Or helps th' ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale,
Or fcoops in circling theatres the Vale;

60

Calls in the Country, catches op'ning glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies fhades from fhades;
Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending Lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, defigns.

Still follow Sense, of ev'ry Art the Soul,
Parts anfw'ring parts shall slide into a whole,
Spontaneous beauties all around advance,
Start ev'n from Difficulty, ftrike from Chance;
Nature shall join you; Time shall make it grow
A Work to wonder at—perhaps a Srow.

65

70 Without it, proud Verfailles! thy glory falls; And Nero's Terraces defert their walls:

First the Genius of the place tells the waters, or only fimply gives directions: Then he helps th' ambitious hill, or is a fellowlabourer: Then again he scoops the circling Theatre, or works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rifing faft in our idea of dignity, he calls in the country, alluding to the orders of princes in their progrefs, when accustomed to display all their state and magnificence: His character then grows facred, he joins willing woods, a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the priesthood; 'till at length, he becomes a Divinity, and creates and prefides over the whole :

Now breaks, or now directs th' intending lines,

Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

Much in the fame manner as the plaftic Nature is fuppofed to do, in the work of human generation.

VER. 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire,

The vaft Parterres a thousand hands fhall make,
Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake:
Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, 75
You'll wish your hill or shelter'd feat again.
Ev'n in an ornament its place remark,
Nor in an Hermitage fet Dr. Clarke.

80

Behold Villario's ten-years toil complete ;
His Quincunx darkens, his Efpaliers meet;
The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite,
And ftrength of Shade contends with ftrength of
Light;

A waving Glow the bloomy beds difplay,
Blushing in bright diverfities of day,

With filver-quiv'ring rills mæander'd o'er

Enjoy them, you! Villario, can no more;
Tir'd of the scene Parterres and Fountains yield,
He finds at laft he better likes a Field.

85

Thro' his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus ftray'd,

VER. 75, 76. Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll wish your bill or shelter'd feat again.] This was done in Hertfordshire, by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000l. by which means (merely to overlook a dead plain) he let in the north-wind upon his house and parterre, which were before adorned and defended by beautiful woods.

VER. 78. fet Dr. Clarke.] Dr. S. Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr. duely frequented the Court. P. But he fhould have added-with the innocence and difintereftednefs of an Hermit.

With annual joy the red'ning fhoots to greet,
Or fee the stretching branches long to meet!
His Son's fine Taste an op'ner Vista loves,
Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves;
One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views, 95
With all the mournful family of Yews;

The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made,
Now sweep thofe Alleys they were born to fhade.
At Timon's Villa let us pass a day,

Where all cry out,
"What fums are thrown away!
So proud, fo grand; of that ftupendous air, ΙΟΙ
Soft and Agreeable come never there.

Greatnefs, with Timon, dwells in fuch a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.

VER 95. The two extremes in parterres, which are equally faulty; a boundless Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourifb'd carpet, where the greatness and nobleness of the piece is leffened by being divided into too many parts, with fcroll'd worksand beds, of which the examples are frequent.

VER. 96. —mournful family of Yews;] Touches upon the ill tafte of those who are fo fond of Ever-greens (particularly Yews, which are the most tonfile) as to deftroy the nobler Foreft-trees, to make way for such little ornaments as Pyramids of dark-green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral proceffion.

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This description is intended to comprize the principles of a falfe Taste of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it.

all Brobdignag] A region of giants, in the

VER. 104. fatires of Gulliver.

To compafs this, his building is a Town,

His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down:

Who but muft laugh, the Mafter when he fees,
A puny infect, fhiv'ring at a breeze!

105

Lo, what huge heaps of littlenefs around!
The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground, 110
Two Cupids fquirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keenness of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,
On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleafing Intricacies intervene,

No artful wildness to perplex the scene;
Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,
And half the platform just reflects the other.

115

VER. 117, 118. Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother, And half the platform juft reflects the other.] This is exactly the two puddings of the citizen in the foregoing fable, only ferved up a little more magnificently: But both on the fame abfurd principle of wrong tafte, viz. that one can never have too much of a good thing.

groves

that

Ibid. Grove nods at grove, etc.] The exquifite humour of this expreffion arifes folely from its fignificancy. These have no meaning, but very near relation-fhip, can express themfelves only like twin-ideots by nods;

-nutant ad mutua Palmæ

Fœdera

as the Poet fays, which juft ferves to let us understand, that they know one another, as having been nurfed, and brought up by one common parent.

120

The fuff'ring eye inverted Nature fees,
Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees;
With here a Fountain, never to be play'd;
And there a Summer-house, that knows no fhade;
Here Amphitrite fails thro' myrtle bow'rs;
There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Un-water'd fee the drooping fea-horse mourn,
And swallows rooft in Nilus' dusty Urn.

My Lord advances with majestic mien,
Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be feen:
But foft-by regular approach-not yet-

125

First thro' the length of yon hot Terrace fweat; 130 And when up ten fteep flopes you've drag'd your

thighs,

Juft at his Study-door he'll blefs your eyes.

His Study! with what Authors is it stor❜d? -In Books, not Authors, curious is my Lord;

VER. 124. The two Statues of the Gladiator pugnans and

Gladiator moriens.

VER. 130. The Approaches and Communication of house with garden, or of one part with another, ill judged, and inconve

nient.

; a

VER. 133. His Study! etc.] The falfe Tafte in Books fatire on the vanity in collecting them, more frequent in men of Fortune than the study to understand them. Many delight chiefly in the elegance of the print, or of the binding; fome have carried it so far, as to cause the upper fhelves to be filled with painted books of wood; others pique themselves fo much upon books in a language they do not understand, as to exclude the most useful in one they do.