors better than we can. Though the _Accusing +Spirit_ must have blushed when he gave them in, yet, let us hope, that +the _Recording Angel_, out of mercy to his humane heart, and his many +good and valuable qualities, may have blotted them out for ever. + + +REV. WILLIAM GILPIN, who, as Mr. Dallaway, in his Observations on the +Arts, observes, "possesses unquestionably the happy faculty to paint +with words;" and who farther highly compliments him in his supplementary +chapter on Modern Gardening, annexed to his enriched edition of Mr. +Walpole's Anecdotes. The Topographer says he "describes with the +language of a master, the artless scenes of uncultivated nature." Mr. +Walpole in his postscript to his Catalogue of Engravers, after +premising, that it might, perhaps, be worth while "to melt down this +volume and new cast it," pays this tribute to him: "Were I of authority +sufficient to name my successor, or could prevail on him to condescend +to accept an office which he could execute with more taste and ability; +from whose hands could the public receive so much information and +pleasure as from the author of the _Essay on Prints_, and from the +_Tours_, &c.? And when was the public ever instructed by the pen and +pencil at once, with equal excellence in the style of both, but by Mr. +Gilpin?" + +Had Mr. Gilpin written nothing more than his "Lectures on the +Catechism," that alone would have conferred on him the name of a +meritorious writer. His allusion to Plato, his reflections on the Last +Judgment, his animated address to youth, and his conclusion of his +sixteenth lecture, must strike deep into the heart of every reader. His +"Sermons preached to a Country Congregation," prove him a pious, +charitable, and valuable man.[96] + +The glowing imagery of his style, when viewing the beautiful scenery in +many parts of England, and some of the vast and magnificent ones of +Scotland, is fraught with many fervid charms. Still we are forced to +join Mr. Mathias, in the remonstrance he so justly makes as to the +jargonic conceit of some of his language. Mr. Gilpin's first work on +picturesque beauty, was his Observations on the River Wye, made in the +year 1770. He afterwards published: + +Forest Scenery--Picturesque Beauties of the Highlands--Mountains of +Cumberland and Westmoreland--Western parts of England--Cambridge, +Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex--Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. Three Essays, on +Picturesque Beauty, on Picturesque Travel, and on Sketching Landscape, +to which is added, a poem on Landscape Painting. A full account of his +numerous works may be seen in Watts's Bibl. Brit. A complete list of +them is also given by Mr. Nichols, in vol. i. of his Illustrations, with +a brief memoir. Mr. Johnson also gives a list of such of his works as +relate to picturesque scenery, with their titles at large. His portrait +was painted by Walton, and engraved in metz by Clint. + + +JAMES ANDERSON published the following works; and I have given the price +of such of them as appeared in the late Mr. Harding's Agricultural +Catalogue:-- + + 1. The Bee, or Literary Intelligencer, 18 vols. 8vo. _Edinb._ 1791. + + 2. Recreations in Agriculture, Natural History, Arts and + Miscellaneous Literature, 6 vols. 8vo. _Lond._ 3_l._ 10s. + + 3. Essays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 3 vols. 8vo. + 1_l._ 7s. + + 4. Practical Treatise on draining Bogs, 8vo. 6s. + + 5. Practical Treatise on Peat Moss, 8vo. 5s. + + 6. On Lime as a Cement and Manure, 8vo. 2s. 6d. + + 7. An Account of the different kinds of Sheep found in the Russian + Dominions, and amongst the Tartar Hordes, 8vo. 6s. + + 8. Investigation of the Causes of Scarcity of 1800. 8vo. 2s. 6d. + + 9. Miscellaneous Thoughts on Planting Timber Trees, chiefly for the + climate of Scotland, by Agricola, 8vo. _Edinb._ 1777. + + 10. Description of a Patent Hot-house, 1804. 12mo. 5s. + +In "Public Characters of 1800 and 1801," a portrait is given of him, a +list of his works, and it thus speaks of him: "The manners of this +ingenious and very useful man were plain and frank, an indication of an +honest and good heart. He was benevolent and generous, a tender parent, +and a warm friend, and very highly respected in the circle of his +acquaintance." There is a portrait of him, painted by Anderson, and +engraved by Ridley. A copy is given in the Mirror, (published by Vernon +and Hood), of Nov. 1799. Another is given in the Gentleman's Magazine. +He died at West Ham, Essex, in 1808, aged 69. Mr. Lysons, in the +Supplement to his Environs of London, gives a few particulars of him. + + +HORACE WALPOLE. He was the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, who so +long guided the destinies of England, and whose attractive and +benevolent private life, seems to have fully merited the praise of +Pope's elegant muse: + + _Seen him I have; but in his happier hour + Of social pleasure,--ill exchang'd for power-- + Seen him uncumber'd with the venal tribe, + Smile without art, and win without a bribe._ + +The best portraits of this intelligent and acute writer, Horace Walpole, +are the portrait in Mr. Dallaway's richly decorated edition of the +Anecdotes of Painting, from Sir Joshua Reynolds, and that in Mr. +Cadell's Contemporary Portraits, from Lawrence. Dance also drew him. +Another portrait is prefixed to the ninth volume of his works, in 4to. +1825, from a picture in the possession of the Marquis of Hertford. There +is another portrait, engraved by Pariset, from Falconot. Mr. Walpole +died in March, 1797, at his favourite seat at Strawberry-hill, at the +age of eighty. His manners were highly polished, from his having, during +the course of a long life, frequented the first societies. His +conversation abounded with interesting anecdote and playful wit. +Felicity of narration, and liveliness of expression, mark his graceful +pen. The Prince de Ligne (a perfect judge) thus speaks of his _History +of the Modern Taste in Gardening_:--"Je n'en admire pas moins +l'eloquence, et la profondeur, de son ouvrage sur les jardins." Mr. +Walpole himself says:--"We have given the true model of gardening to the +world: let other countries mimic or corrupt our taste; but let it reign +here on its verdant throne, original by its elegant simplicity, and +proud of no other art than that of softening nature's harshnesses, and +copying her graceful touch." + +Sir U. Price, in vol. i. p. 18 of his Essays, pays high respect to Mr. +Walpole, and differs from him "with great deference and reluctance." He +observes:--"I can hardly think it necessary to make any excuse for +calling Lord Orford, Mr. Walpole; it is the name by which he is best +known in the literary world, and to which his writings have given a +celebrity much beyond what any hereditary honour can bestow." Mr. +Johnson observes:--"To his sketch of the improvements introduced by +Bridgman and Kent, and those garden artists, their immediate successors, +we may afford the best praise; he appears to be a faithful, and is, an +eloquent annalist." It is impossible to pass by this tribute, without +reminding my reader, that Mr. Johnson's own review of our ornamental +gardening, is energetic and luminous; as is indeed the whole of his +comprehensive general review of gardening, from the earliest period, +down to the close of the last century. + + +THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. He devoted himself to literary pursuits; was +a profound antiquary, and a truly worthy man. He died in 1800, aged 73, +at his chambers in the Temple, and was buried in the Temple church. The +attractive improvements in the gardens there, may be said to have +originated with him. He possibly looked on them as classic ground; for +in these gardens, the proud Somerset vowed to dye their white rose to a +bloody red, and Warwick prophesied that their brawl + + ----in the Temple garden, + Shall send, between the red rose and the white, + A thousand souls to death and deadly night. + +He published, + + 1. Observations on the more Ancient Statutes, 4to. To the 5th + edition of which, in 1796, is prefixed his portrait. + + 2. The Naturalist's Calendar, 8vo. + + 3. A translation of Orosius, ascribed to Alfred, with notes, 8vo. + + 4. Tracts on the probability of reaching the North Pole, 4to. + + 5. In vol. vii. of the Archæologia, is his paper On the Progress of + Gardening. It was printed as a separate tract by Mr. Nichols, price + 1s. 6d. + + 6. Miscellanies on various subjects, 4to. + +Mr. Nichols, in his Life of Bowyer, calls him "a man of amiable +character, polite, communicative and liberal;" and in the fifth volume +of his Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, +he gives a neatly engraved portrait of Mr. Barrington, and some +memorials or letters of his. Mr. Boswell ("the cheerful, the pleasant, +the inimitable biographer of his illustrious friend"), thus relates Dr. +Johnson's wish to become acquainted with Mr. Barrington:--"Soon after he +had published his excellent Observations on the Statutes, Johnson +waited on that worthy and learned gentleman, and having told him his +name, courteously said, 'I have read your book, Sir, with great +pleasure, and wish to be better known to you.' Thus began an +acquaintance which was continued with mutual regard as long as Johnson +lived." John Harris, Esq. the learned author of Philological Enquiries, +thus speaks of Mr. Barrington's Observations on the Statutes:--"a +valuable work, concerning which it is difficult to decide, whether it is +more entertaining or more instructive." + + +JOSEPH CRADOCK, Esq. whose "Village Memoirs" display his fine taste in +landscape gardening. This feeling and generous-minded man, whose gentle +manners, polite learning, and excellent talents, entitled him to an +acquaintance with the first characters of the age, died in 1826, at the +great age of eighty-five. This classical scholar and polished gentleman, +who had (as a correspondent observes in the Gentleman's Magazine for +January, 1827) "the habit of enlivening and embellishing every thing +which he said with a certain lightning of eye and honied tone of voice," +shone in the first literary circles, and ranked as his intimate and +valued friends (among many other enlightened persons), David Garrick, +and Warburton, Hurd, Johnson, Goldsmith, Percy, and Parr. Dr. Johnson +called him "a very pleasing gentleman." Indeed, he appears from every +account to have been in all respects an amiable and accomplished person. +He had the honour of being selected to dance a minuet with the most +graceful of all dancers, Mrs. Garrick, at the Stratford Jubilee. It was +to Mr. Cradock, that Dr. Farmer addressed his unanswerable Essay on the +Learning of Shakspeare. In acts of humanity and kindness, he was +surpassed by few. Pope's line of _the gay conscience of a life well +spent_, might well have been applied to Mr. Cradock. When in +Leicestershire, "he was respected by people of all parties for his +worth, and idolized by the poor for his benevolence." This honest and +honourable man, depicted his own mind in the concluding part of his +inscription, for the banks of the lake he formed in his romantic and +picturesque grounds, in that county:-- + + _Here on the bank Pomona's blossoms glow, + And finny myriads sparkle from below; + Here let the mind at peaceful anchor rest, + And heaven's own sunshine cheer the guiltless breast._[97] + +In 1773 he partly took his "Zobeide" from an unfinished tragedy by +Voltaire. On sending a copy to Ferney, the enlightened veteran thus +concluded his answer: "You have done too much honour to an old sick man +of eighty. I am, with the most sincere esteem and gratitude, + + "Sir, your obedient servant, + "VOLTAIRE."[98] + +I cannot refrain from adding a short extract from the above quoted +magazine, as it brings to one's memory another much esteemed and worthy +man:--"Here, perhaps, it may be allowable to allude to the sincere +attachment between Mr. Cradock, and his old friend Mr. Nichols. For +very many years Mr. Nichols had been accustomed to pay Mr. Cradock an +annual visit at Gumley Hall; but on Mr. Cradock settling in London, the +intercourse became incessant, and we doubt not that the daily +correspondence which took place between them, contributed to cheer the +latter days of these two veterans in literature. They had both of them +in early life enjoyed the flattering distinction of an intimacy with the +same eminent characters; and to hear the different anecdotes elicited in +their animated conversations respecting Johnson and others, was indeed +an intellectual treat of no ordinary description. Mr. Cradock and Mr. +Nichols possessed a similarity in taste and judgment. They were both +endowed with peculiar quickness of comprehension, and with powers and +accuracy of memory rarely equalled." One may say of the liberal minded +Mr. Nichols, what Mr. Murphy said of Dr. Johnson, that his love of +literature was a passion that stuck to his last stand. The works of Mr. +Cradock have, since his decease, been published by Mr. J. B. Nichols, in +4 vols. 8vo. They contain his Essay on Gardening and Village Memoirs. +They are enriched by a miniature portrait of him, by Hone, in 1764, when +Mr. Cradock was in his prime of life, in his twenty-second year, and +when his piercing eyes and intelligent countenance, were thought to have +resembled those of Mr. Garrick. There is also a profile shade of Mr. +Cradock, taken of him only a month before his decease. In the above +quoted magazine, is a copy of this profile, with a memoir. + + +SIR JOSEPH BANKS. There is a fine portrait of him by Russel, engraved by +Collyer. In Mr. Cadell's Contemporary Portraits is another fine one, +from the pencil of Lawrence. His portrait is preserved by the +Horticultural Society of London, and in the British Museum is his bust, +chiselled and presented by the Hon. Mrs. Damer. A good copy of the +engraving by Collyer is in the European Magazine for Feb. 1795, and +from the memoir there given I select the following: + +"If to support the dignity of the first literary society in the world, +and by firmness and candour to conciliate the regard of its members; if +rejecting the allurements of dissipation, to explore sciences unknown, +and to cultivate the most manly qualities of the human heart; if to +dispense a princely fortune in the enlargement of science, the +encouragement of genius, and the alleviation of distress, be +circumstances which entitle any one to a more than ordinary share of +respect, few will dispute the claim of the person whose portrait +ornaments the present magazine.... In short, he is entitled to every +praise that science, liberality, and intelligence can bestow on their +most distinguished favourites." + +Dr. Pulteney, in his handsome dedication of his Sketches on the progress +of Botany, to Sir Joseph, thus alludes to his voyage with Cook:--"To +whom could a work of this nature with so much propriety be addressed, as +to him who had not only relinquished, for a series of years, all the +allurements that a polished nation could display to opulence; but had +exposed himself to numberless perils, and the repeated risk of life +itself, that he might attain higher degrees of that knowledge, which +these sketches are intended to communicate." + +The Academy of Sciences at Dijon, in their "Notice sur Sir Jos. Banks," +thus apostrophizes his memory:--"Ombre de Banks! apparois en ce lieu +consacré au culte des sciences et des lettres; viens occuper la place +que t'y conservent les muses, accepter les couronnes qu'elles-mêmes +t'ont tressées! viens recevoir le tribut de nos sentimens, témoignage +sincère de notre douleur et de not regrets; et par le souvenir de tes +vertus, viens enflammer nos coeurs de cet amour pour le bien, qui fut +le mobile de toutes tes actions!"[99] + +Mr. Johnson, in his History of English Gardening, justly calls him "This +universal patron of the arts and sciences. Natural history was the +favourite of his scientific studies, and every part of it was enriched +by his researches." He again hails him as "a munificent friend of +science and literature." The name of Banks will always be associated +with that of Solander, the favourite pupil of Linnæus, and with that of +the immortal Cook. De Lille closes his _Jardins_ with a most generous +and animated invocation to the memory of this intrepid navigator. + + +WILLIAM FALCONER. The portrait of this eminent physician of Bath, is +engraved by Fitler, from a painting by Daniel, of Bath, in 1791. It is +prefixed to his "Influence of the Passions upon Disorders." He died in +August, 1824, at the age of eighty-one. He published, + + 1. Essay on the Preservation of the Health of Persons employed in + Agriculture, 1s. Bath, 1789. + + 2. Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History; selected from + the principal writers of antiquity. 1793. 4to. + + 3. Remarks on the Influence of Climate, Situation, Nature of + Country, &c. The Encyclop. of Gardening calls this "a most + interesting work." A writer in the New Monthly Mag. says "it + displays an almost unlimited extent of learning and research." + + 4. An Historical View of the Taste for Gardening and Laying out + Grounds among the Nations of Antiquity. 8vo. 1s. 6d. 1783. _Dilly._ + +A list of his other works (nearly twenty in number), may be seen in the +Dictionary of Living Authors, or in vol. xii. of the New Monthly Mag.; +which last work says that the late Lord Thurlow, at whose table he was +almost a constant guest, declared that "he never saw such a man; that he +knew every thing, and knew it better than any one else." Neither this +last publication, nor Dr. Watts in his Bibl. Brit. mention Dr. +Falconer's Historical View of the Taste for Gardening. + + +WILLIAM CURTIS. This honest, much-esteemed, and inoffensive man, though +so deservedly eminent as a botanist, published only the following work +on horticulture:--"Directions for Cultivating the Crambe Maritima, or +Sea-kale for the Use of the Table." A new edition, enlarged, with three +engravings. 2s. 6d. Mr. Loudon says, that this pamphlet has done more to +recommend the culture of _sea-kale_ and diffuse the knowledge of it, +than all his predecessors. Nearly three pages of the Encyclopædia are +enriched with the result of all that has appeared on the cultivation of +this vegetable by English, Scotch, or French writers. + +The botanical works of Mr. Curtis have long been held in high esteem. +The first number of his Flora Londinensis appeared in 1777. He commenced +his Botanical Magazine in 1787. His Observations on British Grasses, +appeared in a second edition, with coloured plates, in 1790. His +Lectures were published after his death, to which is prefixed his +portrait. His portrait is also given in Dr. Thornton's Botany. He died +in 1799, was buried in Battersea church-yard, and on his grave-stone +these lines are inscribed:-- + + _While living herbs shall spring profusely wild, + Or gardens cherish all that's sweet and gay, + So long thy works shall please, dear nature's child, + So long thy memory suffer no decay._ + + +THOMAS MARTYN, Professor of Botany at Cambridge, whose striking +portrait, from a picture by Russel, appears in Dr. Thornton's superb +work on botany. He died in June, 1825, in the ninetieth year of his age. +His edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, appeared in 4 vols. +folio. Mr. Johnson observes, that this work "requires no comment. It is +a standard, practical work, never to be surpassed." Mr. Martyn also +published _Flora Rustica_, a description of plants, useful or injurious +in husbandry, _with coloured plates_, 4 vols. 8vo. + + +SIR W. CHAMBERS. There are portraits of him by Sir J. Reynolds, engraved +by Collyer and by Green; one by Cotes, engraved by Houston, in 1772; and +a profile by Pariset, after a drawing by Falconot. He died in 1796, aged +sixty-nine. He published, + + 1. Designs for Chinese Buildings. + + 2. Plans and Views of the Buildings and Gardens at Kew. + + 3. A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, second edition, with + additions. To which is annexed an Explanatory Discourse, 4to. + 1773. This work gave rise to those smart satires, _An Heroic + Epistle_, and _An Heroic Postscript_. + + +HUMPHREY REPTON, Esq. His portrait is prefixed to his Observations on +the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, folio. 1803. He also +published on this subject: + + 1. Letter to U. Price, Esq. on Landscape Gardening, 8vo. 1794. + + 2. Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, folio, 1795. + + 3. Enquiry into the Changes in Landscape Gardening, 8vo. 1806. + + 4. On the Introduction of Indian Architecture and Gardening, folio, + 1808. + + 5. On the supposed Effect of Ivy upon Trees. A charming little + essay inserted in the _Linn. Trans._ vol. xi. + + 6. Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, + 4to. 1816. In p. 80 of the Encyclop. of Gardening, is some general + information respecting Mr. Repton. + + +WILLIAM FORSYTH, Esq. His portrait is prefixed to the seventh edition of +his Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees, 8vo. 1824; +also to the 4to. edition of the same work in 1802. He also published +Observations on the diseases, defects, and injuries in all kinds of +Fruit and Forest Trees, with an account of a particular method of cure, +8vo. 1791. Mr. Forsyth died in 1804. + + +MR. JAMES DICKSON, who established the well-known seed and herb shop in +Covent-garden, and died at the age of eighty-six, a few years ago, +appears to have been very much esteemed. His family at Croydon possess +his portrait, and there is another preserved by the Horticultural +Society. He married for his second wife a sister of the intrepid +traveller Mungo Park. Mr. Dickson, when searching for plants in the +Hebrides, in 1789, was accompanied by him. Handsome mention is made of +Mr. Dickson in the Life of Mungo Park, prefixed to the "Journal of a +Mission to the Interior of Africa." In the above life, the friendly and +generous assistance which Sir Joseph Banks shewed both to Mr. Dickson, +and to Mungo Park, is very pleasingly recorded. A memoir of Mr. Dickson +is given in the 5th vol. of the Hort. Transactions. He published, +Fasciculus Plantarum Cryptog. Brit. 4 parts 4to. 1785-1801. + + +RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT, Esq. author of The Landscape, a didactic poem, +4to. 1794. A second edition, _with a preface_, appeared in 4to. in 1795. +This poem is the only production of Mr. Knight, on the subject of +landscape scenery, except his occasional allusions thereto, in his +Analytical Enquiry into the Principles of Taste, the second edition of +which appeared in 8vo. in 1805. This latter work embraces a variety of +subjects, and contains many energetic pages, particularly those on +Homer, and on the English drama. His philosophical survey of human life +"in its last stages," (at p. 461), and where he alludes to "the hooks +and links which hold the affections of age," is worthy of all praise; it +is deep, solemn, and affecting. The other publications of this gentleman +are enumerated in Dr. Watts's Bibl. Brit. Mr. Knight, in his Landscape, +after invoking the genius of Virgil, in reference to his + + _----O qui me gelidis in vallibus Hoemi + Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat unbrâ,_ + +thus proceeds, after severely censuring Mr. _Browne_, who + + ----bade the stream 'twixt banks close shaved to glide; + Banish'd the thickets of high-bowering wood, + Which hung, reflected o'er the glassy flood: + Where screen'd and shelter'd from the heats of day, + Oft on the moss-grown stone reposed I lay, + And tranquil view'd the limpid stream below, + Brown with o'er hanging shade, in circling eddies flow. + Dear peaceful scenes, that now prevail no more, + Your loss shall every weeping muse deplore! + Your poet, too, in one dear favour'd spot, + Shall shew your beauties are not quite forgot: + Protect from all the sacrilegious waste + Of false improvement, and pretended taste, + _One tranquil vale!