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Gardening,, by Samuel Felton
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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
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING ***
Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
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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._
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Gardening,, by Samuel Felton
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