For the President hath granted me the sole propriety of exposing and shewing to the town all such intractable Dwarfs, whose circumstances exempt them from being carried about in Boxes: reserving only to himself, as the right of a Poet, those smart characters that will shine in Epigrams. Venerable Nestor, I salute you in the name of the club. "BOB SHORT, Secretary." N° 173. SEPTEMBER 29, 1713. Nec sera comantem Narcissum, aut flexi tacuissem vimen Acanthi, Virg. I LATELY took a particular friend of mine to my house in the country, not without some apprehension, that it could afford little entertainment to a man of his polite taste, particularly in architecture and gardening, who had so long been conversant with all that is beautiful and great in either. But it was a pleasant surprise to me, to hear him often declare he had found in my little retirement that beauty which he always thought wanting in the most celebrated seats (or, if you will, Villas) of the nation. This he described to me in those verses with which Martial begins one of his epigrams: Baiana nostri villa, Basse, Faustini, There is certainly something in the amiable simplicity of unadorned Nature that spreads over the mind a more noble sort of tranquillity, and a loftier sensation of pleasure, than can be raised from the nicer scenes of Art. This was the taste of the Ancients in their gardens, as we may discover from the descriptions extant of them. The two most celebrated wits of the world have each of them left us a particular picture of a garden; wherein those great masters being wholly unconfined, and painting at pleasure, may be thought to have given a full idea of what they esteemed most excellent in this way. These (one may observe) consist entirely of the useful part of horticulture, fruit trees, herbs, water, etc. The pieces I am speaking of are Virgil's account of the garden of the old Corycian, and Homer's of that of Alcinous in the seventh Odyssey, to which I refer the reader. Sir William Temple has remarked, that this garden of Homer contains all the justest rules and provisions which can go towards composing the best gar In the Spectator, N° 414. 1712, were the first strictures, as in this paper, 1713, the second, that were made on the bad taste of Gardening in this Country. The subject has been since treated at length, and with great skill and ability, by many ingenious writers, particularly by Mr. Walpole, Mr. Mason in his elegant Poem, and in Observations on Gardening, by Mr. Shenstone, by the ingenious and learned Mr. Knight, in his Landscape, by Mr. George Mason, and Mr. Price. It is acutely remarked by Mr. Twining, in his Aristotle, that the Ancients have described no Landscapes; owing, in his opinion, to their not having any landscape-painter. They had no Thomsons because they had no Claudes. dens. Its extent was four Acres, which, in those times of simplicity, was looked upon as a large one, even for a Prince. It was enclosed all round for defence; and for conveniency joined close to the gates of the Palace. He mentions next the Trees, which were standards, and suffered to grow to their full height. The fine description of the Fruits that never failed, and the eternal Zephyrs, is only a more noble and poetical way of expressing the continual succession of one fruit after another throughout the year. The vineyard seems to have been a plantation distinct from the Garden; as also the beds of Greens mentioned afterward at the extremity of the enclosure, in the usual place of our Kitchen Gardens. The two Fountains are disposed very remarkably. They rose within the enclosure, and were brought in by conduits or ducts; one of them to water all parts of the gardens, and the other underneath the Palace into the Town, for the service of the public. How contrary to this simplicity is the modern practice of gardening! We seem to make it our study to recede from Nature, not only in the various tonsure of greens into the most regular and formal shapes, but even in monstrous attempts beyond the reach of the art itself: we run into sculpture, and are yet better pleased to have our Trees in the most awkward figures of men and animals, than in the most regular of their own. Hinc et nexilibus videas e frondibus hortos, Implexos late muros, et moenia circum Deflexam et myrtum in puppes, atque ærea rostra: Scutaque, spiculaque, et jaculantia citria vallos". I believe it is no wrong observation, that persons of genius, and those who are most capable of art, are always most fond of nature; as such are chiefly sensible, that all art consists in the imitation and study of nature on the contrary, people of the common level of understanding are principally delighted with little niceties and fantastical operations of art, and constantly think that finest which is the least natural. A Citizen is no sooner proprietor of a couple of Yews, but he entertains the thought of erecting them into Giants, like those of Guildhall. I know an eminent Cook, who beautified his country seat with a Coronation-dinner in greens, where you see the champion flourishing on horseback at one end of the table, and the Queen in perpetual youth at the other. For the benefit of all my loving countrymen of this curious taste, I shall here publish a catalogue of Greens to be disposed of by an eminent TownGardener, who has lately applied to me on this head. He represents, that for the advancement of a politer sort of ornament in the Villas and Gardens 7 I have in vain searched for the author of these Latin Verses; and conclude they are our author's own lines: who may therefore be added to those English Poets that wrote also in Latin; to whom I would add a name so dear to me that I fear I shall be accused of Partiality; yet still I will venture to say, that Mons Catharina, and some translations of Greek Poems, are written with the utmost Purity and Taste. See the Poems of Thomas Warton 1791. મેં adjacent to this great city, and in order to distinguish those places from the mere barbarous countries of gross nature, the world stands much in need of a virtuoso Gardener, who has a turn to sculpture, and is thereby capable of improving upon the Ancients, in the imagery of Ever-greens. I proceed to his catalogue. Adam and Eve in Yew; Adam a little shattered by the fall of the Tree of Knowledge in the great storm; Eve and the Serpent very flourishing. Noah's ark in Holly, the ribs a little damaged for want of water. The Tower of Babel not yet finished. St. George in Box; his arm scarce long enough, but will be in a condition to stick the Dragon by next April. A green Dragon of the same, with a tail of GroundIvy for the present. N. B. These two not to be sold separately. Edward the Black Prince in Cypress. A Laurustine Bear in Blossom, with a Juniper Hunter in Berries. A pair of Giants stunted, to be sold cheap. A Queen Elizabeth in Phyllirea, a little inclining to the green sickness, but of full growth. Another Queen Elizabeth in Myrtle, which was very forward, but miscarried by being too near a Savine. An old Maid of Honour in Wormwood. |