_[100] where oft, from care retir'd + He courts the muse, and thinks himself inspired; + Lulls busy thought, and rising hope to rest, + And checks each wish that dares his peace molest. + +After scorning "wisdom's solemn empty toys," he proceeds: + + Let me, retir'd from business, toil, and strife, + Close amidst books and solitude my life; + Beneath yon high-brow'd rocks in thickets rove, + Or, meditating, wander through the grove; + Or, from the cavern, view the noontide beam + Dance on the rippling of the lucid stream, + While the wild woodbine dangles o'er my head, + And various flowers around their fragrance spread. + + * * * * * + + Then homeward as I sauntering move along, + The nightingale begins his evening song; + Chanting a requiem to departed light, + That smooths the raven down of sable night. + +After an animated tribute to _Homer_, he reviews the rising and the +slumbering, or drooping of the arts, midst storms of war, and gloomy +bigotry. + + Hail, arts divine!--still may your solace sweet + Cheer the recesses of my calm retreat; + And banish every mean pursuit, that dares + Cloud life's serene with low ambitious cares. + Vain is the pomp of wealth: its splendid halls, + And vaulted roofs, sustain'd by marble walls.-- + In beds of state pale sorrow often sighs, + Nor gets relief from gilded canopies: + But arts can still new recreation find, + To soothe the troubles of th' afflicted mind; + Recall the ideal work of ancient days, + And man in his own estimation raise; + Visions of glory to his eyes impart, + And cheer with conscious pride his drooping heart. + +After a review of our several timber trees, and a tribute to our native +streams, and woods; and after describing in happy lines _Kamtschatka's_ +dreary coast, he concludes his poem with reflections on the ill-fated +_Queen of France_, whose + + Waning beauty, in the dungeon's gloom, + Feels, yet alive, the horrors of the tomb! + +Mr. Knight's portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, is preserved at +Downton Castle, near Ludlow; and is engraved among Cadell's Contemporary +Portraits. It is also engraved by Bromley, from the same painter. +Another portrait was in the library of the late Mr. Johnes, at Havod. + + +DR. ANDREW DUNCAN. He died at Edinburgh in June 1828, at the great age +of eighty-four. His portrait was drawn by Raiburn, and engraved by +Mitchell. He was a contemporary of several eminent persons, whose +society and friendship formed one of the chief pleasures of his life. +There was scarcely an institution proposed for the benefit of his native +city, Edinburgh, to which his name will not be found a contributor. He +was, in fact, the patron and benefactor of all public charities. In 1809 +he projected, and by his exertions, succeeded in establishing, the +Horticultural Society of Edinburgh. His animated and scientific +discourses, delivered at the meetings of the Caledonian Horticultural +Society, will always be perused with eager pleasure by every +horticulturist. In that delivered in December, 1814, and inserted in the +fifth number of their Memoirs, this zealous well-wisher of his native +city, thus exults:--"I am now, gentlemen, past the seventieth year of my +age, and I have been a steady admirer both of Flora and Pomona from the +very earliest period of my youth. During a pretty long life, it has been +my lot to have had opportunities of visiting gardens in three different +quarters of the globe, in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa; and from what +I have seen, I am decidedly of opinion, that at the present day, there +is not a large city in the world, which enjoys a supply of vegetable +food in more abundance, in greater variety, or in higher excellence, +than the city of Edinburgh. From the potatoe to the pine-apple,--from +the most useful to the most delicious productions of the vegetable +kingdom, we are not at present outdone, as far as my observation goes, +by any large city on the face of the earth." His medical talents may +well be believed not to have been small, when it is told, that he was +the rival in practice, and by no means an unsuccessful one, of the +illustrious Cullen, of the Monros, and of Gregory. In private life, Dr. +Duncan was eminently distinguished for his sociality, and the desire to +benefit all mankind. He was a member of several social clubs. His +favourite amusement was _gardening_. He possessed a garden in the +neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which he cultivated entirely with his own +hands, and on the door of which was placed, in conspicuous letters, +'_hinc salus_.' He was particularly kind to the students attending his +lectures, and gave a tea-drinking every Sunday evening to about a dozen +of them, by rotation, who assembled at six o'clock and went away at +eight. When old, he used sometimes to forget the lapse of time, and in +his lectures, frequently spoke about the _late_ Mr. Haller, who lived a +century before. To the last year of his life he never omitted going up, +on the morning of the 1st of May, to wash his face in the dew of the +summit of a mountain near Edinburgh, called Arthur's Seat. He had the +merit of being the father of the present Dr. Duncan, the celebrated +author of the Edinburgh Dispensatory, and professor of materia medica. +Dr. Duncan's funeral was properly made a public one, at which the +professors, magistrates, and medical bodies of Edinburgh attended, to +testify their sorrow and respect. + + +SIR UVEDALE PRICE. His portrait was taken by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and is +now at Foxley.[101] The Hereford Journal of Wednesday, September 16, +1829, thus relates his decease:--"On Monday last died, at Foxley, in +this county, Sir Uvedale Price, Bart. in the eighty-third year of his +age. The obituary of 1829 will not record a name more gifted or more +dear! In a county where he was one of the oldest, as well as one of the +most constant of its inhabitants, it were superfluous to enumerate his +many claims to distinction and regret. His learning, his sagacity, his +exquisite taste, his indefatigable ardour, would have raised to eminence +a man much less conspicuous by his station in life, by his +correspondence with the principal literati of Europe, and by the +attraction and polish of his conversation and manners. Possessing his +admirable faculties to so venerable an age, we must deplore that a +gentleman who conferred such honour on our county is removed from that +learned retirement in which he delighted, and from that enchanting scene +which, in every sense, he so greatly adorned. He is succeeded in his +title by his only son, now Sir Robert Price, one of our +representatives." + +Sir Uvedale published the following: + + 1. An Essay on the Picturesque, as compared with the Sublime and + Beautiful, and on the use of studying pictures for the purpose of + improving real landscape, 8vo. 1794. This volume was afterwards + published in 1796, in 8vo. with _considerable additions_, and in + 1798 was published at _Hereford_ a second volume, being an Essay on + Artificial Water, an Essay on Decorations near the House, and an + Essay on Architecture and Buildings as connected with Scenery. + + 2. A Letter to H. Repton, Esq. on the application of the practice + and principles of Landscape Painting to Landscape Gardening. + Intended as a supplement to the Essays. To which is prefixed Mr. + Repton's Letter to Mr. Price. Lond. 1795, 8vo. Second edition, + _Hereford_, 1798, 8vo. This is a sportive display of pleasant wit, + polished learning, and deep admiration of the great landscape + painters. Keen as some of his pages are, and lamenting that there + should have been any controversy ("or tilting at each other's + breasts,") on the subject of Launcelot Browne's works, "I trust, + (says he,) however, that my friends will vouch for me, that + whatever sharpness there may be in my style, there is no rancour in + my heart." Mr. Repton in his Enquiry into the Changes of Landscape + Gardening, acknowledges "the elegant and gentleman-like manner in + which Mr. Price has examined my opinions." Indeed, many pages in + this present letter shew this. + + 3. A Dialogue on the distinct Characters of the Picturesque and the + Beautiful, in answer to the objections of Mr. Knight, 1801, + 8vo.[102] + +A general review of Sir Uvedale's ideas on this subject, is candidly +given by Mr. Loudon at p. 78 of his Encyclop. after a mature study of +_all_ the modern writers who have endeavoured to form "a taste for the +harmony and connection of natural scenery." Mr. Loudon farther calls him +"the great reformer of landscape gardening." + +We have to regret, that though so many springs must have cheered the +long life of Sir Uvedale Price, (and which he calls the _dolce prima +vera, gioventu dell'anno_, and whose blossoms, flowers, and +"profusion of fresh, gay, and beautiful colours and sweets," he so +warmly dwelt on in many of his pages,) and though the number of these +springs must have nearly equalled those which gilded the days of Lord +Kames, of the honourable Horace Walpole, of Mr. Gilpin, and of Joseph +Cradock, Esq. yet we have to regret that his classic pen has presented +to the public no other efforts of his genius and cultivated taste, than +the few respectable ones above stated. Had he chose to have indulged his +own powers in describing what has been done towards "embellishing the +face of this noble kingdom," (to quote his own words,) we might have +perused descriptive pages equal to his own critical and refined review +of Blenheim, or of Powis Castle, and of a character as high and pure, as +those of Thomas Whateley. In proof of this, we need only refer to many +pages in his Essays,--not only when he so well paints the charms of +sequestered nature, whether in its deep recesses, _o'er canopied with +luscious eglantine_,--in the "modest and retired character of a +brook,"--the rural simplicity of a cottage, with its lilacs and fruit +trees, its rustic porch, covered with vine or ivy, but when he dwells on +the ruins and on "the religious calm" of our abbeys,[103] or on our old +mansion-houses, with their terraces, their summer-houses covered with +ivy, and mixed with wild vegetation. And we need farther only to refer +to those feeling pages in his second volume, where he laments that his +own youth and inexperience should (in order to follow the silly folly of +_being in the fashion_,) have doomed to sudden and total destruction an +old paternal garden, with all its embellishments, and whose destruction +revives in these pages all the emotions of his youth; and he concludes +these pages of regret, by candidly confessing, that he gained little but +"much difficulty, expence and dirt," and that he thus detains his +readers in relating what so personally concerns himself, "because there +is nothing so useful to others, however humiliating to ourselves, as +the frank confession of our errors and of their causes. No man can +equally with the person who committed them, impress upon others the +extent of the mischief done, and the regret that follows it." It is +painful to quit pages so interesting as those that immediately follow +this quotation.[104] + +There are few objects that the enlightened mind of Sir Uvedale has not +remarked. Take the following as an instance: + +"Nothing is so captivating, or seems so much to accord with our ideas of +beauty, as the smiles of a beautiful countenance; yet they have +sometimes a striking mixture of the other character. Of this kind are +those smiles which break out suddenly from a serious, sometimes from +almost a severe countenance, and which, when that gleam is over, leave +no trace of it behind-- + + _Brief as the lightning in the collied night, + That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, + And e'er a man has time to say, behold! + The jaws of darkness do devour it up._ + +There is another smile, which seems in the same degree to accord with +the ideas of beauty only: it is that smile which proceeds from a mind +full of sweetness and sensibility, and which, when it is over, still +leaves on the countenance its mild and amiable impression; as after the +sun is set, the mild glow of his rays is still diffused over every +object. This smile, with the glow that accompanies it, is beautifully +painted by Milton, as most becoming an inhabitant of heaven: + + To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd + Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue, + Thus answered." + +The great object in the above Essays, is to improve the laying out of +grounds by studying the productions "of those great artists _who have +most diligently studied the beauties of nature_. On this subject he has +in these volumes poured forth the effusions of his richly gifted mind, +in his contemplation of the works of those really great painters, whose +landscape scenery, from the most rural to the grandest, "have been +consecrated by long uninterrupted admiration." Instead of the narrow, +mechanical practice of a few English gardeners, or layers-out of +grounds, he wishes "the noble and varied works of the eminent painters +of every age, and of every country, and those of _their_ supreme +mistress NATURE, should be the great models of imitation."[105] He has +supported many of his opinions or observations, or embellished or +enlivened them, by acute allusions, not only to Milton but to +Shakspeare, whom he calls "that most original creator, and most accurate +observer."[106] + +He has depicted his own mind in p. 378 of the first volume of his +Essays; for after lamenting that despotic system of improvement which +demands all to be laid open,--all that obstructs to be levelled to the +ground,--houses, orchards, gardens, all swept away,--nothing tending to +humanize the mind--and that a despot thinks every person an intruder who +enters his domain, wishing to destroy cottages and pathways, and to +reign alone, he thus proceeds:--"Here I cannot resist paying a tribute +to the memory of a beloved uncle, and recording a benevolence towards +all the inhabitants around him, that struck me from my earliest +remembrance; and it is an impression I wish always to cherish. It seemed +as if he had made his extensive walks as much for them as for himself; +they used them as freely, and their enjoyment was his. The village bore +as strong marks of his and of his brother's attentions (for in that +respect they appeared to have but one mind), to the comforts and +pleasures of its inhabitants. Such attentive kindnesses, are amply +repaid by affectionate regard and reverence; and were they general +throughout the kingdom, they would do much more towards guarding us +against democratical opinions + + _Than twenty thousand soldiers, arm'd in proof._ + +The cheerfulness of the scene I have mentioned, and all the interesting +circumstances attending it, (so different from those of solitary +grandeur,) have convinced me, that he who destroys dwellings, gardens +and inclosures, for the sake of mere extent, and parade of property, +only extends the bounds of monotony, and of dreary, selfish pride; but +contrasts those of vanity, amusement and humanity." + +One may trace, too, his feeling mind towards the conclusion of his +second volume, where, after many pleasing pages on the rural scenery of +cottages, and in hamlets and villages, ("where a lover of humanity may +find so many sources of amusement and interest,") and on the means of +embellishing them, "I could wish (says he) to turn the minds of +improvers from too much attachment to solitary parade, towards objects +more connected with general habitation and embellishment; ... and it may +be truly said, that there is no way in which wealth can produce such +natural unaffected variety, and such interest, as by adorning a real +village, and promoting the comforts and enjoyments of its inhabitants. +_Goldsmith_ has most feelingly described (more, I trust, from the warmth +of a poetical imagination and quick sensibility than from real fact), +the ravages of wealthy pride. My aim is to shew, that they are no less +hostile to real taste, than to humanity; and should I succeed, it is +possible that those, whom all the affecting images and pathetic touches +of Goldsmith would not have restrained from destroying a village, may +even be induced to build one, in order to shew their taste in the +decoration and disposition of village-houses and cottages." After many +traces of village scenery, he thus proceeds: "The church, together with +the church-yard, is, on various accounts, an interesting object to the +villagers of every age and disposition; to the old and serious, as a +spot consecrated to the purposes of religion, where the living christian +performs his devotions, and where, after his death, his body is +deposited near those of his ancestors and departed friends, and +relations: to the young and thoughtless, as a place where, on the day of +rest from labour, they meet each other in their holiday clothes; and +also (what forms a singular contrast with tombs and grave-stones), as +the place which at their wakes, is the chief scene of their gaiety and +rural sports." After speaking of the yew, which from the solemnity of +its foliage, is most suited to church-yards, being as much consecrated +to the dead as the cypress among the ancients, he says that "there seems +to be no reason, why in the more southern parts of England, cypresses +should not be mixed with yews, or why cedars of Libanus, which are +perfectly hardy, and of a much quicker growth than yews, should not be +introduced. In high romantic situations, particularly, where the +church-yard is elevated above the general level, a cedar, spreading his +branches downwards from that height, would have the most picturesque, +and at the same time, the most solemn effect." + + + + +ADDENDA. + + +Page 5.--I am enabled from Mr. Johnson's lately published History of +English Gardening, to add a very early tract on that subject, and I take +the liberty of transcribing his exact words: "A Boke of Husbandry, +London, 4to. This little work is very rare, being one of the productions +from the press of Wynkin de Worde. It consists of but twelve leaves, and +is without date, but certainly was not of a later year than 1500. The +following extracts explain its nature. 'Here begyneth a treatyse of +Husbandry which Mayster Groshede somtyme Bysshop of Lyncoln made, and +translated it out of Frensshe into Englyshe, whiche techeth all maner of +men to governe theyr londes, tenementes, and demesnes ordinately.' + +'Here endeth the Boke of Husbandry, _and of Plantynge, and Graffynge of +Trees and Vynes_.'" + +About the year 1797 the late Mr. Nichols printed the Life of Robert +_Grosseteste_, the celebrated Bishop of Lincoln. By Samuel Pegge, LL.D. +With an Account of the Bishop's _Works_, &c. Illustrated with plates of +his Tomb, Ring, and Crosier. 4to. Price 13s. in boards. + +Page 17.--I have in this page alluded to the hard fate of Correggio. +That my reader may know who he was, let him inspect those pages in vol. +i. of Sir U. Price's Essays, where he thus concludes a critique on his +genius: "I believe that if a variety of persons, conversant in painting, +were asked what pictures (taking every circumstance together) appeared +to them most beautiful, and had left the softest and most pleasing +impression,--the majority would fix upon Correggio." + +Page 17.--W. Lawson, in the dedication to his New Orchard and Garden, +gives the name of an author on gardening, whose book I have not met +with. He dedicates it "to the right worshipfull _Sir Henry Belosses_," +and he acknowledges, "1st. the many courtesies you have vouchsaved me. +2dly. your delightfull skill in matters of this nature. 3dly. the profit +which I received from your _learned discourse of Fruit-trees_. 4thly. +your animating and assisting of others to such endeavours. Last of all, +the rare worke of your owne in this kind, all which to publish under +your protection, I have adventured as you see." From this it would +appear, that this "learned discourse" is transfused into the New Orchard +and Garden. After all, perhaps, this "learned discourse" was merely in +conversation. At all events, it has recorded the name of Sir Henry as +warmly devoted to orcharding, or to horticulture. W. Lawson, in his +preface, dwells upon the praises of this art, "how some, and not a few +of the best, have accounted it a chiefe part of earthly happinesse to +have faire and pleasant orchards--how ancient, how profitable, how +pleasant it is." His fourteenth chapter is On the Age of Fruit-trees. +After stating that some "shall dure 1000 years," and the age of many of +the apple-trees in his little orchard, he says: "If my trees be 100 +yeares old, and yet want 200 of their growth before they leave +increasing, which make 300, then we must needs resolve, that this 300 +yeere are but the third part of a tree's life, because (as all things +living besides) so trees must have allowed them for their increase one +third, another third for their stand, and a third part of time also for +their decay."--"So that I resolve upon good reason, that Fruit-trees +well ordered, may live and live 1000 yeeres, and beare fruit, and the +longer, the more, the greater, and the better, because his vigour is +proud and stronger, when his yeeres are many. You shall see old trees +put their buds and blossoms both sooner and more plentifully than young +trees by much. And I sensibly perceive my young trees to inlarge their +fruit, as they grow greater, both for number, and greatnesse."