Through his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus

ftray'd,

Or fat delighted in the thick'ning fhade,
With annual joy the red'ning shoots to greet,
Or see 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;

99

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!"

NOTES.

So

Holkham, replied, "It is a melancholy thing to ftand alone in one's country. I look round; not a house is to be feen but mine. I am the giant of Giant-castle, and have ate up all my neighbours."

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

P.

VER. 95. Carpet views,] His fine tafle, views, is an inaccurate expreffion, and hardly grammar; at least, an harsh combination of words. Is a total banishment of evergreens right? Has not this fashion of banishing them been carried too far?

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

way

P.

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

P.

So proud, fo grand; of that ftupendous air,
Soft and Agreeable come never there.
Greatnefs, with Timon, dwells in fuch a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.
To compafs this, his building is a Town,
His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down:
Who but must laugh, the Master when he sees,
A puny infect, fhiv'ring at a breeze!
Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground.

NOTES.

ΙΟΙ

105

110

Two

VER. 103. Greatnefs, with Timon,] The first edition of this Epiftle was in folio, 1731. A fpurious one was published in octavo, 1732, with many fevere remarks by Concanen and Welfted, as was supposed; to which was prefixed a print defigned by Hogarth, in which Pope is represented standing on a builder's high ftage, and white-washing the great gate-way of Burlington-house, and at the same time befpattering the coach of the Duke of Chandos paffing by. Hogarth suppressed this print, which is now become very valuable. It is remarkable our Author never once names Hogarth, though he had so many opportunities of doing it.

VER. 104. All Brobdignag] It is worth mentioning, that two pieces of burlesque poetry, one on Pygmies, by Moreau the preceptor of Scarron, and the other by Scarron himself, on Giants, bear a close resemblance to the Lilliput and the Brobdignac of Swift.

VER. 109. Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!] Grandeur in building, as in the human frame, does not take its denomination from the body, but the foul of the work: when the foul therefore is loft or incumbered in its envelope, the unanimated parts, how huge foever, are not members of grandeur, but mere heaps of littleness.

W.

VER. 110. A labour'd Quarry] In his letters he applies this expreffion to Blenheim; the maffy magnificence of which Sir Joshua Reynolds always defended against the common cant of its being heavy. By Brown's late improvements, Blenheim is become one of the fineft examples of laying out grounds judiciously.

VOL. III.

Two Cupids fquirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keennefs of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,
On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleasing Intricacies intervene,

115

120

No artful wildness to perplex the scene;
Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,
And half the platform just reflects the other.
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 through myrtle bow'rs;
There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Unwater'd fee the drooping fea-horse mourn,
And swallows rooft in Nilus' dufty Urn.

My Lord advances with majestic mien,

Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be seen:
But foft-by regular approach-not yet-

125

First thro' the length of yon hot Terrace fweat; 130

NOTES.

And

VER. 121. With here a Fountain,] It is amufing to fee how far our tafte in gardening has fpread. The prefent Emprefs of Ruffia writes thus to Voltaire, June 25, 1772: J'aime à la folie préfentement les jardins à l'Anglaise, les lignes courbes, les pentes douces, les ètangs en forme de lacs, les archipels en terre ferme; et j'ai un profond mepris pour les lignes droits, les allées jumelles. Je hais les fontaines qui donnent la torture a l'eau pour lui faire prendre.un cours contraire à fa nature; les ftatues font reléquées dans les galeries, les veftibules, &c. En un mot, l'Anglomanie domine dans ma plantomanie."

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

P.

VER 124. Die in flow'rs;] This is more finical and puerile than his ufual manner.

And when up ten deep flopes you've drag'd your

thighs,

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

His Study! with what Authors is it stor❜d?
In Books, not Authors, curious is my Lord;
To all their dated backs he turns you round;
These Aldus printed, thofe Du Sueil has bound!
Lo, fome are Vellom, and the rest as good
For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood.
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,
These shelves admit not any modern book.

you hear,

And now the Chapel's filver bell
That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:

NOTES.

135

140

Light

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

VER. 133. His Study! &c.] The false Taste in books; a 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; some have carried it so far, as to cause the upper shelves 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.

P.

VER. 138. But they are Wood.] There is a flatnefs and infipidity in this couplet, much below the ufual manner of our Author. Young has been more sprightly and poignant on the same subject. UNIVERSAL PASSION, Sat. 3.

VER. 139. Or Milton] This is one of the few places in which our Author seems to speak highly of Milton.

VER. 142. The false tafte in Mufic, improper to the subjects, as of light airs in churches, often practised by the organist,

&c.

P.

VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:] This abfurdity is very happily expreffed; Pride, of all human follies,

Light quirks of Mufic, broken and uneven,
Make the foul dance upon a Jig to Heav'n.
On painted Cielings you devoutly ftare,
Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,

NOTES.

145

On

being the first we should leave behind us when we approach the facred altar.-But he who could take Meanness for Magnificence, might easily mistake Humility for Meannefs.

W.

VER. 145.-And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) of naked figures in churches, &c. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of thofe of the beft mafters. P.

VER. 146. Where fprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,] This was not only said to deride the indecency and aukward pofition of the figures, but to infinuate the want of dignity in the fubjects. Raphael's pagans, as the devils in Milton, act a nobler part than the Gods and Saints of ordinary poets and painters. The cartons at Hampton-Court are talked of by every body; they have been copied, engraved, and criticised; and yet fo little ftudied or confidered, that in the noblest of them, of which likewise more has been faid than of all the reft, we are as much strangers to St. Paul's audience in the Areopagus, as to those before whom he preached at Theffalonica or Beroea.

The story from whence the painter took his subject is this "St. Paul came to Athens,-was encountered by the Epicureans and Stoics,—taken up by them to the court of Areopagus,—before which he made his apology; and amongst his converts at this time, were Dionyfius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris." On this fimple plan he exercises his invention. Paul is placed on an eminence in the act of speaking, the audience round him in a circle; and a ftatue of Mars, in the front of his temple, denotes the Scene of Action.

The first figure has been taken notice of for the force of its expreffion. We fee all the marks of conviction and refignation to the direction of the divine Messenger. But I do not know that it has been fufpected that a particular character was here reprefented. And yet the Platonic countenance, and the female attendant, fhew plainly, that the painter defigned DIONYSIUS, whom Ecclefiaftical story makes of this fect; and to whom facred

history