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 aeronaut, 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."



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. 3l. 10s.

3. Essays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 3 vols. 8vo. 1l. 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 Archaeologia, 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 consacre au culte des sciences et des lettres; viens occuper la place que t'y conservent les muses, accepter les couronnes qu'elles-memes t'ont tressees! viens recevoir le tribut de nos sentimens, temoignage sincere 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 Linnaeus, 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 Encyclopaedia 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 unbra,

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 Encyclopaedia 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 Deliciae, 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.

Linnaeus, 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

Notre, 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.

Sevigne, 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

Vispre, 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 Encyclopaedia of Gardening has a rich page (35) devoted to Le Notre. The Nouveau Dict. Hist. thus records his genius and his grand and magnificent efforts:—"Ce grand homme fut choisi pour decorer les jardins du chateau 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, temoin des ces merveilles, lui donna la direction de tous ses parcs. Il embellit par son art, Versailles, Trianon, et il fit a 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 champetre a Fontainbleau, sont encore son ouvrage. Il demanda a faire voyage de l'Italie, dans l'esperance d'acquerir de nouvelles connoissances; mais son genie createur l'avoit conduit a 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 Sevigne has drawn of le Notre'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 genie heureux, a un gout sur, il joignoit une probite exacte, un coeur droit, un caractere aimable et des moeurs douces. Il etoit naturellement honnete, et il s'etoit encore poli dans le commerce des grands. Parmi ses differentes Poesies Latines, on distingue le Poeme des Jardins. C'est son chef d'oeuvre; il est digne du siecle d'Auguste, dit l'Abbe Des Fontaines, pour l'elegance et la purete 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 naive que la Pere Vaniere fait des amusemens champetres; on est egalement enchante de la richesse et de la vivacite de son imagination, de l'eclat et de l'harmonie de sa poesie, du choix de la purete de ses expressions. Il mourut a Toulouse en 1739, et plusiers poetes ornerent de fleurs son tombeau."—Nouv. Dict. Hist.

[6] La Comtesse de la Riviere, thus alludes to this convent: "Madame de Sevigne a pour ce monastere une veneration qui est audela 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."