--"And if +Fruit-trees last to this age, how many ages is it to be supposed, strong +and huge Timber-trees will last? whose huge bodies require the yeeres of +divers _Methushalaes_, before they end their days; whose sap is strong +and better, whose barke is hard and thicke, and their substance solid +and stiffe: all which are defences of health and long life. Their +strength withstands all forcible winds." His seventeenth chapter is on +the Ornaments of an Orchard. I here give the whole of that chapter: + + +"Me thinks hitherto we haue but a bare Orchard for fruit, and but halfe +good, so long as it wants those comely ornaments, that should giue +beauty to all our labours, and make much for the honest delight of the +owner and his friends. + +"For it is not to be doubted: but as God hath giuen man things +profitable, so hath he allowed him honest comfort, delight, and +recreation in all the workes of his hands. Nay, all his labours vnder +the sunne without this are troubles, and vexation of mind: For what is +greedy gaine, without delight, but moyling, and turmoyling slauery? But +comfortable delight, with content, is the good of euery thing, and the +patterne of heauen. A morsell of bread with comfort, is better by much +than a fat oxe with vnquietnesse. And who can deny, but the principall +end of an Orchard, is the honest delight of one wearied with the works +of his lawfull calling? The very workes of and in an Orchard and Garden, +are better than the ease and rest of and from other labours. When God +had made man after his owne image, in a perfect state, and would haue +him to represent himselfe in authority, tranquillity and pleasure vpon +the earth, he placed him in Paradise. What was Paradise? but a Garden +and Orchard of trees and hearbs, full of pleasure? and nothing there but +delights. The gods of the earth, resembling the great God of heauen in +authority, maiestie, and abundance of all things, wherein is their most +delight? and whither doe they withdraw themselues from the troublesome +affaires of their estate, being tyred with the hearing and iudging of +litigious Controuersies? choked (as it were) with the close ayres of +their sumptuous buildings, their stomacks cloyed with variety of +Banquets, their eares filled and ouerburthened with tedious +discoursings? whither? but into their Orchards, made and prepared, +dressed and destinated for that purpose, to renue and refresh their +sences, and to call home their ouer-wearied spirits. Nay, it is (no +doubt) a comfort to them, to set open their cazements into a most +delicate Garden and Orchard, whereby they may not onely see that, +wherein they are so much delighted, but also to giue fresh, sweet, and +pleasant ayre to their galleries and chambers. + +"And looke, what these men do by reason of their greatnes and ability, +prouoked with delight, the same doubtlesse would euery of vs doe, if +power were answerable to our desires, whereby we shew manifestly, that +of all other delights on earth, they that are taken by Orchards, are +most excellent, and most agreeing with nature. + +"For whereas euery other pleasure commonly filles some one of our +sences, and that onely, with delight, this makes all our sences swimme +in pleasure, and that with infinite variety, ioyned with no less +commodity. + +"That famous philosopher, and matchlesse orator, M. T. C. prescribeth +nothing more fit, to take away the tediousnesse and heauy load of three +or foure score yeeres, than the pleasure of an Orchard. + +"What can your eyes desire to see, your ears to hear, your mouth to +tast, or your nose to smell, that is not to be had in an Orchard, with +abundance and variety? What more delightsome than an infinite variety of +sweet smelling flowers? decking with sundry colours, the greene mantle +of the earth, vniuersall mother of vs all, so by them bespotted, so +dyed, that all the world cannot sample them, and wherein it is more fit +to admire the Dyer, than imitate his workemanship. Colouring not onely +the earth, but decking the ayre, and sweetning euery breath and spirit. + +"The rose red, damaske, veluet, and double double prouince rose, the +sweet muske rose, double and single, the double and single white rose. +The faire and sweet senting Woodbinde, double and single, and double +double. Purple cowslips, and double cowslips, and double double +cowslips. Primerose double and single. The violet nothing behinde the +best, for smelling sweetly. A thousand more will prouoke your content. + +"And all these, by the skill of your gardner, so comely, and orderly +placed in your borders and squares, and so intermingled, that none +looking thereon, cannot but wonder, to see, what Nature corrected by Art +can doe. + +"When you behold in diuers corners of your Orchard Mounts of stone, or +wood curiously wrought within and without, or of earth couered with +fruit-trees: Kentish cherry, damsons, plummes, &c. with staires of +precious workmanship. And in some corner (or moe) a true dyall or +Clocke, and some anticke workes, and especially siluer-sounding musique, +mixt instruments and voices, gracing all the rest: How will you be rapt +with delight? + +"Large walkes, broad and long, close and open, like the Tempe groves in +Thessalie, raised with grauell and sand, hauing seats and bankes of +cammomile, all this delights the minde, and brings health to the body. + +"View now with delight the workes of your owne hands, your fruit-trees +of all sorts, loaden with sweet blossomes, and fruit of all tasts, +operations, and colours: your trees standing in comely order which way +soeuer you looke. + +"Your borders on euery side hanging and drooping with feberries, +raspberries, barberries, currens, and the rootes of your trees powdred +with strawberries, red, white, and greene, what a pleasure is this? Your +gardner can frame your lesser wood to the shape of men armed in the +field, ready to giue battell: or swift running greyhounds: or of well +sented and true running hounds, to chase the deere, or hunt the hare. +This kind of hunting shall not waste your corne, nor much your coyne. + +"Mazes well framed a mans height, may perhaps make your friends wander +in gathering of berries, till he cannot recouer himselfe without your +helpe. + +"To haue occasion to exercise within your Orchard: it shall be a +pleasure to haue a bowling alley, or rather (which is more manly, and +more healthfull) a paire of buts, to stretch your armes. + +"Rosemary and sweete eglantine are seemely ornaments about a doore or +window, and so is woodbinde. + +"And in mine opinion, I could highly commend your Orchard, if either +through it, or hard by it there should runne a pleasant riuer with +siluer streames: you might sit in your mount, and angle a pickled trout, +or sleightie eele, or some other dainty fish. Or moats, whereon you +might row with a boate, and fish with nettes. + +"Store of bees in a dry and warme bee-house, comely made of fir-boords, +to sing, and sit, and feede vpon your flowers and sprouts, make a +pleasant noyse and sight. For cleanely and innocent bees, of all other +things, loue and become, and thriue in an Orchard. If they thriue (as +they must needes, if your gardner bee skilfull, and loue them: for they +loue their friends, and hate none but their enemies) they will, besides +the pleasure, yeeld great profit, to pay him his wages. Yea, the +increase of twenty stockes or stooles, with other fees, will keepe your +Orchard. + +"You need not doubt their stings, for they hurt not whom they know, and +they know their keeper and acquaintance. If you like not to come amongst +them, you need not doubt them: for but neere their store, and in their +owne defence, they will not fight, and in that case onely (and who can +blame them?) they are manly, and fight desperately. Some (as that +Honorable Lady at Hacknes, whose name doth much grace mine Orchard) vse +to make seats for them in the stone wall of their Orchard, or Garden, +which is good, but wood is better. + +"A vine ouer-shadowing a seate, is very comely, though her grapes with +vs ripe slowly. + +"One chiefe grace that adornes an Orchard, I cannot let slip: A brood of +nightingales, who with their seuerall notes and tunes, with a strong +delightsome voyce, out of a weake body, will beare you company night and +day. She loues (and liues in) hots of woods in her hart. She will helpe +you to cleanse your trees of caterpillars, and all noysome wormes and +flyes. The gentle robin red-breast will helpe her, and in winter in the +coldest stormes will keepe a part. Neither will the silly wren be behind +in summer, with her distinct whistle (like a sweete recorder) to cheere +your spirits. + +"The black-bird and threstle (for I take it the thrush sings not, but +deuoures) sing loudly in a May morning, delights the eare much (and you +neede not want their company, if you haue ripe cherries or berries, and +would as gladly as the rest do you pleasure:) But I had rather want +their company than my fruit. + +"What shall I say? A thousand of pleasant delightes are attendant in an +Orchard: and sooner shall I be weary, than I can recken the least part +of that pleasure, which one that hath and loues an Orchard, may find +therein. + +"What is there of all these few that I haue reckoned, which doth not +please the eye, the eare, the smell, and taste? And by these sences as +organes, pipes, and windowes, these delights are carried to refresh the +gentle, generous, and noble mind. + +"To conclude, what ioy may you haue, that you liuing to such an age, +shall see the blessings of God on your labours while you liue, and +leaue behind you to heires or successors (for God will make heires) such +a worke, that many ages after your death, shall record your loue to +their countrey? And the rather, when you consider (chap. 14.) to what +length of time your worke is like to last." + +Page 30.--Having briefly glanced in this page at the delight with which +Sir H. Davy, Mr. Worlidge, and Mr. Whateley, viewed the flowers of +spring, I can only add this reflection of Sturm:--"If there were no +stronger proofs on earth of the power, goodness, and wisdom of God, the +flowers of spring alone, would be sufficient to convince us of it." + +Page 45.--The character of this modest and candid man, (Switzer), has +found an able advocate in the honest pen of Mr. Johnson, who, in p. 159 +of his History of Gardening, after noticing the acrimony of his +opponents, observes, "Neglect has pursued him beyond the grave, for his +works are seldom mentioned or quoted as authorities of the age he lived +in. To me he appears to be the best author of his time; and if I was +called upon to point out the classic authors of gardening, _Switzer_ +should be one of the first on whom I would lay my finger. His works +evidence him at once to have been a sound, practical horticulturist, a +man well versed in the botanical science of the day, in its most +enlarged sense." Mr. Johnson enumerates the distinct contents of each +chapter in the Iconologia--the Kitchen Gardener--and the Fruit Gardener. + +Page 59.--The Tortworth Chesnut was growing previous to the Norman +Conquest. It fixes the boundary of a manor. Even in the reign of +Stephen, it was known as the great chesnut of Tortworth. + +Page 62.--The author of this treatise, who is a zealous orchardist, is +lavish in his praise of a then discovered apple-tree and its produce, +"for the little cot-house to which it belongs, together with the little +quillet in which it stands, being several years since mortgaged for ten +pounds, the fruit of this tree alone, in a course of some years, freed +the house and garden, and its more valuable self, from that burden." A +neighbouring clergyman, too, was equally lavish, for he "talked of it in +all conversations," and such was his praise of it, that every one "fell +to admiration." Mr. Stafford is so pleased with this reverend +gentleman's zeal, in extending the cultivation of this apple, (_the +Royal Wilding_) that he says, "I could really wish, whenever the +original tree decayeth, his statue carved out of the stump, by the most +expert hand, and overlaid with gold, may be erected near the public +road, in the place of it, at the common charge of the country." He +celebrates also another apple, which "in a pleasant conversation was +named by a gentleman _super-celestial_. Another gentleman, in allusion +to _Pynes_, the name of my house, and to the common story of the West +India pineapple, (which is said to be the finest fruit in the world, and +to represent every exquisite flavour that is known), determined that it +should be called the _pyne-apple_; and by either of these names it is +talked of when pleasantry and conversation bring the remembrance of it +to the table." + +Page 64.--It is but justice to Mr. Gibson to say, that in his Fruit +Gardener, he has entered fully into the merits of Le Genre's _Le maniere +de cultiver les arbres fruitiers_; and that his pages are extremely +interesting. The great merits of Quintinye are also not overlooked. + +Page 84.--To the list of those deceased authors, whose portraits I have +not been able to discover, I must add the following: + + +JOHN BRADDICK, Esq. A zealous horticulturist and fruit grower. He +contributed four papers to the Horticultural Society of London. In the +Gardener's Mag. for Jan. 1827, is a communication by him, on some new +French pears. The editor of this magazine acknowledges "the very liberal +and truly patriotic manner in which our highly-valued correspondent +shares every novelty he receives with those whose interest it is to +increase and disseminate such novelties." In the above magazine for +March, 1827, is another spirited communication by him, on these new +pears, introduced from France, in which he says:--"And here I think it +necessary to premise, that the following list is the cream skimmed off +some thousands of new pears, which I have for many years past been +getting together from various parts of the world, about two-thirds of +which yet remain for trial, not having fruited, together with some +thousands of seedling pears, apples, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches +and grapes, of my own raising; the fruits of some of which I hope will +continue to gladden the hearts of horticulturists for many years to +come. As they are produced I will make them known to the public, with as +much facility as lies in my power. + +"_Boughton Mount, July 29, 1826._" + +One is sorry to relate, that Mr. Braddick died soon after this +benevolent wish; for he died at the above seat of his, near Maidstone, +in April, 1828, at the age of sixty-three. + +Page 120.--Dr. Dibdin thus speaks of Archibald Alison: "The beautiful +and melodious style of this writer, renders his works deserving of a +conspicuous place in every well-chosen library." + +Page 89.--In this page I have stated that Dr. Dibdin says, "on many +accounts does G. Markham seem entitled to more notice and commendation." +I have given extracts from his "English Husbandman," to shew his love +for flowers. The same attachment is visible where he enumerates them in +his "Country House-wive's Garden."--By the bye, though I have stated +this last work to be his, it surely appears to have been written by W. +Lawson. I merely now give the following extract from Markham's "English +House-Wife:" + +"Next vnto this sanctity and holinesse of life, it is meet that our +English hous-wife be a woman of great modesty and temperance as well +inwardly as outwardly; inwardly, as in her behauiour and cariage towards +her husband, wherein she shall shunne all violence of rage, passion, and +humour, coueting lesse to direct then to be directed, appearing euer +vnto him pleasant, amiable, and delightfull, and though occasion, +mishaps, or the misgouernement of his will may induce her to contrary +thoughts, yet vertuously to suppresse them, and with a mild sufferance +rather to call him home from his error, then with the strength of anger +to abate the least sparke of his euill, calling in her mind that euill +and vncomely language is deformed though vttered euen to seruants, but +most monstrous and vgly when it appeares before the presence of a +husband: outwardly, as in her apparrell and diet, both which she shall +proportion according to the competency of her husband's estate and +calling, making her circle rather strait then large, for it is a rule if +we extend to the vttermost, we take away increase, if we goe a hayre +breadth beyond, we enter into consumption: but if we preserue any part, +we build strong forts against the aduersaries of fortune, prouided that +such preseruation be honest and conscionable: for a lauish prodigality +is brutish, so miserable couetuousnesse is hellish. Let therefore the +hus-wives garments be comly and strong, made aswel to preserue the +health, as adorne the person, altogether without toyish garnishes, or +the glosse of light colours, and as far from the vanity of new and +fantastick fashions, as neere to the comly imitations of modest +matrons." + +I must give an extract from his "Country Contentements," as he reminds +us of Shakspeare's lines on the tuneable cry of hounds; for Markham +dwells on their sweetness of cry--"their deepe solemne mouthes--their +roaring and loud ringing mouthes, which must beare the counter-tenor, +then some hollow plaine sweete mouthes--a deep-mouthed dog--a couple or +two of small singing beagles, which as small trebles, may warble amongst +them: the cry will be a great deale the more sweeter--the hollow deepe +mouth--the loud clanging mouthe--deepe flewed, such as for the most part +your _Shropshire_ and pure _Worcestershire_ dogs are--the louder and +pleasanter your cry will be, especially if it be in sounding tall woods, +or under the echo of rocks--and not above one couple of roarers, which +being heard but now and then, as at the opening or hitting of a scent, +will give much sweetnesse to the solemns, and gravenesse of the cry, and +the musick thereof will bee much more delightfull to the eares of every +beholder." + +Page 123.--The memory of Pope has perhaps never been more affectionately +honoured (nor that of Lord Mendip, who so zealously preserved every part +of the house and garden at Twickenham) than in the glowing and tender +lines of De Lille, in his poem of _Les Jardins_. + +The vignette in my title-page, and that at page 84, are two of those +neat decorations which so profusely embellish the Encyclopædia of +Gardening. + + + + +INDEX. + + +A. + + Abercrombie, 153 + + Addison, xxviii., xxxii., 49, 115 + ---- reflections on the tombs, 117 + + Age of gardeners and horticulturists, 81 + + Alison, Dr. xxxviii., 71, 120, 211 + + Anderson, 69, 175 + + Ardenne, J. P. de, his charity, xiv. + + Arabian literature, 2 + + Argyle, xxviii. + + Argenville, xiii. + + Arnauld d'Andelli, xiii. + + Arnolde's Chronicle, 5 + + Astrology, 34 + + Austen, Ralph, 18 + + Austin, Fr., 19 + + + B. + + Bacon, Lord, on flowers that perfume the air, xxx., xxxv., 55 + ---- eulogies on him, 88 + ---- on Gorhambury, 88 + + Banks, Sir Jos., 4, 181, 187 + + Barrington, Daines, 156, 177 + + Bates, an aged horticulturist, 82 + + Bauhine, 44 + + Beale, Dr. John, vi., 16, 17, 20, 21, 54 + ---- his attachment to his native country, 23 + + Belosses, Sir H. 202 + + Bees, on, by an Italian, 85 + + Bernazzano, his skill in painting fruit, 56 + + Bertholan, xviii. + + Bertrand, Fr., his _Ruris Deliciæ_, xiv. + + Blake, 19 + + Blythe, Walter, 8, 88 + + Bobart, 108 + + Boileau, tributes to, xxiii. 56 + + Bonfeil, 19 + + Bornefond, x. + + Bos, the eminent painter, 56 + + Bossuet, xxv. + + Boswell, 178 + + Boyceau, ix. + + Bowles, Rev. Mr. his kind apostrophe to Lord Byron, 130 + + Boyle, his character, by Boerhaave, 21 + + Bradley, reprints the _Herefordshire Orchards_, 54 + ---- on the planting of wild flowers, 54 + + Braddick, 211 + + Bridgman, 129, 132, 135 + + Brocoli, 51 + + Brocq, P. le, 82 + + Brome, W. 22 + + Browne, Sir Thomas, 94 + + Browne, Launcelot, 154 + + Bryant, 79 + + Brydges, Sir E. 89, 93 + ---- on Pope, 131 + + Bucknall, 84 + + Bulleyn, Dr. 84 + + Burleigh, xxvii. + + Bury, Mr. Barclay's, 170 + + Byron, Lord, xxxi. 40, 121 + ---- on Pope, 129 + + + C. + + Capell, xxvii. + + Censura Litt. 6, 12, 15, 16 + + Chabanon, xiv. + + Chambers, Sir W. 185 + + Champier, viii. + + Charlemagne, xviii. + + Charles II. 96 + + Chatham, Lord, xxix., 74 + + Chesterfield, xxix. + ---- on Pope, 125 + + Chesnut tree at Tortworth, 57, 209 + + Cicero on agriculture, xxxvi. + ---- on his country seat, 3 + + Clive, 164 + + Cobbet, on the health of gardens, xxxiv. + ---- on Moor Park, 112 + + Collins, 59 + + Collinson, xxviii. + + Compton, Bishop, xxviii., 39 + + Cook, Captain, xiv., 171, 183 + + Cooke, Moses, 31 + + Corregio, his poverty, 17, 202 + + Cottage gardens, 171 + + Cotton, Charles, 102 + + Country life, its pleasures, 48, 49, 63 + + Coventry, Rev. F. 63, 135 + + Cowell, 62 + + Cowley, 46, 93, 100 + + Cousin, viii. + + Cowslips, 54, 205 + + Cradock, Jos. 179 + + Curtis, W. 184 + + + D. + + Dallaway, 94, 135, 173, 176 + + Danby, xxviii. + + Daniel, H. 5 + + Darwin, 162, 164 + + Davy, Sir H. 30, 106 + + Death, 47, 58 + + Deepden, Mr. Hope's, 170 + + De Lille, xiv., xvii., 50, 183, 213 + + Descartes, his delight in his garden, xxxv. + + Devonshire, Duke of, xxviii. + + Dicks, 65 + + Dickson, 186 + + Dibdin, Dr. 17, 89. + + Dodsley, Robert, his attachment to Pope, 125 + ---- his generous tribute to Shenstone, 148 + + Downton Vale, 188 + + Drake, Dr. 114, 115, 128 + + Drope, 31 + + Du Fresnoy, xii. + + Duncan, 81 + + Duncan, Dr. A. 190 + + + E. + + Elizabeth, the lion hearted, 103 + + Ellis, of _Gaddesden_, on blossoms and fruit, 64 + + Epicurus, xxxii. + + Essex, his execution, 103 + ---- his character, xxvii. + + Etienne, an early French writer, viii. + + Evelyn, John, xxxii., 41, 59, 97 + ---- Charles, 59 + ---- John, 59 + + + F. + + Falconer, 183 + + Fairchild, 60 + + Fleetwood, 114 + + Fontaine, xviii. + + Flowers, 25, 27, 54, 90, 95, 205 + + Forsyth, 186 + + Foxley, 191 + + France, its horticultural writers, see preface + + Francis I., xix. + + Franklin, rancorously attacked by Wedderburn, and panegyrised by + Lord Chatham, 73, 74 + + Fresnoy, xii. + + Fruit blossoms, 41, 53, 64, 121 + + Fulmer, 79 + + + G. + + Gainsborough, Earl of, xxix. + + Gardeners, the age of many, 81 + + Gardens, their pleasures, see preface, and 24, 27, 28, 30, 39, 47, + 63, 64, 89, 110, 121, 153 + ---- those of antiquity, 1 + ---- those of the Saxons, Danes and Normans, xxxv., xxxvi. + ---- near Spitalfields, 36 + ---- of France, see preface + ---- of cottagers, 171 + + Gardiner, J. 109 + + Garrick, 137, 158, 172, 178, 181 + + Garrle, Capt. 35 + + Garton, 65 + + Gerarde, xxx., 15, 87, 123 + + Gerard's Bromley, its once noble mansion, 23, 107 + + Gerard, Lady, an acquaintance of Pope's, 25 + + Gibson, J. 33 + + Gibson, Dr. 67, 210 + ---- on the richness of a fruit garden, 64 + + Gilbert, 107 + + Gilpin, Rev. W., vii. 159, 173 + + Girardin entombed Rousseau in his garden, xv. + ---- his eloquent effusion to prevent misery, 78 + ---- on the calm of evening, xv. + + Goldsmith, 199 + + Gooche, Barn., 12, 48 + + Gouges de Cessieres, xiv. + + Graves, Dr., his tribute to Shenstone, 149 + + Gray, 80, 129, 158, 159 + + Greeks, 107, 194 + + Grindall, xxviii. + + Grossetete, Bishop, 201 + + + H. + + Halifax, xxviii. + + Hanbury, Rev. W., 143 + + Hartlib, the friend of Milton, 19 + ---- on orchards, 21 + + Harward, 17 + + Hawkins, Sir J. 8, 102, 103 + + Haworth, Mr. on Miller, 141 + + Heath, Mr. of Monmouth, 171 + + Heeley, 79 + + Henry IV. patronised Olivier de Serres and Mollet, xiv. + + Hereford, its orchards and villages, 23 + + Hill, Sir John, 141 + + Hitt, 65, 138 + + Hogarth, 56 + + Hollar, his portraits of the Tradescants, 92 + + Homer, xxx., 1, 2, 47, 187 + + Housewife, an amiable and pleasant one, 212 + + Hudson, Lord, xxvii. + + Hyll, 85 + + + I + + Iliffe, 23 + + + J. + + James, 45 + + Jones, of Nayland, 61 + + Johnson, the editor of Gerarde, 18 + ---- his testimony to Parkinson, 18 + + Jonson, Ben, his eulogy on Lord Bacon, 86 + + Johnson, Dr. 48, 70, 114, 116, 154, 178, 179 + ---- on portraits, vii. + ---- on Charles II., 96 + ---- on Sir T. Browne, 95, 96 + ---- on Shenstone, 147 + + Johnson's Eng. Gardening, xxxv., xxxvi., xxxvii., 83, 84, 85, 88, + 91, 100, 102, 109, 115, 154, + 177, 183, 201 + ---- on Sir W. Temple, 113 + ---- on Switzer, 209 + + Justice, 63, 13 + + + K. + + Kames, 69, 151 + + Kennedy, 78 + + Kent, 132 + + Knowlton, 52, 61 + + Knight, R. P. xxvi., 187 + ---- on the celebration of high mass, 195 + ---- on listening to professors, 196 + + Kyle, 79 + + + L. + + Lamoignon, xxii. + + Langford, 33 + + Langley, 142 + + Latapie, xvi. + + Lawrence, Ant. 33 + + Lawrence, Rev. J. 120 + + Lawson, 17, 202, 212 + + Leibault, viii. + + Le Maitre, xiii. + + Lestiboudois, his tranquil end, 83 + + Lesay de Marnesia, xviii. + + Liger, Louis, x., 42 + + Ligne, Prince de, on gardens, xxxiv., 55 + ---- on De Lille, xiv. + ---- on Antoinette, xxxiv. + ---- interview with Voltaire, xxxiv. + ---- on Milton, 132 + ---- on Walpole, 177 + + Linant, xiii. + + Linnæus, 139, 167, 171, 192 + + Locke, 113 + + London and Wise, 35 + + Louis, xiv., xx. + + Loudon's Encycl. of Gardening, xi., xii., xviii., xix., xx., xxxvi., + 4, 54, 80, 81, 95, 99, 109, 116, 121, 128, 136, 150, 152, 153, 155, + 157, 170, 184, 194 + ---- on Whateley, 72 + ---- on Bacon, 87 + ---- on Miller, 138 + ---- on L. Browne, 156 + + + M. + + Maddock, 83 + + Maison rustique, viii., 89 + + Malherbes, xvi. + + Malthus, D. xv., 78 + + Mapes, Walter, the honest chaplain to Henry II. and an admired poet, 170 + + Markham, Ger. viii., 88, 211, 213 + + Marshall, 79, 117, 150, 157 + + Marie Antoinette, xxxiv., 189 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, vii., 102 + + Martyn, Professor, 185 + ---- his character of Miller, 138 + + Mascall, 84 + + Mason, Geo. xxix., 70, 156, 198 + ---- on Kent, 134 + ---- on Shenstone, 150 + + Mason, Rev. W. xv., xxxii., 111, 157 + ---- on Pope, 128, 130, 131 + ---- on Shenstone, 150 + + Masson de Blamont, xviii. + + Mathias on Boileau, xxiv. + ---- on Pope, 127 + ---- on Mason, 164 + + Mavor, Rev. Mr. 34 + ---- his admirable edition of Tusser, 6 + + Meader, 17 + + Meager, Leonard, 34 + + Mignon, his skill in painting flowers, 55 + + Miller, Phillip, 138 + + Milton, 20, 21, 49, 94, 130, 132, 197 + ---- his great poem now magnificently printing in letters of gold, 133 + + Mollet, Andre, ix. + + Mollet, Claude, ix. + + Morell, xiv. + + Morin, the florist, xi. + + Mountmorris, on Sir W. Temple, 111 + + Morris, Rev. I. G., his powerful appeal on horticultural pursuits, 122 + + Morris, onornamental scenery, 77 + + Mountain, Didymus, 12 + + + N. + + Nicol, Walter, 82 + + Nichols, John, 54, 60, 110, 121, 143, 174, 178 + ----his friendship for Mr. Cradock, 180 + + Nôtre, le, tributes to him, xi., xii., xx. + + Nourse, 58 + + + O. + + Ockenden, 65 + + Only, Rev. Mr., a lover of gardens, 54 + + Opium, 168 + + Orchards, 21, 23, 64, 202, 203 + + Orrery, Lord, xxvi., 126 + + + P. + + Parkinson, 89, 90 + ----testimony to his works, 18 + + Pastoral Scenes, 30 + + Paulmier de Grenlemesnil, viii. + + Percy, Bishop of Dromore, 72 + + Pennant, 154 + + Petrarch, xxxi. + ----his handsome person, vi. + ----on his garden, xxxv. + + Plants betray fondness for their native earth, 45 + + Planting, on zeal for, 66, 69 + + Platt, Sir Hugh, 13 + + Plattes, Gabriel, 16 + + Plimley, 165 + + Pontchateau, his singular history, xiii. + + Pope, xxix., xxxiii., 1, 2, 76, 114, 123, 179, 213 + + Pope mentions Lady Gerard, 25 + ----his noble thought on planting, 68 + + Powel, 65 + + Preston, its horticult. society, 123 + + Price, Sir U. vii., xxvi., 56, 72, 77, 134, 155, 156, 177, 191 + ----on De Lille, xv. + ----his high opinion of Mason, 163 + ----on the sculpture, poetry, and eloquence of the Greeks, 194 + ----on Correggio, 202 + + Priestley, Dr. on Franklin and Wedderburn, 73 + + Primroses, 30, 50, 54, 55 + + Pulteney, Dr. 5, 52, 55, 56, 60, 85, 87, 90, 92, 138, 143, 182 + + + Q. + + Quarterly Review, 41, 59, 97, 103, 183 + ----on Evelyn's _Sylva_, 99 + + Quintinye, xi., xx., xxvii., 34, 68 + ----anecdote of, 67 + ----attempt to recover his MSS. 68 + + + R. + + Raleigh, xxvii., xxxi., 36, 87 + + Rabutin de Bussy, xxii. xxv. + + Rapin, tribute to, xiii. + ----on Lamoignon, xxii., xxv. + + Ray, xxix., 71, 88, 94, 109, 139 + + Raynal, 128 + + Rea, John, his dedication to Lord Gerard, and verses on Lady Gerard, 23 + + Read, 33 + + Rench, an aged gardener, 82 + + Repton, 186, 188 + + Reynolds, Sir J. 127, 158 + + Richardson, 84 + + Rickets, 61 + + Riviere, la Countess de, xiii., xiv., xxv. + + Robin, Jean, xix. + + Robinson, Dr. on Mary Queen of Scots, 104 + + Roscommon, 48 + + Rose, 101 + + Rosier, xviii. + + Rousseau, his burial at Ermenonville, xv. + + Russell, Lord W. his love of gardens, xxvii. + + Rutter, 65. + + + S. + + Salmonia, extracts, from, 30, 107 + + Scarborough, xxix. + + Schabol, xvi. + + Scott, Sir W. v., 40, 41, 172 + ---- on the deaths of _Marat_, and _Robespierre_, xvi. + ---- on the garden of _Vanessa_, xxx. + + Scotland, its zeal for planting, 69 + + Serres, Olivier de, viii. + + Sevigné, Mad. de, xii., xiv., xx., xxv. + + Seward, Miss, vi., 162, 172 + + Sismondi, xix., 3, 107 + ---- on bees, 86 + + Shakspeare, xi., xxxi, 4, 73, 74, 78, 158, 178, 179, 197, 198, 199, 213 + + Sharrock, 23 + + Shenstone, 147 + + Shepherd, Sir Samuel, 41 + + Sherard, xxviii. + + Spectacle de la Nature, 95 + + Speechley, 81 + + Smollet on Chatham, xxix. + + Spring, its beauties, 21, 29, 30, 31, 209 + + St. Bartholomew's massacre, viii. + + Stafford, 62, 210 + + Sterne, xxvi., 170 + + Stillingfleet, Benj. 8, 191 + + Stevenson, D. 45 + + Stevenson, H. 45 + + Stevenson, M. 45 + + Sully, ix., 66 + + Sun, the, its celestial beams, 48 + + Swinden, 78 + + Switzer, xxvii., xxxiii., 45, 94, 100, 109, 110, 138, 209 + ---- his grateful remembrance of his old master, 36, 39, 102 + ---- his enlarged views of gardening, 49 + ---- on Rose, 102 + ---- on Milton, 133 + + + T. + + Taverner, 53 + + Taylor, 65 + + Temperance, 169, 170 + + Temple, Sir W. xxxii., 110 + ---- on the garden of Epicurus, xxxii. + + Thury, M. le Vic. de, his tribute to Milton, 132 + ---- on gardens, xxxv. xxxvi. + + Tradescants, 92 + + Trowel, 63 + + Trees, ancient ones, 33, 46, 49, 50, 57, 142, 151 + + Tusser, 6, 13, 34 + + + V. + + Vaniere, tribute to, xiii. + + Van-Huysum, his skill in painting fruit, 56, 156 + + Villages, rural, 23, 199 + + Vineyard at Bethnal-green, 14 + + Violets, xxxi., 30, 50, 55, 205 + + Vispré, 157 + + Voltaire, xi., xiii., xx., xxxiv., 80 + ---- his garden interview with the Prince de Ligne, xxxvi. + + + W. + + Wakefield horticultural soc., 122 + + Walpole, Horace, xxix., 1, 80, 91, 163, 176 + ---- on Sir W. Temple, 112 + ---- on Kent, 132 + ---- on Bridgman, 136 + + Walpole, Horace, on Browne, 154 + ---- on Gilpin, 173 + + Walton, Isaac, xi., 30, 93, 94, 102, 104 + + Warton, Thomas, 6, 8, 10, 72, 143, 161 + + Watelet, xvii. + + Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, his zeal for planting, 70 + + Watson, Sir W. 93, 142 + + Weymouth, Lord, xxviii. + + Weston, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 57, 92 + ---- his zeal for planting, 66 + + Whately, xvi., xviii., 50, 72 + ---- brief testimonies to his genius, vii., 72, 74, 75, 195 + ---- on spring, 31 + ---- his tribute to Shenstone, 150 + + Wildman, 65 + + Whitmill, 62 + + William III. his delight in gardening, xxvii. + + Worlidge, his attachment to gardens, 28 + ---- on those of France, xxvii. + ---- mentions a garden at Hoxton, 61 + + Wotton, Sir H. 93 + + Wynn, Sir W. W. his zeal for planting, 69 + + + X, Y. + + Xenophon, 198 + + Young, Dr. on Pope's death, 131 + + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + * * * * * + + +[1] Few persons have shewn more attachment to family portraits than Miss +Seward. This is strongly exemplified in several bequests in her will; +not only in her bequest to Emma Sneyd, and in that to Mrs. Powys, but +also in the following:--"The miniature picture of my late dear friend, +Mr. Saville, drawn in 1770, by the late celebrated artist Smart, and +which at the time it was taken, and during many successive years, was an +exact resemblance of the original, I bequeath to his daughter, Mrs. +Smith, who I know will value and preserve it as a jewel above all prize; +and in case of her previous demise, I bequeath the said precious +miniature to her daughter, Mrs. Honora Jager, exhorting the said Honora +Jager, and her heirs, into whose hands soever it may fall, to guard it +with sacred care from the sun and from damp, as I have guarded it, that +so the posterity of my valued friend may know what, in his prime, was +the form of him whose mind through life, by the acknowledgment of all +who knew him, and could discern the superior powers of talent and +virtue, was the seat of liberal endowment, warm piety, and energetic +benevolence." + +Being thus on the subject of portraits, let me remark, that it is not +always that we meet with a faithful likeness. A review of Mad. de +Genlis's _Petrarch et Laure_, justly observes, that "it is doubtful if +any of the portraits of _Petrarch_, which still remain, were painted +during his life-time. However that may be, it is impossible to trace in +them, either the elevation of his mind, the fire of his imagination, or +the pensive melancholy of his soul." In the Essays on Petrarch, by Ugo +Foscolo, he informs us, that "_Petrarch's_ person, if we trust his +biographers, was so striking with beauties, as to attract universal +admiration. They represent him with large and manly features, eyes full +of fire, a blooming complexion, and a countenance that bespoke all the +genius and fancy that shone forth in his works." Do we yet know one +really good likeness of _Mary Queen of Scots_? + +[2] It has often struck me (perhaps erroneously), that the attachment +which the great Sully evinced for gardens, even to the last period of +his long-protracted life, (eighty-two), _might_ in some degree have been +cherished or increased from the writings of the great Lord Bacon. When +this illustrious duke retired to his country seats, wounded to the heart +by the baseness of those who had flattered him when Henry was alive, his +noble and honest mind indulged in the embellishment of his gardens. I +will very briefly quote what history relates:--"The life he led in his +retreat at _Villebon_, was accompanied with grandeur and even majesty, +such as might be expected from a character so grave and full of dignity +as his. His table was served with taste and magnificence; he admitted to +it none but the nobility in his neighbourhood, some of the principal +gentlemen, and the ladies and maids of honour, who belonged to the +duchess of Sully. He often went into his gardens, and passing through a +little covered alley, which separated the flower from the kitchen +garden, ascended by a stone staircase (which the present duke of Sully +has caused to be destroyed), into a large walk of linden trees, upon a +terrace on the other side of the garden. It was then the taste to have a +great many narrow walks, very closely shaded with four or five rows of +trees, or palisadoes. Here he used to sit upon a settee painted green, +amused himself by beholding on the one side an agreeable landscape, and +on the other a second alley on a terrace extremely beautiful, which +surrounded a large piece of water, and terminated by a wood of lofty +trees. There was scarce one of his estates, those especially which had +castles on them, where he did not leave marks of his magnificence, to +which he was chiefly incited by a principle of charity, and regard to +the public good. At _Rosny_, he raised that fine terrace, which runs +along the Seine, to a prodigious extent, and those great gardens, filled +with groves, arbours, and grottos, with water-works. He embellished +_Sully_ with gardens, of which the plants were the finest in the world, +and with a canal, supplied with fresh water by the little river Sangle, +which he turned that way, and which is afterwards lost in the Loire. He +erected a machine to convey the water to all the basons and fountains, +of which the gardens are full. He enlarged the castle of _La Chapelle +d'Angillon_, and embellished it with gardens and terraces." + +These gardens somewhat remind one of these lines, quoted by Barnaby +Gooche: + + _Have fountaines sweet at hand, or mossie waters, + Or pleasaunt brooke, that passing through the meads, is sweetly seene._ + +That fine gardens delighted Sully, is evident even from his own +statement of his visit to the Duke d'Aumale's, at Anet, near Ivry, +(where Henry and Sully fought in that famous battle), for he says,--"Joy +animated the countenance of Madame d'Aumale the moment she perceived me. +She gave me a most kind and friendly reception, took me by the hand, and +led me through those fine galleries and beautiful gardens, which make +Anet a most enchanting place." One may justly apply to Sully, what he +himself applies to the Bishop of Evreaux: "A man for whom eloquence and +great sentiments had powerful charms." + +I had designed some few years ago, to have published a Review of some of +the superb Gardens in France, during the reign of Henry IV. and during +the succeeding reigns, till the demise of Louis XV., embellished with +plates of some of the costly and magnificent decorations of those times; +with extracts from such of their eminent writers whose letters or works +may have occasionally dwelt on gardens.--My motto, for want of a better, +might have been these two lines from Rapin, + + _----France, in all her rural pomp appears + With numerous gardens stored._ + +Perhaps I might have been so greedy and insolent, as to have presumed to +have monopolized our Shakspeare's line,--"I love _France_ so well, that +I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine." + +Isaac Walton gives the following lines from a translation of a German +poet, which makes one equally fond of England: + + We saw so many woods, and princely bowers, + Sweet fields, brave palaces, and stately towers, + _So many gardens dress'd with curious care_, + That Thames with royal Tiber may compare. + + + +[3] The Encyclopædia of Gardening has a rich page (35) devoted to Le +Nôtre. The Nouveau Dict. Hist. thus records his genius and his grand and +magnificent efforts:--"Ce grand homme fut choisi pour décorer les +jardins du château de Vau-le-Vicomte. Il en fit un sejour enchanteur, +par les ornamens nouveaux, pleins de magnificence, qu'il y prodigua. On +vit alors, pour la premiere fois, des portiques, des berceaux, des +grottes, des traillages, des labyrinths, &c. embellir varier le +spectacle des jardins. Le Roi, témoin des ces merveilles, lui donna la +direction de tous ses parcs. Il embellit par son art, Versailles, +Trianon, et il fit à St. Germain cette fameuse terrasse qu'on voit +toujours avec une nouvelle admiration. Les jardins de Clagny, de +Chantilly, de St. Cloud, de Meudon, de Sceaux, le parterre du Tibre, et +les canaux qui ornent ce lieu champêtre a Fontainbleau, sont encore son +ouvrage. Il demanda à faire voyage de l'Italie, dans l'espérance +d'acquérir de nouvelles connoissances; mais son géniè créateur l'avoit +conduit à la perfection. Il ne vit rien de comparable a ce qu'il avoit +fait en France." + +Notwithstanding the above just and high tribute, I have no hesitation in +saying, that it is not superior to the magic picture which the +fascinating pen of Mad. de Sevigné has drawn of le Nôtre's creative +genius, in her letter of Aug. 7, 1675. Many others of this charming +woman's letters breathe her love of gardens. + +[4] The Nouveau Dict. Hist. thus speaks of the Pere Rapin:--"A un génie +heureux, à un goût sur, il joignoit une probité exacte, un coeur droit, +un caractere aimable et des moeurs douces. Il étoit naturellement +honnête, et il s'étoit encore poli dans le commerce des grands. Parmi +ses différentes Poësies Latinés, on distingue le Poëme des Jardins. +C'est son chef d'oeuvre; il est digne du siecle d'Auguste, dit l'Abbé +Des Fontaines, pour l'élegance et la pureté du langage, pour l'esprit et +les graces qui y regnent." Among the letters of Rabutin de Bussy, are +many most interesting ones from this worthy father. + +[5] "Rien n'est plus admirable que la peinture naîve que la Pere Vaniere +fait des amusemens champêtres; on est également enchanté de la richesse +et de la vivacité de son imagination, de l'éclat et de l'harmonie de sa +poësie, du choix de la pureté de ses expressions. Il mourut a Toulouse +en 1739, et plusiers poëtes ornerent de fleurs son tombeau."--Nouv. +Dict. Hist. + +[6] La Comtesse de la Riviere, thus alludes to this convent: "Madame de +Sevigné a pour ce monastere une vénération qui est audelà de toute +expression; elle assure qu'on n'approche pas de ce lieu sans sentir au +dedans de soi une onction divine." + +[7] The late Sir U. Price, pays a very high compliment to this exquisite +poem, in p. 31, vol. i. of his Essays, terming it full of the justest +taste, and most brilliant imagery. + +[8] In the Earl of Harcourt's garden, at Nuneham, in Oxfordshire, (laid +out in some parts under the eye and fine taste of the poet Mason), on a +bust of Rousseau are these lines: + + Say, is thy honest heart to virtue warm? + Can genius animate thy feeling breast? + Approach, behold this venerable form; + 'Tis Rousseau! let thy bosom speak the rest. + +There are attractive pages in this little volume of the Viscount's, +which would have interested either Shenstone, or Gainsborough, +particularly the pages 59, 143, 145, and 146, (of Mr. Malthus's +translation), for in these pages "we feel all the truth and energy of +nature." A short extract from p. 131, will enable the reader to judge of +the writer's style:--"When the cool evening sheds her soft and +delightful tints, and leads on the hours of pleasure and repose, then is +the universal reign of sublime harmony. It is at this happy moment that +Claude has caught the tender colouring, the enchanting calm, which +equally attaches the heart and the eyes; it is then that the fancy +wanders with tranquillity over distant scenes. Masses of trees through +which the light penetrates, and under whose foliage winds a pleasant +path; meadows, whose mild verdure is still softened by the transparent +shades of the evening; crystal waters which reflect all the near objects +in their pure surface; mellow tints, and distances of blue vapour; such +are in general the objects best suited to a western exposure. The sun, +before he leaves the horizon, seems to blend earth and sky, and it is +from sky that evening views receive their greatest beauty. The +imagination dwells with delight upon the exquisite variety of soft and +pleasing colours, which embellishes the clouds and the distant country, +in this peaceful hour of enjoyment and contemplation." + +[9] He was enthusiastically devoted to the cultivation of his gardens, +which exhibited enchanting scenery, umbrageous walks, and magnificent +water-falls. When thus breathing the pure air of rural life, the +blood-stained monsters of 1793 seized him in his garden, and led him to +the scaffold. "He heard unmoved his own sentence, but the condemnation +of his daughter and grand-daughter, tore his heart: the thought of +seeing two weak and helpless creatures perish, shook his fortitude. +Being taken back to the _Conciergerie_, his courage returned, and he +exhorted his children to prepare for death. When the fatal bell rung, he +recovered all his wonted cheerfulness; having paid to nature the tribute +of feeling, he desired to give his children an example of magnanimity; +his looks exhibited the sublime serenity of virtue, and taught them to +view death undismayed. When he ascended the cart, he conversed with his +children, unaffected by the clamours of the ferocious populace; and on +arriving at the foot of the scaffold, took a last and solemn farewell of +his children; immediately after he was dismissed into eternity." + +Sir Walter Scott, after noticing "the wild and squalid features" of +Marat, who "lay concealed in some obscure garret or cellar, among his +cut-throats, until a storm appeared, when, like a bird of ill omen, his +death-screech was again heard," thus states the death of another of the +murderers of the Malherbes:--"Robespierre, in an unsuccessful attempt to +shoot himself, had only inflicted a horrible _fracture on his +under-jaw_. In this situation they were found like wolves in their lair, +foul with blood, mutilated, despairing, and yet not able to die. +Robespierre lay on a table in an anti-room, his head supported by a deal +box, and his hideous countenance half-hidden by a bloody and dirty cloth +bound round his shattered chin. As the fatal cars passed to the +guillotine, those who filled them, but especially Robespierre, were +overwhelmed with execrations. The nature of his previous wound, from +which the cloth had never been removed till the executioner _tore_ it +off, added to the torture of the sufferer. The shattered jaw dropped, +and the wretch yelled aloud, to the horror of the spectators. A mask +taken from that dreadful head was long exhibited in different nations of +Europe, and appalled the spectator by its ugliness, and the mixture of +fiendish expression with that of bodily agony." + +Mons. Malherbes loved to relate an answer made to him by a common +fellow, during his stay at Paris, when he was obliged to go four times +every day to the prison of the Temple, to attend the king: his extreme +age did not allow him to walk, and he was compelled to take a carriage. +One day, particularly, when the weather was intensely severe, he +perceived, on coming out of the vehicle, that the driver was benumbed +with cold. "My friend," said Malherbes to him, in his naturally tender +manner, "you must be penetrated by the cold, and I am really sorry to +take you abroad in this bitter season."--"That's nothing, M. de +Malherbes; in such a cause as this, I'd travel to the world's end +without complaining."--"Yes, but your poor horses could not."--"Sir," +replied the honest coachman, "_my horses think as I do_." + +[10] I cannot pass by the name of Henry, without the recollection of +what an historian says of him: "L'Abbé Langlet du Fresnoy a publié +cinquante-neuf lettres de a bon Roi, dans sa nouvelle edition du Journal +de Henry III. on y remarque du feu de l'esprit, de l'imagination, et +sur-tout cette éloquence du coeur, qui plait tout dans un monarque.--On +l'exortoit à traiter avec rigueur quelques places de la Ligue, qu'il +avoit rédites par la force: _La satisfaction qu'on tire de la vengeance +ne dure qu'un moment_ (répondit ce prince généreuse) _mais celle qu'on +tire de la clemence est eternelle_. Plus on connoitre Henri, plus on +l'aimera, plus on l'admiriroet." + +[11] The king, knowing his fine taste for sculpture and painting, sent +him to Italy, and the Nouv. Dict. Hist. gives this anecdote: "La Pape +instruit de son mérite, voulut le voir, et lui donna une assez longue +audience, sur la fin de laquelle le Nôtre s'écria en s'adressant au +Pape: J'ai vu les plus grands hommes du monde, Votre Sainteté, et le Roi +mon maître. Il y a grande différence, dit le Pape; le Roi est un grand +prince victorieux, je suis un pauvre prêtre serviteur des serviteurs de +Dieu. Le Nôtre, charmé de cette réponse, oublia qui la lui faisoit, et +frappant sur l'épaule du Pape lui répondit à son tour: Mon Révérend +Pere, vous vous portez bien et vous enterrerez tout la Sacré College. Le +Pape, qui entendoit le François, rit du pronostic. Le Nôtre, charmé de +plus en plus de sa bonté, et de l'estime particuliere qu'il témoignoit +pour le Roi, se jeta au cou du Pape et l'embrassa. C'étoit au reste sa +coutume d'embrasser tous ceux qui publioient les louanges de Louis XIV., +et il embrassoit le Roi lui-même, toutes les fois que ce prince revenoit +de la campagne." + +[12] I will conclude by mentioning a justly celebrated man, who, it +seems was not over fond of his garden, though warmly attached both to +Boileau, and to Mad. de Sevigné,--I mean that most eloquent preacher +Bossuet, of whom a biographer, after stating that he was so absorbed in +the study of the ancient fathers of the church, "qu'il ne se permettoit +que des délassemens fort courts. Il ne se promênoit que rarement même +dans son jardin. Son jardinier lui dit un jour: _Si je plantois des +Saint Augustins, et des Saint Chrysostomes, vous les viendriez voir; +mais pour vos arbres, vous ne vous en souciez guere_." + +[13] Mr. Worlidge, who wrote during part of the reigns of Charles II. +and James II. judiciously observes, that "the glory of the French +palaces, often represented to our English eyes in sculpture, are adorned +_with their beauteous gardens before them_; which wanting, they would +seem without lustre or grandeur." + +[14] He was fined £30,000 for having taken a favourite of the king's, in +the very presence chamber, by the nose, for having insulted him, and +afterwards dragging him out of the room. + +[15] It was to this nobleman, that Addison addressed his elegant and +sublime epistle, after he had surveyed with the eyes and genius of a +classical poet, the monuments and heroic deeds of ancient Rome. + +[16] Lord Chesterfield thus speaks of this distinguished man:--"His +private life was stained by no vices, nor sullied by any meanness. His +eloquence was of every kind; but his invectives were terrible, and +uttered with such energy of diction and countenance, that he intimidated +those who were the most willing and the best able to encounter him." Sir +W. Chatham Trelawney used to observe of him, that it was impossible for +the members of the side opposed to him in the House of Commons to look +him in the face when he was warmed in debate: he seemed to bid them all +a haughty defiance. "For my own part," said Trelawney, "I never dared +cast my eyes towards his, for if I did, _they nailed me to the floor_." + +Smollet says, that he displayed "such irresistible energy of argument, +and such power of elocution, as struck his hearers with astonishment and +admiration. It flashed like the lightning of heaven against the +ministers and sons of corruption, blasting where it smote, and withering +the nerves of opposition; but his more substantial praise was founded +upon his disinterested integrity, his incorruptible heart, his +unconquerable spirit of independance, and his invariable attachment to +the interest and liberty of his country." Another biographer thus +mentions him:--"His elevated aspect commanded the awe and mute attention +of all who beheld him, whilst a certain grace in his manner, conscious +of all the dignities of his situation, of the solemn scene he acted in, +as well as his own exalted character, seemed to acknowledge and repay +the respect he received; his venerable form, bowed with infirmity and +age, but animated by a mind which nothing could subdue; his spirit +shining through him, arming his eye with lightning, and cloathing his +lips with thunder; or, if milder topics offered, harmonizing his +countenance in smiles, and his voice in softness, for the compass of his +powers was infinite. As no idea was too vast, no imagination too +sublime, for the grandeur and majesty of his manner; so no fancy was too +playful, nor any allusion too comic, for the ease and gaiety with which +he could accommodate to the occasion. But the character of his oratory +was dignity; this presided in every respect, even to his sallies of +pleasantry." + +[17] Sir Walter Scott's attachment to gardens, breaks out even in his +Life of Swift, where his fond enquiries have discovered the sequestered +and romantic garden of _Vanessa_, at Marley Abbey. + +[18] So thought Sir W. Raleigh; + + Sweet violets, love's paradise, that spread + Your gracious odours ... + Upon the gentle wing of some calm-breathing wind, + That plays amidst the plain. + +The lines in Twelfth Night we all recollect: + + That strain again;--it had a dying fall: + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south + That breathes upon a bank of _violets_, + Stealing and giving odour. + +That these flowers were the most favourite ones of Shakspeare, there can +be little doubt--Perditta fondly calls them + + ----sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes + Or Cytherea's breath. + +When Petrarch first saw Laura: "elle avail une robe verte, sa coleur +favorite, parsemée de _violettes_, la plus humble des fleurs."--Childe +Harold thus paints this flower: + + The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes + (Kiss'd by the breath of heaven) seems colour'd by its skies. + + + +[19] One almost fancies one perceives Lord Bacon's attachment to +gardens, or to rural affairs, even in the speech he made before the +nobility, when first taking his seat in the High Court of Chancery; he +hoped "that these same _brambles_ that _grow_ about justice, of needless +charge and expence, and all manner of exactions, might be rooted out;" +adding also, that immediate and "_fresh_ justice was the _sweetest_." +Mr. Mason, in a note to his English Garden, after paying a high +compliment to Lord Bacon's picturesque idea of a garden, thus concludes +that note:--"Such, when he descended to matters of more elegance (for, +when we speak of Lord Bacon, to treat of these was to descend,) were the +amazing powers of this universal genius." + +[20] Mr. Pope's delight in gardens, is visible even in the condensed +allusion he makes to them, in a letter to Mr. Digby; "I have been above +a month strolling about in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, from garden +to garden, but still returning to Lord Cobham's, with fresh +satisfaction. I should be sorry to see my Lady Scudamore's, till it has +had the full advantage of Lord Bathurst's improvements." + +[21] A biographer thus speaks of the Prince de Ligne: "Quand les rois se +reunirent a Vienne en 1814, ils se firent tous un devoir de l'accuellier +avec distinction, et furent enchanté de la vivacité de son esprit, et de +son intarissable gaieté, qui malgré ses infirmités et son grand âge, ne +l'avoit pasencore abandonné. Ses saillies, et ses bon mots etoiént comme +autrefois répétés pour tous." His generous heart thus speaks of the +abused and unfortunate Marie Antoinette:--"The breath of calumny has not +even respected the memory of the loveliest and best of women, of whose +spotless heart and irreproachable conduct, no one can bear stronger +evidence than I. Her soul was as pure as her face was fair; yet neither +virtue nor beauty could save the victim of sanguinary liberty." In +relating this (says his biographer), his voice faultered, and his eyes +were suffused with tears. He thus briefly states, with his usual humour +and vivacity, his conversation with Voltaire as to the garden at Ferney: + +_P. de L._--Monsieur, Monsieur, cela doit vous coupé beaucoup, quel +charmant jardin! + +_Volt._--Oh! mon jardinier est un bête: c'est moi meme qui ait fait +tout. + +_P. de L._--Je le croi. + +[22] Monsieur Thomas, in his eulogy of Descartes says, it should have +been pronounced at the foot of Newton's statue: or rather, Newton +himself should have been his panegyrist. Of this eulogy, Voltaire, in a +most handsome letter to Mons. Thomas, thus speaks:--"votre ouvrage +m'enchante d'un bout a l'autre, et Je vais le relire dès que J'aurai +dicté ma lettre." The sleep and expanding of flowers are most +interestingly reviewed by Mr. Loudon in p. 187 of his Encyclop., and by +M. V. H. de Thury, in the above discourse, a few pages preceding his +seducing description of the magnificent garden of M. de Boursault. + +So late ago as the year 1804 it was proposed at Avignon, to erect an +obelisk in memory of Petrarch, at Vaucluse: "il a été décidé, qu'on +l'élevera, vis-avis _l'ancien jardin_ de Petrache, lieu oû le lit de +sorgue forme un angle." + +[23] This garden (as Mr. Walpole observes) was planted by the poet, +enriched by him with the fairy gift of eternal summer. + +[24] Mr. Pope thus mentions the vines round this cave:-- + + Depending vines the shelving cavern skreen, + With purple clusters blushing through the green. + + + +[25] Nearly eight pages of Mr. Loudon's Encyclop. are devoted to a very +interesting research on the gardens of the Romans. Sir Joseph Banks has +a paper on the Forcing Houses of the Romans, with a list of Fruits +cultivated by them, now in our gardens, in vol. 1 of the _Hort. Trans._ + +[26] Dr. Pulteney gives a list of several manuscripts in the Bodleian +Library, the writers of which are unknown, and the dates not precisely +determined, but supposed to have been written, if not prior to the +invention of printing, at least before the introduction of that art into +England. I select the two following.-- + +No. 2543. De Arboribus, Aromatis, et _Floribus_. + +No. 2562. Glossarium Latino-anglicum Arborum, _Fructuum_, Frugam, &c. + +And he states the following from Bib. S. Petri Cant:-- + +No. 1695. Notabilia de Vegetabilibus, et Plantis. + +Dr. Pulteney observes, that the above list might have been considerably +extended, but that it would have unnecessarily swelled the article he +was then writing. + +The Nouv. Dict. Hist. mentions a personage whose attachment to his +garden, and one of whose motives for cultivating that garden, does not +deserve a notice:--"Attale III. Roi de Pergame, fils de Stratonice, +soùlla la thrône en répandant le sang de ses amis et de sea parens. Il +abandonna ensuite le soìn de ses affaires _pour s'occuper entirement de +son jardin_. Il y cultivoit des poisons, tels que l'aconit et la ciguë, +qu'il envoyoit quelque fois en présent a ses amis. Il mourut 133 ans +avant Jesus Christ." + +[27] To have completed the various contrasting vicissitudes of this poor +_Suffolk_ farmer's life, he should have added to his other employments, +those of another _Suffolk_ man, the late W. Lomax, who had been +_grave-digger_ at the pleasant town of Bury St. Edmund's, for thirty-six +years, and who, also, for a longer period than thirty-six years, had +been a _morrice-dancer_ at all the elections for that borough. + +[28] Gerarde, speaking of good sorts of apples and pears, thus mentions +the above named _Pointer_:--"Master Richard Pointer has them all growing +in his ground at Twickenham, near London, who is a most cunning and +curious grafter and planter of all manner of rare fruits; and also in +the ground of an excellent grafter and painful planter, Master Henry +Bunbury, of Touthil-street, near unto Westminster; and likewise in the +ground of a diligent and most affectionate lover of plants, Master +Warner, neere Horsely Down, by London; and in divers other grounds about +London." + +[29] The fate of this poor man reminds one of what is related of +Corregio:--"He received from the mean canons of Parma, for his +Assumption of the Virgin, the small pittance of two hundred livres, and +it was paid him in copper. He hastened with the money to his starving +family; but as he had six or eight miles to travel from Parma, the +weight of his burden, and the heat of the climate, added to the +oppression of his breaking heart, a pleurisy attacked him, which, in +three days, terminated his existence and his sorrows in his fortieth +year." + +If one could discover a portrait of either of the authors mentioned in +the foregoing list, one might, I think, inscribe under each of such +portraits, these verses: + + Ce pourtrait et maint liure + Par le peintre et l'escrit, + Feront reuoir et viure + Ta face et ton esprit. + +They are inscribed under an ancient portrait, done in 1555, which Mr. +Dibdin has preserved in his account of Caen, and which he thus +introduces: "As we love to be made acquainted with the _persons_ of +those from whom we have received instruction and pleasure, so take, +gentle reader, a representation of Bourgueville." + +[30] "Mr. John Parkinson, an apothecary of this city, (yet living, and +labouring for the common good,) in the year 1629, set forth a work by +the name of _Paradisus Terrestris_, wherein he gives the figures of all +such plants as are preserved in gardens, for the beauty of their +flowers, in use in meats or sauces; and also an orchard for all trees +bearing fruit, and such shrubs as for their beauty are kept in orchards +and gardens, with the ordering, planting, and preserving of all these. +In this work he hath not superficially handled these things, but +accurately descended to the very varieties in each species, wherefore I +have now and then referred my reader, addicted to these delights, to +this work, especially in flowers and fruits, wherein I was loth to spend +too much time, especially seeing I could adde nothing to what he had +done upon that subject before." + +[31] "Mr. Hartlib (says Worlidge) tells you of the benefits of _orchard +fruits_, that they afford curious walks for pleasure, food for cattle in +the spring, summer, and winter, (meaning under their shadow,) fewel for +the fire, shade for the heat, physick for the sick, refreshment for the +sound, plenty of food for man, and that not of the worst, and drink also +of the best." + +Milton also in the above Tractate thus speaks:--"In those vernal seasons +of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and +sullenness against nature, not to go out and see her riches, and partake +in her rejoicing with heaven and earth." + +[32] In the above tract of Dr. Beale's, he thus breaks out in praise of +the Orchards of this _deep and rich_ county:--"From the greatest person +to the poorest cottager, all habitations are encompassed with orchards, +and gardens, and in most places our hedges are enriched with rows of +fruit trees, pears or apples. All our villages, and generally all our +highways, (all our vales being thick set with rows of villages), are in +the spring time sweetened and beautified with the blossomed trees, which +continue their changeable varieties of ornament, till (in the end of +autumn), they fill our garners with pleasant fruit, and our cellars with +rich and winy liquors. Orchards, being the pride of our county, do not +only sweeten, but also purify the ambient air, which I conceive to +conduce very much to the constant health and long lives for which our +county hath always been famous. We do commonly devise a shadowy walk +from our gardens, through our orchards (which is the richest, sweetest, +and most embellished grove) into our coppice woods, or timber woods." +Dr. Beale does not praise the whole of their land. He describes some as +"starvy, chapt, and cheany, as the basest land upon the Welch +mountains." He makes amends, however, for this, for he describes the +nags bred on their high grounds, as very different from our present +hackney-coach horses; they "are airey and sinewy, full of spirits and +vigour, in shape like the _barbe_, they rid ground, and gather courage +and delight in their own speed." + +[33] A Lady Gerard is mentioned in two letters of Mr. Pope, to W. +Fortescue, Esq. They have no date to them. They appear in Polwhele's +History of Devonshire. "I have just received a note from Mrs. Blount, +that she and Lady Gerard will dine here to-day." And "Lady Gerard was to +see Chiswick Gardens (as I imagined) and therefore forced to go from +hence by five; it was a mortification to Mrs. Blount to go, when there +was a hope of seeing you and Mr. Fortescue." There are three more +letters, without date, to Martha Blount, written from the Wells at +Bristol, and from Stowe, in which Pope says, "I have no more room but to +give Lady Gerard my hearty services." And "once more my services to Lady +Gerard." "I desire you will write a post-letter to my man John, at what +time you would have the pine apples, to send to Lady Gerard." Probably +Martha Blount's Lady Gerard was a descendant of Rea's. + +[34] A most curious account of the _Tulipomania_, or rage for tulips, +formerly in Holland, may be seen in Phillips's Flora Historica. + +[35] Perhaps no one more truly painted rich pastoral scenes than Isaac +Walton. This occurs in many, many pages of his delightful _Angler_. The +late ardently gifted, and most justly lamented Sir Humphry Davy too, in +his _Salmonia_, has fondly caught the charms of Walton's pages. His pen +riots in the wild, the beautiful, the sweet, delicious scenery of +nature:--"how delightful in the early spring, to wander forth by some +clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the +odours of the bank, perfumed by the violet, and enamelled as it were +with the primrose, and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below +the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of +the bee." Mr. Worlidge, in his Systema Agriculturæ, says, that the +delights in angling "rouzes up the ingenious early in the spring +mornings, that they have the benefit of the sweet and pleasant morning +air, which many through sluggishness enjoy not; so that health (the +greatest treasure that mortals enjoy) and pleasure, go hand in hand in +this exercise. What can be more said of it, than that the most +ingenious, most use it." Mr. Whately, in his usual charming style, thus +paints the spring:--"Whatever tends to animate the scene, accords with +the season, which is full of youth and vigour, fresh and sprightly, +brightened by the verdure of the herbage, and the woods, gay with +blossoms, and flowers, and enlivened by the songs of the birds in all +their variety, from the rude joy of the skylark, to the delicacy of the +nightingale." + +[36] Tusser seems somewhat of Meager's opinion:-- + + Sow peason and beans, in the wane of the moon, + Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon; + That they with the planet may rest and arise, + And flourish, with bearing most plentifull wise. + +The celebrated Quintinye says, "I solemnly declare, that after a +diligent observation of the moon's changes for thirty years together, +and an enquiry whether they had any influence in gardening, the +affirmative of which has been so long established among us, I perceive +it was no weightier than old wives' tales." + +The moon (says Mr. Mavor) having an influence on the tides and the +weather, she was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature. + +There is a treatise, by _Claude Gadrois_, on the _Influences des +Astres_. Surely this merits perusal, when the Nouv. Dict. Hist. thus +speaks of him:--"Il étoit ami du célebre Arnauld et méritoit de l'etre +par _la justesse de son esprit_ et la puretè de ses moeurs, par la bonté +de son caractere et par la droiture de son coeur." + +The following wise experiment occurs in an ancient book on husbandry; +but if the two parties there mentioned had lived with Leonard Meager, +one must not do him the injustice of supposing he would have been a +convert to their opinion:--"_Archibius_ is said to have written (or sent +word most likely) to _Antiochus_, king of _Syria_, that if you bury a +speckled toad inclosed in an earthen pot, in the middle of your garden, +the same will be defended from all hurtful weather and tempests." +Meager, however, is kept in countenance by Mr. Worlidge, who, in his +chapter of Prognostics, at the end of his interesting Systemæ +Agriculturæ, actually states that + +If dog's guts rumble and make a noise, it presageth rain or snow. + +The cat, by washing her face, and putting her foot over her ear, +foreshews rain. + +The squeaking and skipping up and down of mice and rats, portend rain. + +Leonard Meager thus notices a nurseryman of his day:--"Here follows a +catalogue of divers sorts of fruits, which I had of my very loving +friend, Captain Garrle, dwelling at the great nursery between +Spittlefields and Whitechapel; a very eminent and ingenious nurseryman." +Perhaps this is the same nurseryman that Rea, in his _Pomona_, mentions. +He says (after naming some excellent pear-trees) "they may be had out of +the nurseries about London, especially those of Mr. Daniel Stepping, and +Mr. Leonard _Girle_, who will faithfully furnish such as desire these, +or any other kinds of rare fruit-trees, of whose fidelity in the +delivery of right kinds, I have had long experience in divers +particulars, a virtue not common to men of that profession." At this +period, the space between Spittlefields and Whitechapel, must have +consisted of gardens, and perhaps superb country houses. The Earl of +Devonshire had a fine house and garden near Petticoat-lane. Sir W. +Raleigh had one near Mile-end. Some one (I forget the author) says, "On +both sides of this lane (Petticoat-lane) were anciently hedges and rows +of elm trees, and the pleasantness of the neighbouring fields induced +several gentlemen to build their houses here; among whom was the Spanish +Ambassador, whom Strype supposes was Gondamour." Gondamour was the +person to please whom (or rather that James might the more easily marry +his son Charles to one of the daughters of Spain, with her immense +fortune) this weak monarch was urged to sacrifice the life of Raleigh. + +Within one's own memory, it is painful to reflect, on the many pleasant +fields, neat paddocks, rural walks, and gardens, (breathing pure air) +that surrounded this metropolis for miles, and miles, and which are now +ill exchanged for an immense number of new streets, many of them the +receptacles only of smoke and unhealthiness. + +[37] These lines are from him, at whose death (says Sir W. Scott in his +generous and glowing eulogy) we were stunned "by one of those +death-notes which are peeled at intervals, as from an archangel's +trumpet"--they are from "that mighty genius which walked amongst men as +something superior to ordinary mortality, and whose powers were beheld +with wonder, and something approaching to terror, as if we knew not +whether they were of good or evil"--they are from "that noble tree which +will never more bear fruit, or blossom! which has been cut down in its +strength, and the past is all that remains to us of Byron: whose +excellences will _now_ be universally acknowledged, and his faults (let +us hope and believe) not remembered in his epitaph." His "deep +transported mind" (to apply Milton's words to him) thus continues his +moralization:-- + + What are the hopes of man? old Egypt's king + CHEOPS, erected the first pyramid, + And largest; thinking it was just the thing + To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid; + + + + But somebody or other rummaging, + Burglariously broke his coffin's lid: + Let not a monument give you, or me, hopes, + Since not a pinch of dust remains of CHEOPS. + +The Quarterly Review, in reviewing Light's Travels, observes, that +"Cheops employed three hundred and sixty thousand of his subjects for +twenty years in raising this pyramid, or pile of stones, equal in weight +to six millions of tons; and to render his precious dust more secure, +the narrow chamber was made accessible only by small intricate passages, +obstructed by stones of an enormous weight, and so carefully closed, +externally, as not to be perceptible. Yet how vain are all the +precautions of man! Not a bone was left of Cheops, either in the stone +coffin, or in the vault, when Shaw entered the gloomy chamber." Sir +Walter Scott himself, has justly received many eulogies. Perhaps none +more heart-felt, than the effusion delivered at a late Celtic meeting, +by that eloquent and honest lawyer, the present Lord Chief Justice of +the Court of Exchequer, in Scotland, which was received by long, loud, +and continued applause. + +[38] John Bauhine wrote a Treatise in 1591, De Plantis à Divis sanctisve +nomen habentibus. + +Their Preface to the above Vol. ii. has this observation: "Plants, when +taken from the places whence they derive their extraction, and planted +in others of different qualities, _betray such fondness for their native +earth_, that with great difficulty they are brought to thrive in +another; and in this it is that the florist's art consists; for _to +humour each plant_ with the soil, the sun, the shade, the degrees of +dryness or moisture, and the neighbourhood it delights in, (for there is +a natural antipathy between some plants, insomuch that they will not +thrive near one another) are things not easily attainable, but by a +length of study and application." + +[39] What these ruffles and lashes were, I know not. Perhaps the words +of Johnson may apply to them:-- + + Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, + Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart. + This mournful truth is every where confess'd, + Slow rises worth, by poverty oppress'd. + + + +[40] Barnaby Gooche, in his Chapter on Gardens, calls the sun "the +captaine and authour of the other lights, _the very soule of the +world_." + +[41] A translation of De Lille's garden thus pleads:-- + + Oh! by those shades, beneath whose evening bowers + The village dancers tripp'd the frolic hours; + By those deep tufts that show'd your fathers' tombs, + Spare, ye profane, their venerable glooms! + To violate their sacred age, beware, + Which e'en the awe-struck hand of time doth spare. + + + +[42] Mr. Whateley observes, that "The whole range of nature is open to +him, (the landscape gardener) from the parterre to the forest; and +whatever is agreeable to the senses, or the imagination, he may +appropriate to the spot he is to improve; it is a part of his business +to collect into one place, the delights which are generally dispersed +through different species of country." + +[43] At page 24 he says, "_Cato_, one of the most celebrated writers on +Husbandry and Gardening among the Romans, (who, as appears by his +Introduction, took the model of his precepts from the _Greeks_) in his +excellent Treatise _De Re Rustica_, has given so great an encomium on +the excellence and uses of this good plant, (the Brocoli) not only as to +its goodness in eating, but also in physick and pharmacy, that makes it +esteemed one of the best plants either the field or garden produces." + +[44] His Chapter on the Water-Works of the Ancient Romans, French, &c. +is charmingly written. Those who delight in the formation of rivers, +fountains, falls of water, or cascades, as decorations to their gardens, +may inspect this ingenious man's Hydrostatics. And another specimen of +his genius may be seen in the magnificent iron gateway now remaining at +_Leeswood_, near Mold, and of which a print is given in Pugh's _Cambria +Depicta_. + +[45] In this volume is a letter written to Switzer, from his "ingenious +friend Mr. Thomas Knowlton, Gardener to the Earl of Burlington, who, on +account of his own industry, and the opportunity he has had of being +educated under the late learned Dr. Sherrard, claims a very advanced +place in the list of Botanists." This letter is dated Lansborough, July, +1728. I insert part of this letter:--"I hope, Sir, you will excuse the +freedom I take in giving you my opinion, having always had a respect for +your endeavours in Husbandry and Gardening, ever since you commenced an +author. Your introduction to, and manner of handling those beloved +subjects, (the sale of which I have endeavoured to promote) is in great +esteem with me; being (as I think) the most useful of any that have been +wrote on these useful subjects. If on any subject, you shall hereafter +revise or write farther upon, any communication of mine will be useful +or serviceable to you, I shall be very ready to do it. I heartily wish +you success in whatever you undertake, as it tends to a publick good." +Dr. Pulteney says of Knowlton, "His zeal for English Botany was +uncommonly great, and recommended him successfully to the learned +Botanists of this country. From Sir Hans Sloane, he received eminent +civilities." + +[46] few short notices occur of names formerly eminent in +gardening:--"My late ingenious and laborious friend, Mr. _Oram_, +Nurseryman, of Brompton-lane." + +"That great virtuoso and encourager of gardening, Mr. Secretary Johnson, +at Twickenham." + +"Their beautiful aspects in pots, (the nonpareil) and the middle of a +desert, has been the glory of one of the most generous encouragers of +gardening this age has produced, I mean the Right Honourable the Lord +Castlemain." + +"The late noble and most publick spirited encourager of arts and +sciences, especially gardening, his Grace the Duke of Montague, at +Ditton." + +"The Elrouge Nectarine is also a native of our own, the name being the +reverse of _Gourle_, a famous Nurseryman at Hogsden, in King Charles the +Second's time, by whom it was raised." + +And speaking of the successful cultivation of vines in the open air, he +refers to the garden of a Mr. _Rigaud_, near _Swallow-street_; and to +another great cultivator of the vine, "of whose friendship I have proof, +the Rev. Mr. _Only_, of _Cottesmore_, in Rutland, some time since +deceased; one of the most curious lovers of gardening that this or any +other age has produced." This gentleman, in 1765, published "An Account +of the care taken in most civilized nations for the relief of the poor, +more particularly in the time of scarcity and distress;" 4to. 1s. Davis. +I believe the same gentleman also published, in 1765, a Treatise "Of the +Price of Wheat." + +[47] Lord Bacon says, "Because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in +the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of musick) than in +the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know +what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air." The Prince +de Ligne says, + + Je ne veux point avoir l'orgueilleuse tulipe; + _L'odorat en jardin_ est mon premier principe. + +The translation of _Spectacle de la Nature_, a very pleasing work, +observes that "Flowers are not only intended to beautify the earth with +their shining colours, but the greatest part of them, in order to render +the entertainment more exquisite, diffuse a fragrance that perfumes all +the air around us; and it should seem as if they were solicitous to +_reserve their odours for the evening and morn_, when walking is most +agreeable; but their sweets are very faint during the heat of the day, +when we visit them the least." + +I must again trespass on the pages of the great Bacon, by briefly +shewing the _natural wildness_ he wishes to introduce into one part of +his garden:--"thickets, made only of sweet-briar and honeysuckle, and +some wild vine amongst, and the ground set with violets, strawberries, +and primroses; for these are sweet, and prosper in the shade." + +The dew or pearly drops that one sees in a morning on cowslips, remind +one of what is said of Mignon:--"Ses ouvrages sont précieux par l'art +avec le quel il représentoit les fleurs dans tout leur éclat, et les +fruits avec toute leur fraicheur. La rosée et les goutes d'eau qu'elle +répand sur les fleurs, sont si bien imitées dans ses tableaux, qu'on est +tenté d'y porter la main." It is said also that in the works of +Van-Huysum, "le velouté des fruits, l'éclat des fleurs, le transparent +de la rosée, tout enchante dans les tableaux de ce peintre admirable." +Sir U. Price observes of this latter painter, "that nature herself is +hardly more soft and delicate in her most delicate productions, than the +copies of them by Van-Huysum." Two flower pieces by this painter, sold +at the Houghton sale for 1200_l._ + +In the pieces of _Bos_, a Flemish painter, the dew was represented so +much like nature, as to deserve universal approbation. + +Bernazzano painted strawberries on a wall so naturally, that, we are +told, the plaster was torn down by the frequent pecking of peacocks. + +Amidst these celebrated painters, these admiring judges of nature, let +us not forget our never-dying Hogarth; his piercing eye even discovers +itself in his letter to Mr. Ellis, the naturalist:--"As for your pretty +little seed cups, or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the +pleasure nature seems to take in superadding an elegance of form to most +of her works, wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are all the +inventions of art!" + +[48] The very numerous works of this indefatigable writer, embracing so +many subjects, make one think he must have been as careful of his time, +as the celebrated friend of the witty _Boileau_: the humane, benevolent, +and dignified Chancellor _Aguesseau_, who finding that his wife always +kept him waiting an hour after the dinner bell had rung, resolved to +devote this time to writing a work on Jurisprudence. He put this project +in execution, and in the course of time, produced a quarto work in four +thick volumes. + +[49] This chesnut tree is thus noticed in a newspaper of August, +1829:--"The celebrated chesnut tree, the property of Lord Ducie, at +Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, is the oldest, if not the +largest tree in England, having this year attained the age of 1002 +years, and being 52 feet in circumference, and yet retains so much +vigour, that it bore nuts so lately as two years ago, from which young +trees are now being raised." + +[50] There is an 8vo. published in 1717, called the "Lady's Recreation," +by _Charles_ Evelyn, Esq. There are two letters subjoined, written to +this author by the Rev. Mr. Lawrence. From page 103, 105, 129 and 141, +one should think this was not the son of the famous Mr. Evelyn. I now +find, that Mr. Lawrence, in the Preface to his Kalendar, inserted at the +end of his fifth edition, assures the public, "that the book called the +Lady's Recreation could not be published by my approbation, because it +was never seen by me till it was in print; besides, I have reason to +think it was an artifice of the booksellers to impose upon the world, +under the borrowed name of Evelyn." + +[51] This sermon was preached for several years by Dr. Colin Milne, by +whom it was published in 1799, and afterwards by the Rev. Mr. Ellis, of +Merchant Taylors' School. Mr. Ellis, in his History of Shoreditch, gives +us much information as to this bequest; in which the handsome conduct of +Mr. Denne, a former vicar, is not the least interesting. Mr. Nichols, in +vol. iii. of his Literary Anecdotes, bears testimony to Dr. Denne's +feeling towards the poor and distressed, and to his attachment to +literary pursuits. Three of these Sermons are in the second volume of +"Thirty Sermons on Moral and Religious Subjects, by the Rev. W. Jones;" +2 vols. 8vo. 1790, price 16s. There are other editions of Mr. Jones's +Sermons, viz. Rev. W. Jones, of Nayland, his Theological, Philosophical, +and Miscellaneous Works, with Life, 12 vols. 8vo. _neat_, 7_l._ 7_s._ +6_d._ 1801. Sermons by the late Rev. William Jones, of Nayland, Suffolk: +Chaplain to the Right Rev. George Horne, Bishop of Norwich; 1 vol. 8vo. +with Portrait of the Author, price 12_s._ Dove, St. John's Square, +Printer, 1828. "Of this faithful servant of God, (the Rev. W. Jones) I +can speak both from personal knowledge and from his writings. He was a +man of quick penetration, of extensive learning, and the soundest piety; +and he had, beyond any other man I ever knew, the talent of writing upon +the deepest subjects to the plainest understandings."--_Bishop Horsley's +Charges._ The Rev. Samuel Ayscough, of the British Museum, began, in +1790, to preach this annual sermon, and, I believe, continued it for +fourteen years. + +[52] Mr. Ellis, of _Little Gaddesden_, in his Practical Farmer, 8vo. +1732, thus speaks on this subject:--"What a charming sight is a large +tree in blossom, and after that, when loaden with fruit, enough perhaps +to make a hogshead of cyder or perry! A scene of beauty, hopes, and +profit, and all! It may be on less than two feet diameter of ground. And +above all, what matter of contemplation does it afford, when we let our +thoughts descend to a single kernel of an apple or pear? And again, how +heightened, on the beholding so great a bulk raised and preserved, by +Omnipotent Power, from so small a body." + +[53] The thought of planting the sides of public roads, was first +suggested by the great _Sully_. + +[54] Mr. Weston, in his introduction to these Tracts, seems to have +pleasure in recording the following anecdote of La Quintinye, from +Harte's Essay. "The famous La Quintinie, director of the royal gardens +in France, obtained from Louis XIV. an abbacy for his son, in one of the +remote provinces; and going soon afterwards to make the abbot a visit, +(who was not then settled in his apartments) he was entertained and +lodged by a neighbouring gentleman with great friendliness and +hospitality. La Quintinie, as was natural, soon examined the gardens of +his host; he found the situation beautiful, and the soil excellent; but +every thing was rude, savage, and neglected: nature had done much, art +nothing. The guest, delighted with his friendly reception, took leave +with regret, and some months after, sent one of the king's gardeners, +and four under-gardeners, to the gentleman, with strict command to +accept of no gratuity. They took possession of his little inclosure the +moment they arrived, and having digged it many times over, they manured, +replanted it, and left one of their number behind them, as a settled +servant in the family. This young man was soon solicited to assist the +neighbourhood, and filled their kitchen gardens and fruit gardens with +the _best_ productions of every kind, which are preserved and propagated +to this very hour." + +It is pleasing to enquire who Mons. de la Quintinye was. _Perrault_, in +his _Hommes Illustres_, has given his Life, and Portrait. Dr. Gibson, in +his Fruit Gardener, calls him "truly an original author;" and further +pays him high compliments. + +The Noveau Dict. Hist. thus speaks of him:--"Il vint à Paris se faire +recevoir avocat. Une éloquence naturelle, cultivée avec soìn, le fit +briller dans le Barreau, et lui consilà l'estime des premiers +magistrais. Quoi qu'il eut peu de temps dont il pût disposer, il en +trouvoit néanmoins suffisament pour satisfaire la passion qu'il avoit +pour l'agriculture. Il augmenta ses connoissances sur le jardinage, dans +un voyage qu'il fit en Italie. De retour à Paris, il se livra tout +entier à l'agriculture, et fit un grand nombre d'experiences curieuses +et utiles. Le grand Prince de _Conde_, qui aimoit l'agriculture, prenoit +une extréme plaisir à s'entretenir avec lui; et Charles II. Roi +d'Angleterre lui offrit une pension considérable pour l'attacher à la +culture de ses Jardins, mais il refusa ses offres avantageuses par +l'amour qu'il avoit pour sa patrie, et trouva en France les recompenses +due à son mérite. On a de lui un excellent livre, intitulé 'Instructions +pour les Jardins Fruitiers et Potagers, Paris, 1725, 2 tom. 4to.' _et +plusieurs Lettres sur la meme matiere_." Switzer, in his History of +Gardening, says, that in Mons. de la Quintinye's "Two Voyages into +England, he gained considerable friendship with several lords with whom +he kept correspondence by letters till his death, and these letters, +says Perrault, are all _printed at London_." And he afterwards says, +speaking of Lord Capel's garden at Kew, "the greatest advance made by +him herein, was the bringing over several sorts of fruits from France; +and this noble lord we may suppose to be one that held for many years a +correspondence with Mons. de la Quintinye." Such letters on such +correspondence if ever printed, must be worth perusal. + +[55] Lamoignon de Malherbes (that excellent man) had naturalized a vast +number of foreign trees, and at the age of eighty-four, saw every where, +in France, (as Duleuze observes) plants of his own introduction. + +The old Earl of _Tweedale_, in the reign of Charles II. and his +immediate successor, planted more than six thousand acres, in Scotland, +with fir trees. In a Tour through Scotland, in 1753, it mentions, that +"The county of Aberdeen is noted for its timber, having in it upwards of +five millions of fir trees, besides vast numbers of other kinds, planted +within these seventy years, by the gentry at and about their seats." + +Mr. Marshall, in his "Planting and Rural Ornament," states, that "In +1792, his Grace the Duke of Athol (we speak from the highest authority) +was possessed of a thousand larch trees, then growing on his estates of +Dunkeld and Blair only, of not less than two to four tons of timber +each; and had, at that time, a million larches, of different sizes, +rising rapidly on his estate." + +The zeal for planting in Scotland, of late years, has been stimulated by +the writings of James Anderson, and Lord Kames. + +It is pleasing to transcribe the following paragraph from a newspaper of +the year 1819:--"Sir Watkin Williams Wynn has planted, within the last +five years, on the mountainous lands in the vicinity of Llangollen, +situated from 1200 to 1400 feet above the level of the sea, 80,000 oaks, +63,000 Spanish chesnuts, 102,000 spruce firs, 110,000 Scotch firs, +90,000 larches, 30,000 wych elms, 35,000 mountain elms, 80,000 ash, and +40,000 sycamores, all of which are, at this time, in a healthy and +thriving condition." It is impossible, on this subject, to avoid paying +a grateful respect to the memory of that bright ornament of our church, +and literature, the late Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, whose extensive +plantations, near Ambleside, have long since enriched that part. The +late Richard Crawshay (surpassed by no being during the whole course of +his very long life, for either integrity or generosity) assured the +present writer, that during an early period of Dr. Watson's planting, he +offered him, on the security of his note of hand only, and to be repaid +at his own entire convenience, ten thousand pounds, and that he (with +grateful thanks to Mr. Crawshay) refused it. + +[56] How widely different has the liberal and classic mind of Dr. Alison +viewed the rich pages of Mr. Whateley, in his deep and learned Essays on +Taste, first published nearly twenty years after Mr. Whateley's decease. +One regrets that there is no Portrait of Mr. Whateley. Of Dr. Alison, +there is a masterly one by Sir Henry Raeburn, admirably engraved by W. +Walker, of Edinburgh, in 1823. Perhaps it is one of the finest Portraits +of the present day. One is happy to perceive marks of health expressed +in his intellectually striking countenance. + +[57] In Biographical Anecdotes, 3 vols. 8vo. appears a correspondence in +London, with Dr. Franklin, and William Whateley, and Joseph Whateley, in +1774. This relates to a duel with Mr. Temple, by a brother of Thomas +Whateley. In some of the Lives of Dr. Franklin, it appears, that +inflammatory and ill-judged letters were written by George Hutchinson, +and others, to _Thomas_ Whateley, Esq. _private Secretary to Lord +Grenville_, respecting some disturbances in America, concerning Lord +Grenville's Stamp Act. On the death of Thomas, these letters were placed +in the hands of Dr. Franklin, whose duty, as agent to the colony, caused +him to transmit them to Boston. A quarrel arose between William Whateley +and Mr. Temple, as to which of them gave up those letters, and a duel +was fought. Dr. Franklin immediately cleared both those gentlemen from +all imputation. Of the celebrated interview in the council chamber, +between Mr. Wedderburn and Dr. Franklin, an account is given by Dr. +Priestley, in vol. xv. page 1. of the Monthly Magazine, and which candid +account entirely acquits Dr. Franklin from having deserved the rancorous +political acrimony of Mr. Wedderburn, whose intemperate language is +fully related in some of the Lives of Dr. Franklin, and in his Life, +published and sold by G. Nicholson, _Stourport_, 12mo. price 9d. and +which also includes Dr. Priestley's account. + +Lord Chatham spoke of Franklin in the highest strain of panegyric, when +adverting, in the year 1777, to his dissuasive arguments against the +American war. + +William Whateley was administrator of the goods and chattels of his +brother Thomas, who, of course, died without a will. + +In vol. ii. of Seward's Biog. Lit. and Political Tracts, the nineteenth +chapter consists of his account of two _Political_ Tracts, by Thomas +Whateley, Esq. and he thus concludes this chapter:--"Mr. Whateley also +wrote a tract on laying out pleasure grounds." In vol. iii. is an +account of the quarrel and duel with Mr. Temple and one of the brothers. +It appears that Thomas Whateley died in June, 1772, and left two +brothers, William and Joseph. Thomas is called "Mr. Secretary Whately." + +Debrett published "Scarce Tracts," in 4 vols. 8vo. In vol. i. is one +called "The Budget," by D. Hartley, Esq. This same volume contains a +reply to this, viz. "Remarks on the Budget, by Thomas Whateley, Esq. +Secretary to the Treasury." There is also in vol. ii. another tract by +Thomas Whateley, Esq. entitled "Considerations on the Trade and Finances +of the Kingdom." These two pamphlets, upon subjects so very different +from the alluring one on landscape gardening, and his unfinished one on +Shakspeare, convinces us, what a powerful writer he would have been, had +his life been longer spared. + +[58] The reader will be amply gratified by perusing page 158 of the late +Sir U. Price's well known Letter to Mr. Repton, as well as Mr. Morris's +Observations on Water, as regards Ornamental Scenery; inserted in the +Gardener's Magazine for May, 1827. Mr. Whateley's distinction between a +river, a rivulet, and a rill, form, perhaps, five of the most seductive +pages of his book. Our own Shakspeare's imagery on this subject, should +not be overlooked:-- + + The current that with gentle murmur glides, + Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage; + But when his fair course is not hindered, + He makes sweet music with the enamelled stones, + Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge + He overtaketh in his pilgrimage: + And so by many winding nooks he strays + With willing sport to the wild ocean. + + + +[59] The benevolent mind of the marquis shines even in his concluding +chapter; for he there wishes "to bring us back to a true taste for +beautiful nature--to more humane and salutary regulations of the +country--to produce the _moral_ landscapes which delight the mind. His +view of the good mother, seeing her children playing round her at their +cottage, near the common, thus "endearing her home, and making even the +air she breathed more delightful to her, make these sort of commons, to +me, the most delightful of _English gardens_. The dwellings of the happy +and peaceful husbandmen would soon rise up in the midst of compact +farms. Can there exist a more delightful habitation for man, than a neat +farm-house in the centre of a pleasing landscape? There avoiding disease +and lassitude, useless expence, the waste of land in large and dismal +parks, and above all, by preventing misery, and promoting happiness, we +shall indeed have gained the prize of having united the agreeable with +the useful. Perhaps, when every folly is exhausted, there will come a +time, in which men will be so far enlightened as to prefer the real +pleasures of nature to vanity and chimera." + +[60] Perhaps it may gratify those who seek for health, by their +attachment to gardens, to note the age that some of our English +horticulturists have attained to:--Parkinson died at about 78; +Tradescant, the father, died an old man; Switzer, about 80; Sir Thomas +Browne died at 77; Evelyn, at 86; Dr. Beale, at 80; Jacob Bobart, at 85; +Collinson, at 75; a son of Dr. Lawrence (equally fond of gardens as his +father) at 86; Bishop Compton, at 81; Bridgman, at an advanced age; +Knowlton, gardener to Lord Burlington, at 90; Miller, at 80; James Lee, +at an advanced age; Lord Kames, at 86; Abercrombie, at 80; the Rev. Mr. +Gilpin, at 80; Duncan, a gardener, upwards of 90; Hunter, who published +_Sylva_, at 86; Speechley, at 86; Horace Walpole, at 80; Mr. Bates, the +celebrated and ancient horticulturist of High Wickham, who died there in +December, 1819, at the great age of 89; Marshall, at an advanced age; +Sir Jos. Banks, at 77; Joseph Cradock, at 85; James Dickson, at 89; Dr. +Andrew Duncan, at 83; and Sir U. Price, at 83. Mr. Loudon, at page 1063 +of his Encyclop. inform us, that a market garden, and nursery, near +Parson's Green, had been, for upwards of two centuries, occupied by a +family of the name of Rench; that one of them (who instituted the first +annual exhibition of flowers) died at the age of ninety-nine years, +having had thirty-three children; and that his son (mentioned by +Collinson, as famous for forest trees) introduced the moss-rose, planted +the elm trees now growing in the Bird-cage Walk, St. James's Park, from +trees reared in his own nursery, married two wives, had thirty-five +children, and died in 1783, in the same room in which he was born, at +the age of a hundred and one years. Reflecting on the great age of some +of the above, reminds me of what a "Journal Encyclopédique" said of +Lestiboudois, another horticulturist and botanist, who died at Lille, at +the age of ninety, and who (for even almost in our ashes _live their +wonted fires_) gave lectures in the very last year of his life. "When he +had (says an ancient friend of his) but few hours more to live, he +ordered snow-drops, violets, and crocuses, to be brought to his bed, and +compared them with the figures in Tournefort. His whole existence had +been consecrated to the good of the public, and to the alleviation of +misery; thus he looked forward to his dissolution with a tranquillity of +soul that can only result from a life of rectitude; he never acquired a +fortune; and left no other inheritance to his children, but integrity +and virtue." + +[61] About eighty years previous to Hyll's Treatise on Bees, Rucellai, +an Italian of distinction, who aspired to a cardinal's hat, and who +laboured with zeal and taste (I am copying from De Sismondi's View of +the Literature of the South of Europe) to render Italian poetry +classical, or a pure imitation of the ancients, published his most +celebrated poem on Bees. "It receives (says De Sismondi) a particular +interest from the real fondness which Rucellai seems to have entertained +for these creatures. There is something so sincere in his respect for +their virgin purity, and in his admiration of the order of their +government, that he inspires us with real interest for them. All his +descriptions are full of life and truth." + +[62] Ben Jonson, in his _Discourses_, gives the following eulogy on this +illustrious author:--"No member of his speech but consisted of his own +graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. +He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his +devotion: no man had their affections more in his power; the fear of +every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end." Mr. Loudon, +when treating on the study of plants, observes, that "This wonderful +philosopher explored and developed the true foundations of human +knowledge, with a sagacity and penetration unparalleled in the history +of mankind." What Clement VIII. applied to the eight books of Hooker's +Ecclesiastical Polity, may well apply to the writings of Bacon:--"there +is no learning that this man hath not searched into. His books will get +reverence by age, for there is in them such seeds of eternity, that they +will continue till the last fire shall devour all learning." Monsieur +Thomas, in his Eulogy of Descartes, says, "Bacon explored every path of +human knowledge, he sat in judgment on past ages, and anticipated those +that were to come." The reader will be gratified by inspecting the +second volume of Mr. Malone's publication of Aubrey's Letters, in the +Bodleian Library, as well as the richly decorated and entertaining +Beauties of England and Wales, and Pennant's Tour from Chester to +London, for some curious notices of the ancient mansion, garden, and +orchard, at Gorhambury. + +[63] The reader will be amply gratified by Mr. Johnson's review of the +general state of horticulture at this period, in his History of English +Gardening, and with the zeal with which he records the attachment of +James I. and Charles, to this science; and where, in a subsequent +chapter, he glances on the progress of our Botany, and proudly twines +round the brows of the modest, but immortal, Ray, a most deserved and +generous wreath. + +[64] I subjoin a few extracts from the first book of his English +Husbandman, 4to. 1635:--"A garden is so profitable, necessary, and such +an ornament and grace to every house and housekeeper, that the +dwelling-place is lame and maimed if it want that goodly limbe, and +beauty. I do not wonder either at the worke of art, or nature, when I +behold in a goodly, rich and fertill soyle, a garden adorned with all +the delights and delicacies which are within man's understanding, +because the naturall goodnesse of the earth (which not enduring to bee +idle) will bring forth whatsoever is cast into her; but when I behold +upon a barren, dry, and dejected earth, such as the Peake-hills, where a +man may behold snow all summer, or on the East-mores, whose best herbage +is nothing but mosse, and iron-stone, in such a place, I say, to behold +a delicate, rich, and fruitful garden, it shewes great worthinesse in +the owner, and infinite art and industry in the workeman, and makes mee +both admire and love the begetters of such excellencies." + +And again,--"For the situation of the garden-plot for pleasure, you +shall understand, that it must ever bee placed so neare unto the +dwelling-house as it is possible, both because the eye of the owner may +be a guard and support from inconveniences, as all that the especial +roomes and prospects of the house may be adorned, perfumed, and inriched +with the delicate proportions, odoriferous smells, and wholesome airs +which shall ascend and vaporate from the same." + +He then gives a variety of cuts of knots and mazes, and labyrinths, of +which he observes, that "many other adornations and beautifyings there +are, which belong to the setting forth of a curious garden, but for as +much as none are more rare or more esteemed than these I have set down, +being the best ornaments of the best gardens of this kingdome, I think +them tastes sufficient for every husbandman or other of better quality, +which delighteth in the beauty, and well trimming of his ground." He +thus remarks:--"as in the composition of a delicate woman, the grace of +her cheeke is the mixture of red and white, the wonder of her eye blacke +and white, and the beauty of her hand blew and white, any of which is +not said to be beautifull if it consist of single or simple colours; and +so in these walkes or alleyes the all greene, nor the all yellow cannot +be said to bee most beautifull, but the greene and yellow, (that is to +say, the untroade grasse, and the well knit gravell) being equally mixt, +give the eye both luster and delight beyond all comparison." + +His description of the following flower is singular: "_The Crowne +Emperiall_, is, of all flowers, both forraigne and home-bred, the +delicatest, and strangest: it hath the true shape of an imperiall +crowne, and will be of divers colours, according to the art of the +gardener. In the middest of the flower you shall see a round pearle +stand, in proportion, colour, and orientnesse, like a true naturall +pearle, only it is of a soft liquid substance: this pearle, if you shake +the flower never so violently, will not fall off, neyther if you let it +continue never so long, will it eyther encrease or diminish in the +bignesse, but remaineth all one: yet if with your finger you take and +wipe it away, in less than an hour after you shall have another arise in +the same place, and of the same bignesse. This pearle, if you taste it +upon your tongue, is pleasant, and sweet like honey: this flower when +the sunne ariseth, you shall see it looke directly to the east, with the +stalk bent lowe thereunto, and as the sunne ariseth higher and higher, +so the flower will likewise ascend, and when the sunne is come into the +meridian or noone poynt, which is directly over it, then will it stand +upright upon the stalke, and looke directly upward, and as the sunne +declineth, so will it likewise decline, and at the sunne setting looke +directly to the west only." + +His mention of another flower is attractive:--"Now for your _Wall +Gilliflower_, it delighteth in hard rubbish, limy, and stony grounds, +whence it commeth they covet most to grow upon walls, pavements, and +such like barraine places. It may be sowen in any moneth or season, for +it is a seed of that hardness, that it makes no difference betwixt +winter and summer, but will flourish in both equally, and beareth his +flowers all the yeere, whence it comes that the husbandman preserves it +most in his _bee-garden_, for it is _wondrous sweet_, and affordeth much +honey. It would be sowen in very small quantity, for after it hath once +taken roote, it will naturally of itself overspread much ground, and +hardly ever after be rooted out. It is of itselfe of so exceeding a +strong, and _sweet smell_, that it cannot be forced to take any other, +and therefore is ever preserved in its owne nature." + +[65] Mr. Loudon, in his Encycl. of Gardening, fondly reviews the taste +for flowers which pervaded most ranks during the time of Elizabeth, and +Evelyn. + +The _Spectacle de la Nature_, of which we have a translation in 1740, +has a richly diffuse chapter on flowers. I here transcribe a small part +thereof:-- + +_Prior._ "The beauty of flowers never fails to inspire us with joy; and +when we have sufficiently examined the fairest, we are sensible they are +only proper to refresh the sight; and, indeed, the prospect they afford +is so touching, and we experience their power to be so effectual, that +the generality of those arts which are ambitious to please, seem most +successful when they borrow their assistance. Sculpture imitates them in +its softest ornaments; architecture bestows the embellishments of leaves +and festoons on those columns and fronts, which would otherwise be too +naked. The richest embroideries are little more than foliage and +flowers; the most magnificent silks are almost covered with these +charming forms, and are thought beautiful, in proportion as they +resemble the lively tinge of natural flowers. + +"These have always been the symbols, or representations of joy; they +were formerly the inseparable ornaments of feasts, and are still +introduced with applause, toward the close of our entertainments, when +they are brought in with the fruit, to enliven the festival that begins +to languish. And they are so peculiarly adapted to scenes of pleasure, +that they are always considered as inconsistent with mourning. Decency, +informed by nature, never admits them into those places where tears and +affliction are predominant. + +_Countess._ "The festivals in the country are never celebrated without +garlands, and the entertainments of the polite are ushered in by a +flower. If the winter denies them that gratification, they have recourse +to art. A young bride, in all the magnificence of her nuptial array, +would imagine she wanted a necessary part of her ornaments, if she did +not improve them with a sprig of flowers. A queen, amidst the greatest +solemnities, though she is covered with the jewels of the crown, has an +inclination to this rural ornament; she is not satisfied with mere +grandeur and majesty, but is desirous of assuming an air of softness and +gaiety, by the mediation of flowers. + +_Prior._ "Religion itself, with all its simplicity and abstraction, and +amidst the abhorrence it professes to theatrical pomp, which rather +tends to dissipate the heart, than to inspire it with a due reverence +for sacred mysteries, and a sensibility of human wants, permits some of +its festivals to be celebrated with boughs, and chaplets of flowers." + +[66] In his Diary is the following entry:--"1658, 27 Jan. After six fits +of an ague, died my son Richard, five years and three days old onely, +but, at that tender age, a prodigy for witt and understanding; for +beauty of body, a very angel; for endowment of mind, of incredible and +rare hopes. He was all life, all prettinesse. What shall I say of his +frequent pathetical ejaculations uttered of himselfe: _Sweete Jesus, +save me, deliver me, pardon my sins, let thine angels receive me!_ So +early knowledge, so much piety and perfection! Such a child I never saw! +for such a child I blesse God in whose bosome he is!" + +Nanteuil's portrait is prefixed to his _Sylva_, 1664; and a fine copy of +the same, by Bartolozzi, is prefixed to Hunter's _Sylva_. Worlidge +engraved a fine portrait of him, prefixed to his _Sculptura_. Gaywood +engraved his portrait for the translation of _Lucretius_. In Walpole's +Anecdotes is his portrait, by Bannerman. + +[67] In "A Picturesque Promenade round Dorking," are selected many +interesting particulars of Mr. Evelyn. + +[68] Essex lost his head for having said that Elizabeth grew old and +cankered, and that her mind was as crooked as her carcase. Perhaps the +beauty of Mary galled Elizabeth. + +The Quarterly Review of July, 1828, thus remarks:--"When Elizabeth's +wrinkles waxed many, it is reported that an unfortunate master of the +Mint incurred disgrace, by a too faithful shilling; the die was broken, +and only one mutilated impression is now in existence. Her maids of +honour took the hint, and were thenceforth careful that no fragment of a +looking glass should remain in any room of the palace. In fact, the +lion-hearted lady had not heart to look herself in the face for the last +twenty years of her life." + +It seems that Elizabeth was fond of executions. She loved Essex, of all +men, best; and yet the same axe which murdered Anne Bulleyn, was used to +revenge herself on him. The bloody task took three strokes, which so +enraged the multitude, (who loved Essex) that they would have torn the +executioner to pieces, had not the soldiers prevented them. Mr. Hutton, +in his "Journey to London," observes, that "their vengeance ought to +have been directed against the person who caused him to use it." What +her reflections were on these two bloody acts when on her death-bed, we +scarcely know. A modern writer on horticulture, nearly concludes a very +pleasing work, by enumerating (with slight historical notices) the +several plants cultivated in our gardens. He thus concludes his account +of one:--"Queen Elizabeth, in her last illness, eat little but Succory +Pottage." Mr. Loudon says it is used "as a fodder for cattle." The +French call it Chicoree _sauvage_. Her taste must have been something +like her heart. Poor Mary eat no supper the night previous to _her_ last +illness. Had it been possible for Elizabeth to have read those pages of +Robertson, which paint the long succession of calamities which befel +Mary, and the insolence and brutality she received from Darnley, and +which so eloquently plead for her frailties, perhaps even these pages +would not have softened her bloody disposition, which she seems to have +inherited from that insolent monster, her father. "Mary's sufferings +(says this enchanting historian) exceed, both in degree and duration, +those tragical distresses which fancy has feigned, to excite sorrow and +commiseration; and while we survey them, we are apt altogether to forget +her frailties; we think of her faults with less indignation, and approve +of our tears as if they were shed for a person who had attained much +nearer to pure virtue. With regard to the queen's person, all +contemporary authors agree in ascribing to Mary the utmost beauty of +countenance, and elegance of shape, of which the human form is capable. +Her hair was black, though, according to the fashion of that age, she +frequently borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a +dark grey; her complexion was exquisitely fine, and her hands and arms +remarkably delicate, both as to shape and colour. Her stature was of an +height that rose to the majestic. She danced, she walked, and she rode +with equal grace. She sung, and played upon the lute with uncommon +skill." + +[69] I will merely give this brief extract as one out of many of great +force and beauty, from his _Salmonia_:--"If we look with wonder upon the +great remains of human works, such as the columns of Palmyra, broken in +the midst of the desert, the temples of Pæstum, beautiful in the decay +of twenty centuries, or the mutilated fragments of Greek sculpture in +the Acropolis of Athens, or in our own Museum, as proofs of the genius +of artists, and power and riches of nations now past away, with how much +deeper feeling of admiration must we consider those grand monuments of +nature, which mark the revolutions of the globe; continents broken into +islands; one land produced, another destroyed; the bottom of the ocean +become a fertile soil; whole races of animals extinct; and the bones and +exuviæ of one class covered with the remains of another, and upon the +graves of past generations--the marble or rocky tomb, as it were, of a +former animated world--new generations rising, and order and harmony +established, and a system of life and beauty produced, as it were, out +of chaos and death; proving the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, of +the GREAT CAUSE OF ALL BEING!" I must trespass on my reader, by again +quoting from _Salmonia_:--"I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in +others; not genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what +would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should +prefer _a firm religious belief_ to every other blessing; for it makes +life a discipline of goodness--creates new hopes, when all earthly hopes +vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the +most gorgeous of lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption +and decay calls up beauty and divinity: makes an instrument of torture +and of shame the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and, far above all +combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of +palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of +everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom, +decay, annihilation, and despair!" + +[70] In this delightful essay, he says, "the most exquisite delights of +sense are pursued, in the contrivance and plantation of gardens, which, +with fruits, flowers, shades, fountains, and the music of birds that +frequent such happy places, seem to furnish all the pleasures of the +several senses." + +[71] Mr. Johnson, in his History of English Gardening, admirably +confirms this conflagration argument, by quoting the opinion or +testimony of the celebrated Goëthe. + +[72] To this interesting subject is devoted, a part of Mr. Loudon's +concise and luminous review "Of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of +Gardening in the British Isles;" being chapter iv. of his Encyclopædia. + +[73] Perhaps there are few pages that more awfully paint the sacredness +of this spot, than page 36 in the fifth edition of Dr. Alison's Essays +on Taste. + +[74] I do not mean to apply to the hospitable table of this reverend +gentleman, the lines of Peter Pindar:-- + + One cut from _venison_, to the heart can speak, + Stronger than ten quotations from the _Greek_. + + + +[75] I cannot prevent myself from quoting a very small portion of the +animated address of another clergyman, the Rev. J. G. Morris, as +chairman to the Wakefield Horticultural Society. I am certain each one +of my readers will blame me for not having inserted the whole of this +eloquent appeal. I copy it from the Gardener's Magazine for August, +1828:--"Conscious that I possessed no qualifications to fit me for the +task, and feeling that it ill became me to assume it, as I am as yet +nearly a stranger amongst you; aware, too, that I should be surrounded +by individuals so much more eligible, inasmuch as they are eminently +gifted with botanical science and practical knowledge, the result of +their horticultural pursuits and facilities, of which I am quite devoid; +I wished and begged to decline the proffered honour. It appears, +however, that my entreaties are not listened to, and that your kindness +and partiality persist in selecting for your chairman one so inadequate +to the situation. Gentlemen, I take the chair with much diffidence; but +I will presume to say, that, in the absence of other qualities, I bring +with me a passionate love for plants and flowers, for the sweets and +beauties of the garden, and no inconsiderable fondness for its more +substantial productions. Gardening, as a recreation and relaxation from +severer studies and more important avocations, has exquisite charms for +me; and I am ready, with old _Gerarde_, to confess, that 'the principal +delight is in the mind, singularly enriched with the knowledge of these +visible things; setting forth to us the invisible wisdom and admirable +workmanship of Almighty God.' With such predilections, you will easily +give me credit, gentlemen, for participating with this assembly in the +sincerest wishes for the complete and permanent establishment of a +society amongst us, whose object shall be to promote, in the surrounding +district, the introduction of different sorts of flowers, culinary +vegetables, fruits, improved culture and management generally, and _a +taste_ for botany as a science. These are pursuits, gentlemen, combining +at once health and innocence, pleasure and utility. Wakefield and its +vicinity appear to possess facilities for the accomplishment of such a +project, inferior to no district within this great palatinate, indeed, +little inferior to any in the kingdom. The country is beautiful and +charmingly varied, and, from the diversity of soil, suited to varied +productions; the whole thickly interspersed with seats and villas of +persons of opulence, possessing their conservatories, hot-houses, and +stoves, their orchards, flower and kitchen gardens: whilst few towns can +boast (as Wakefield can) of so many gardens within its enclosure, +cultivated with so much assiduity and skill, so much taste and deserved +success. Seven years ago, I had the honour to originate a similar +project in Preston, in Lancashire, and with the happiest success. In +that borough, possessing far less advantages than Wakefield offers, a +horticultural society was established, which, in its four annual +meetings, assembles all the rank and fashion of a circuit of more than +ten miles, and numbers more than a hundred and twenty subscribers to its +funds. Those who have not witnessed the interesting sight, can form but +a faint idea of the animating scene which is presented in a spacious and +handsome room, tastefully adorned with the choicest exotics from various +conservatories, and the more choice, because selected with a view to +competition: decorated with the varied beauties of the parterre, vieing +with each other in fragrance, hue, and delicacy of texture; whilst the +tables groan under the weight of delicious fruits and rare vegetables in +endless variety, the joint produce of hot-houses, stoves, orchards, and +kitchen gardens. Figure to yourselves, gentlemen, this elysium, graced +by some hundreds of our fair countrywomen, an absolute galaxy of +animated beauty, and that music lends its aid, and you will agree with +me that a more fascinating treat could hardly be devised. New flowers, +new fruits, recent varieties of those of long standing and established +character for excellence, are thus introduced, in lieu of those whose +inferiority is no longer doubtful. New culinary vegetables, or, from +superior treatment or mode of culture, rendered more salubrious and of +exquisite flavour, will load the stalls of our market-gardeners. I call +upon you, then, gentlemen, for your zealous support. Say not that you +have no gardens, or that your gardens are inconsiderable, or that you +are no cultivators; you are all interested in having good and delicious +fruits, nutritious and delicate culinary vegetables, and in procuring +them at a reasonable rate, which will be the results of improved and +successful cultivation. At our various exhibitions, let each contribute +that in which he excels, and our object will be attained. Gentlemen, I +fear I have trespassed too long on your patience and indulgence. I will +just urge one more motive for your warm support of our intended society; +it is this: that, by diffusing a love of plants and gardening, you will +materially contribute to the comfort and happiness of the laborious +classes; for the pleasure taken in such pursuits forms an +unexceptionable relaxation from the toils of business, and every hour +thus spent is subtracted from the ale-house and other haunts of idleness +and dissipation." + +[76] In the grounds of _Hagley_, were once inscribed these lines:-- + + Here Pope!--ah, never must that tow'ring mind + To his loved haunts, or dearer friend return; + What art, what friendships! oh! what fame resign'd: + In yonder glade I trace his mournful urn. + + + +[77] At Holm-Lacey is preserved a sketch, in crayons, by Pope, (when on +a visit there) of Lord Strafford by Vandyke. It is well known that Pope +painted Betterton in oil colours, and gave it to Lord Mansfield. The +noble lord regretted the loss of this memorial, when his house was +consumed at the time of the disgraceful and ignorant riots. + +[78] Sir Joshua Reynolds used to tell the following anecdote relative to +Pope.--"When Reynolds was a young man, he was present at an auction of +very scarce pictures, which attracted a great crowd of _connoisseurs_ +and others; when, in the moment of a very interesting piece being put +up, Mr. Pope entered the room. All was in an instant, from a scene of +confusion and bustle, a dead calm. The auctioneer, as if by instinct, +suspended his hammer. The audience, to an individual, as if by the same +impulse, rose up to receive the poet; and did not resume their seats +till he had reached the upper end of the room." + +A similar honour was paid to the Abbé Raynal, whose reputation was such, +that the Speaker of the House of Commons observing _him_ among the +spectators, suspended the business of the house till he had seen the +eloquent historian placed in a more commodious seat. It is painful to +relate, that this powerful writer, and good man, who narrowly escaped +the guillotine, expired in a garret, in extreme poverty, at the age of +eighty-four; the only property he left being one assignat of fifty +livres, worth not threepence in ready money. Perhaps one might have +applied the following anecdote (told by Dr. Drake in his Literary Hours) +to Abbé Raynal:--"A respectable character, having long figured in the +gay world at Paris, was at length compelled to live in an obscure +retreat in that city, the victim of severe misfortunes. He was so +indigent, that he subsisted only on an allowance from the parish. Every +week bread was sent to him sufficient for his support, and yet at +length, he demanded more. On this the curate sent for him. 'Do you live +alone?' said the curate. 'With whom, sir, is it possible I should live? +I am wretched, since I thus solicit charity, and am abandoned by all the +world.' 'But, sir, if you live alone, why do you ask for more bread than +is sufficient for yourself?' The other at last, with great reluctance, +confessed that he had a dog. The curate desired him to observe, that he +was only the distributor of the bread that belonged to the poor, and +that it was absolutely necessary that he should dispose of his dog. 'Ah, +sir!' exclaimed the poor man, weeping, 'and if I lose my dog, who is +there then to love me?' The good pastor took his purse, and giving it to +him, 'take this, sir,' said he; 'this is mine--this I _can_ give.'" + +[79] How applicable are Gray's lines to Lord Byron himself, now! + + Can storied urn or animated bust + Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? + Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, + Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death? + Perhaps in this _neglected_ spot is laid + Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire!-- + + + +[80] Mr. Bowles, in some stanzas written since the death of Byron, thus +feelingly apostrophizes his noble spirit:-- + + But I will bid th' Arcadian cypress wave, + Pluck the green laurel from Peneus' side, + And pray thy spirit may such quiet have + That not one thought unkind be murmur'd o'er thy grave. + + + +[81] Perhaps one motive (no doubt there were numberless others) that +_might_ have induced Mr. Mason thus to honour the memory of Pope, + + ----_letting cold tears bedew his silver urn_, + +_might_ have been from the recollection of his attachment to what +equally charmed Mr. Mason--the love of gardens. + +[82] I know not whether Milton's portrait should have been here noticed. +In a note to the eloquent, the talented, and graceful "Discours +d'Installation, prononcé par M. le Vicomte H. de Thury, président de la +Société d'Horticulture de Paris," it is beautifully observed, that +"Personne n'a mieux décrit ce delicieux jardin que Milton. Les Anglais +regardent comme le type de tous les jardins paysagers, et pittoresques, +la description que fait Milton du jardin d'Eden, et qui atteste que se +sublime genié ètoit également poëte, peintre et paysagiste." As I have +sought for the portraits of Mr. George Mason, and of Mr. Whateley, and +have noticed those of Launcelot Brown, and Mr. Walpole, Mr. Cradock, M. +R. P. Knight and Sir U. Price, who were all _paysagists_; surely our +great and severe republican was one. + +The Prince de Ligne speaks thus of Milton:--"les vers enchanteurs de ce +Roi des poëtes, et des _jardiniers_. + +I do not know that every one will agree with Switzer in the concluding +part of what he says of Milton, in the History of Gardening, prefixed to +his Iconologia:--"But although things were in this terrible combustion, +we must not omit the famous Mr. John Milton, one of Cromwell's +Secretaries; who, by his excellent and never-to-be-equalled poem of +Paradise Lost, has particularly distinguished gardening, by taking that +for his theme; and shows, that though his eyes deprived him of the +benefit of seeing, yet his mind was wonderfully moved with the +philosophy, innocence, and beauty of this employ; his books, though +mixed with other subjects, being a kind of a philosophical body of +gardening, as well as divinity. Happy man! _had his pen been employed on +no other subject_." + +It must be needless reminding my reader, that Mr. Walpole's powerful pen +has taken care that our mighty poet, (who "on evil days, though fallen, +and with darkness and solitude compassed round,") shall not be +_defrauded of half his glory_. + +It is gratifying to remark, that an edition of Paradise Lost is now +announced for publication, in which the zeal of its spirited proprietors +has determined, that every word shall be printed in letters of gold. The +sanction of some of our most distinguished divines, and men of high +rank, evince the pride with which we all acknowledge the devout zeal and +mighty powers of the blind poet. + +[83] Mr. Garrick's fondness for ornamental gardening, induced him finely +to catch at this invention, in his inimitable performance of Lord +Chalkstone. + +[84] Dr. Pulteney relates this anecdote of Mr. Miller: "He was the only +person I ever knew who remembered to have seen Mr. Ray. I shall not +easily forget the pleasure that enlightened his countenance, it so +strongly expressed the _Virgilium tantum vidi_, when, in speaking of +that revered man, he related to me that incident of his youth." I regret +that Mr. Ray only meditated a work to have been entitled _Horti_ Angliæ. +Had he written it, I should have felt a singular pride in introducing +his valued name in the present imperfect volume. + +[85] The generous minded reader will be gratified by referring to the +kind tribute, paid to the memory of Shenstone, by Mr. Loudon, at p. 76 +of his Encyclopædia. Of this Encyclopædia, Mr. Johnson, in his History +of Gardening, thus speaks:--"Taken as a whole, it is the most complete +book of gardening ever published;"--and that, with the exception of +chymistry, "every art and science, at all illustrative of gardening, are +made to contribute their assistance." + +[86] In his "Unconnected Thoughts" he admires the _Oak_, for "its +majestic appearance, the rough grandeur of its bark, and the wide +protection of its branches: a large, branching, aged oak, is, perhaps, +the most venerable of all inanimate objects." + +[87] Tea was the favourite beverage of Dr. Johnson. When Hanway +pronounced his anathema against it, Johnson rose in defence of it, +declaring himself "in that article a hardened sinner, having for years +diluted my meals with the infusion of that fascinating plant; my +tea-kettle has had no time to cool; with tea I have solaced the midnight +hour, and with tea welcomed the morning." Mr. Pennant was a great lover +of tea; a hardy honest Welch parson, on hearing that he usually retired +in the afternoon to his summer-house to enjoy that beverage, was moved +with indignation, that any thing weaker than ale or wine should be drunk +there; and calling to mind the good hunting times of old, passionately +exclaimed, "his father would have scorned it." + +[88] Sir Uvedale thus expresses his own sensations when viewing some of +these plantations:--"The inside fully answers to the dreary appearance +of the outside; of all dismal scenes it seems to me the most likely for +a man to hang himself in; he would, however, find some difficulty in the +execution, for amidst the endless multitude of stems, there is rarely a +single side branch to which a rope could be fastened. The whole wood is +a collection of tall naked poles.... Even its gloom is without +solemnity; it is only dull and dismal; and what light there is, like +that of hell, + + _Serves only to discover scenes of woe, + Regions of sorrow, doleful shades._" + + + +[89] This observation confirms what Sir U. Price so pointedly enforces +throughout the whole of his causticly sportive letter to Mr. Repton: +"that the best landscape painters would be the best landscape gardeners, +were they to turn their minds to the practical part; consequently, a +study of their works, the most useful study to an improver."--And that +"Van Huysum would be a much better judge of the merits and defects of +the most dressed scene--of a mere flower garden,--than a gardener." + +[90] Mr. Browne was not an author; yet the title of the present volume +is "On the Portraits of English _Authors_ on Gardening." Neither was old +Bridgman nor Kent _authors_ on this subject; still I could not prevail +on myself to pass over such names in total silence. + +[91] Mr. Clive resided at Moreton-Say, near Market-Drayton. He was a +prebend of Westminster. Integrity marked every action of his life. In +his village, scarcely a poor man existed. His kindness and benevolence +to the poor, could only be equalled by his friendly hospitality and kind +feeling to the more affluent in his neighbourhood: + + _Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endeavour, + Follow thee up to joy and bliss for ever._ + +Miss Seward thus concludes one of her letters to him:--"I wish none were +permitted to enter the lists of criticism but those who feel poetic +beauty as keenly as yourself, and who have the same generous desire that +others should feel it." I mention Mr. Clive with gratitude, from a +recollection of kindnesses received from him at a very early period of +my life, and which were of such a nature, as could not fail to animate +the mind of a young man to studious exertions. Archdeacon Plimley (now +the truly venerable Archdeacon Corbet, and who has been so long an +honour to his native county), in his Agricultural Survey of Shropshire, +respectfully introduces Mr. Clive's name; and when he addressed his +charge to the diocese of Hereford, in 1793, one really cannot but apply +to Mr. Clive, what he so eloquently enforces in that charge to each +clergyman:--"to cultivate a pure spirit within their own bosoms; to be +in every instance the right-hand neighbour to each parishioner; their +private adviser, their public monitor, their example in christian +conduct, their joy in health, their consolation in sickness." In the +same vault with Mr. Archdeacon Clive, lies buried Robert Lord Clive, +conqueror of _Plassy_: on whose death appeared these extempore lines, by +a man of distinction, a friend to Lord Clive:-- + + Life's a surface, slippery, glassy, + Whereon tumbled Clive of Plassy; + All the wealth the east could give, + Brib'd not death to let him live: + There's no distinction in the grave + 'Twixt the nabob and the slave. + +His lordship's death, in 1774, was owing to the same cause which +hastened that of the most worthy of men, Sir Samuel Romilly--from +shattered and worn out nerves;--from severe study in the latter, and +from the burning climate of the east in the former. Had Lord Clive lived +a few years longer, he would have enriched the whole neighbourhood round +his native spot. His vigorous, ardently-gifted, and penetrating mind, +projected plantations and other improvements, that could only have been +conceived by such minds as Olivier de Serres, or by Sully, or by our own +Evelyn. He was in private life beloved. He was generous, social and +friendly; and if ever charity to the poor warmed the breast of any +mortal, it warmed that of Lord Clive. Few men had more kind affections +than Lord Clive. + +[92] The following passage from a favourite book of Dr. Darwin's, (the +System of Nature, by Linnæus) will well apply to that searching and +penetrating mind, which so strongly possessed him through life.--"How +small a part of the great works of nature is laid open to our eyes, and +how many things are going on in secret which we know nothing of! How +many things are there which this age first was acquainted with! How many +things that we are ignorant of will come to light when all memory of us +shall be no more! for nature does not at once reveal all her secrets. We +are apt to look on ourselves as already admitted into the sanctuary of +her temple; we are still only in the porch." How full of grace, of +tenderness, and passion, is that elegy, which he composed the night he +feared a life he so passionately loved (Mrs. Pole, of Radburn,) was in +imminent danger, and when he dreamed she was dead: + + Stretch'd on her sable bier, the grave beside, + A snow-white shroud her breathless bosom bound, + O'er her white brow the _mimic lace_ was tied, + And loves, and virtues, hung their garlands round. + + From these cold lips did softest accents flow? + Round that pale mouth did sweetest dimples play? + On this dull cheek the rose of beauty blow, + And those dim eyes diffuse celestial rays? + + Did this cold hand unasking want relieve, + Or wake the lyre to every rapturous sound? + How sad, for other's woes, this breast could heave! + How light this heart, for other's transport, bound! + + + +[93] It was at this period of his residence at Lichfield, that the +present writer heard him strongly enforce the cultivation of _papaver +somniferum_. What he may have also enforced to others, may possibly have +given rise to some of those ingenious papers on its cultivation, which +are inserted not only in the Transactions of the Society for the +Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; in other publications, +but in the first and fifth volumes of the Memoirs of the Caledonian +Horticultural Society. The papers of Mr. Ball and Mr. Jones, on its +cultivation, in the former of these transactions, are particularly +diffuse and valuable. They are fully noticed in Dr. Thornton's "Family +Herbal." The subjoined plate is a copy of that in the title page to +"_Opiologia_, ou traicté concernant le naturel proprietés, vraye +preparation, et seur vsage de l'opium," a favourite volume with Dr. +Darwin, printed at _la Haye_, 1614, 12mo. Dr. Darwin, in his Botanical +Garden, thus speaks of opium: "the finest opium is procured by wounding +the heads of large poppies with a three-edged knife, and tying +muscle-shells to them, to catch the drops. In small quantities it +exhilirates the mind, raises the passions, and invigorates the body; in +large ones, it is succeeded by intoxication, languor, stupor, and +death." + +[94] _Sterne_ mentions a traveller who always set out with the spleen +and jaundice,--"without one generous connection, or pleasurable anecdote +to tell of,--travelling straight on, looking neither to his right hand +or his left, lest love or pity should seduce him out of the road." Mr. +Loudon seems to be a very different kind of a traveller: for his +horticultural spirit and benevolent views, pervade almost every page of +his late tour through _Bavaria_. One envies his feelings, too, in +another rural excursion, through the romantic scenery of _Bury_, at Mr. +Barclay's, and of Mr. Hope's at _Deepdene_; and particularly when he +paints his own emotions on viewing the room of sculpture there. He even +could not, in October last, take his rural ride from _Edgware_ to _St. +Alban's_ without thus awakening in each traveller a love of gardens, and +giving this gentle hint to an honest landlord:--"A new inn, in the +outskirts of _St. Alban's_, in the _Dunstable_ road, has an ample +garden, not made the most of. Such a piece of ground, and a gardener of +taste, would give an inn, so situated, so great a superiority, that +_every one would be tempted to stop there_; but the garden of this +Boniface, exhibits but the beginning of a good idea." When travelling +along our English roads, his mind no doubt frequently reverts to those +road-side gardens in the Netherlands, which he thus happily adverts to +in p. 32 of his Encyclopædia: "The gardens of the cottagers in these +countries, are undoubtedly better managed and more productive than those +of any other country; no man who has a cottage is without a garden +attached; often small, but rendered useful to a poor family, by the high +degree of culture given to it." Linnæus, in his eloquent oration at +Upsal, enforces the pleasure of travelling in one's own country, through +its fields _and roads_. Mr. Heath, the zealous and affectionate +historian of Monmouth, in his account of that town and its romantic +neighbourhood, (published in 1804,) omits no opportunity of noticing the +many neat gardens, which add to the other rural charms of its rich +scenery, thus mentions another Boniface:--"The late Thomas Moxley, who +kept the public-house at Manson Cross, was a person that took great +delight in fruit-trees, and had a large piece of ground let him, for the +purpose of planting it with apple-trees; but his death (which followed +soon after) prevented the plan from being carried to the extent he +intended, though some of the land bears evidence of his zeal and +labour." Mr. Heath cannot even travel on the turnpike road, from +Monmouth to Hereford, without benevolently remarking, that "a number of +laborious families have erected small tenements, with a garden to each, +most of which are thickly planted with apple-trees, whose produce +considerably adds to the owner's support." + +[95] Of this celebrated biographer of Dr. Darwin (whose Verses to the +Memory of Mr. Garrick, and whose Monody on Captain Cook, will live as +long as our language is spoken,) Sir W. Scott thus describes his first +personal interview with:--"Miss Seward, when young, must have been +exquisitely beautiful; for, in advanced age, the regularity of her +features, the fire and expression of her countenance, gave her the +appearance of beauty, and almost of youth. Her eyes were auburn, of the +precise shade and hue of her hair, and possessed great expression. In +reciting, or in speaking with animation, they appeared to become darker; +and, as it were, to flash fire. I should have hesitated to state the +impression which this peculiarity made upon me at the time, had not my +observation been confirmed by that of the first actress of this or any +other age, with whom I lately happened to converse on our deceased +friend's expressive powers of countenance." + +[96] From one of these pleasing sermons I extract these few +lines:--"Among the most pleasing sights of a country village, is that of +a father and mother, followed by their family of different ages, issuing +from their little dwelling on a Sunday morning, as the bell tolls to +church. The children, with their ruddy, wholesome looks, are all neat +and clean. Their behaviour at church shews what an impression their +parents have given them of the holiness of the place, and of the duties +they have to perform. Though unregarded, as they return home, by their +richer neighbours, they carry back with them to their humble cottage the +blessing of God.--Pious parents! lead on your children from church to +heaven. You are in the right road. Your heavenly father sees your +hearts." + +[97] Mr. Cradock published in 8vo. in 1777, price 2s. 6d. an account of +some of the most remarkable places in North Wales. + +[98] Mons. de Voltaire was so charmed with the taste and talents, and +polite engaging manners of La Fage, that he paid him the following +compliment; which may very justly be applied to Mr. Cradock: + + _Il reçut deux presens des Dieux, + Les plus charmans qu'ils puissent faire; + L'un étoit le talent de plaire, + L'autre le secret d'être heureux._ + + + +[99] The Quarterly Review for April, 1821, observes, that "The total +number of exotics, introduced into this country, appears to be 11,970, +of which the first forty-seven species, including the orange, apricot, +pomegranate, &c. were introduced previously or during the reign of Henry +VIII., and no fewer than 6756 in the reign of George III. For this proud +accession to our exotic botany in the last century, the public are +chiefly indebted to Sir Joseph Banks, and Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, of +the Hammersmith nursery." + +[100] The invocation to this Vale, reminds one of Mr. Repton's +description:--"Downton Vale, near Ludlow, one of the most beautiful and +romantic valleys that the imagination can conceive. It is impossible by +description to convey an idea of its natural charms, or to do justice to +that taste which has displayed these charms to the greatest advantage, + + _With art clandestine, and conceal'd design._ + +A narrow, wild, and natural path, sometimes creeps under the beetling +rock, close by the margin of a mountain stream. It sometimes ascends to +an awful precipice, from whence the foaming waters are heard roaring in +the dark abyss below, or seen wildly dashing against its opposite banks; +while, in other places, the course of the river _Teme_ being impeded by +natural ledges of rock, the vale presents a calm, glassy mirror, that +reflects the surrounding foliage. The path, in various places, crosses +the water by bridges of the most romantic and contrasted forms; and, +branching in various directions, including some miles in length, is +occasionally varied and enriched by caves and cells, hovels, and covered +seats, or other buildings, in perfect harmony with the wild but pleasing +horrors of the scene." + +[101] Foxley, this far-famed seat of dignified and benevolent +retirement, has on many occasions become interesting. I will merely +mention one. It gave a peaceful asylum to Benjamin Stillingfleet, when +his mind was depressed by disappointment. The then owner, Robert Price, +Esq. and his mild and amiable lady, both kindly pressed him to become an +inmate of their domestic retreat, that his health might be restored, and +his mind calmed; and though he modestly refused being a constant +intruder, yet he took up his residence in a cottage near them, and +delighted to pass his leisure hours in their happy domestic circle, +"blending his studious pursuits, with rural occupations," and +particularly with gardening. No doubt, to this protecting kindness, may, +on this spot, have been imbibed his great veneration for Theophrastus; +and here he must have laid the foundation of those attainments, which, +during the future periods of his life, obtained for him the high +approbation of the justly celebrated Mrs. Montagu, who, in her letters, +speaks of "this invaluable friend," in the highest possible terms of +praise. In this peaceful and consoling retreat, was written his original +and masterly tribute to the talents of Xenophon; and here was first +kindled his deep enthusiastic zeal for the classic authors of antiquity; +and the materials for his then intended edition of Milton (who he says +equalled all the ancients whom he imitated; the sublimity of Homer, the +majesty of Sophocles, the softness of Theocritus, and the gaiety of +Anacreon,) enriched with parallel passages from holy writ, the classics, +and the early Italian poets; and here he composed his matchless treatise +on the power and principles of Tartini's music (for it seems Mr. Price +himself "was a master of the art.") Here too, most probably, he +sketched, or first gathered, his early memoranda towards his future +general history of husbandry, from the earliest ages of the world to his +own time; and fostered a devoted zeal for Linnæus, which produced that +spirited eulogium on him, which pervades the preface to his translation +of "Miscellaneous Tracts on Natural History." + +[102] Sir Uvedale, about fifty years ago, translated _Pausanias_ from +the Greek. One may judge of the feeling with which he dwelt on the pages +of this book, by what he says of that nation in vol. i. p. 65 of his +Essays, where he speaks of being struck with the extreme richness of +some of the windows of our cathedrals and ruined abbeys: "I hope it will +not be supposed, that by admiring the picturesque circumstances of the +Gothic, I mean to undervalue the symmetry and beauty of Grecian +buildings: whatever comes to us from the Greeks, has an irresistible +claim to our admiration; that distinguished people seized on the true +points both of beauty and grandeur in all the arts, and their +architecture has justly obtained the same high pre-eminence as their +sculpture, poetry, and eloquence." + +[103] On the pomp of devotion in our ancient abbeys, Mr. R. P. Knight +thus interests his readers, in the chapter "Of the Sublime and +Pathetic," in the Inquiry into the principles of Taste:--"Every person +who has attended the celebration of high mass, at any considerable +ecclesiastical establishment, must have felt how much the splendour and +magnificence of the Roman Catholic worship tends to exalt the spirit of +devotion, and to inspire the soul with rapture and enthusiasm. Not only +the impressive melody of the vocal and instrumental music, and the +imposing solemnity of the ceremonies, but the pomp and brilliancy of the +sacerdotal garments, and the rich and costly decorations of the altar, +raise the character of religion, and give it an air of dignity and +majesty unknown to any of the reformed churches." + +[104] In p. 130 and 179 of vol. ii. he thus adverts to the effects of +the levelling system of Launcelot Browne:--"From this influence of +fashion, and the particular influence of Mr. Browne, models of old +gardens are in this country still scarcer in nature than in painting; +and therefore what good parts there may be in such gardens, whether +proceeding from original design, or from the changes produced by time +and accident, can no longer be observed; and yet, from these specimens +of ancient art, however they may be condemned as old fashioned, many +hints might certainly be taken, and blended with such modern +improvements as really deserve the name."--"Were my arguments in favour +of many parts of the old style of gardening ever so convincing, the most +I could hope from them at present, would be, to produce _some caution_; +and to assist in preserving some of the few remains of old magnificence +that still exist, by making the owner less ready to listen to a +professor, whose interest it is to recommend total demolition." Mr. R. +P. Knight, in a note to his _landscape_, thus remarks on this subject: +"I remember a country clock-maker, who being employed to clean a more +complex machine than he had been accustomed to, very confidently took it +to pieces; but finding, when he came to put it together again, some +wheels of which he could not discover the use, very discreetly carried +them off in his pocket. The simple artifice of this prudent mechanic, +always recurs to my mind, when I observe the manner in which our modern +improvers repair and embellish old places; not knowing how to employ the +terraces, mounds, avenues, and other features which they find there, +they take them all away, and cover the places which they occupied with +turf. It is a short and easy method of proceeding; and if their +employers will be satisfied with it, they are not to be blamed for +persevering in it, as it may be executed by proxy, as well as in +person." + +Severely (and no doubt justly), as the too generally smooth and +monotonous system of Mr. Browne has been condemned, yet he must have had +great merit to have obtained the many encomiums he did obtain from some +of our first nobility and gentry. The _evil_ which he did in many of +their altered pleasure-grounds, _lives after him--the good is oft +interred in his grave_. + +[105] Mr. George Mason justly observes that "Nature's favourite haunts +are the school of gardening." + +[106] Dion. Chrysostom said of Xenophon, that "he had something of +witchcraft in his writings." It would not be too much to say the same of +this poet. + +THE END. + +_Printed by Lowe and Harvey, Playhouse Yard, Blackfriars._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Portraits of English Authors on +Gardening,, by Samuel Felton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING *** + +***** This file should be named 25773-8.txt or 25773-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/7/25773/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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