ROADS, WALKS, AND BRIDGES. 



113 



249. Seats should be provided in every garden, and the state of our atmo- 

 sphere renders it almost imperative that they should be protected from the 

 weather. Hence the origin of rustic and architectural summer-houses, Doric 

 -iiid other temples, &c. : they are not only ornamental but highly convenient. 

 Under the influence of that peculiar half -painful half-pleasant lassitude which 

 a succession of beautiful scenery so often induces, nothing could be more 

 pleasant than the welcome shade of rustic root-house, cool grotto, or shel- 

 tering temple, sacred to Flora, Poetry, Friendship, or Love. Rogers, the 

 poet, used often to sit in an alcove in the garden at Holland House, Ken- 

 sington, which still bears this inscription : — 



" Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell 

 "With me those pleasures that he sung so well," 



And, doubtless, Byron, Campbell, and Moore, have often done the same when 

 they visited this princely domain. Scott and Shenstone were not only 

 enthusiastic admirers, but successful creators of beautiful landscapes: and 

 the latter studded his whole estate with summer-houses, temples, alcoves, 

 caves, statues, obelisks, and seats. According to Dodsley's description of 

 the Leasowes, there were about three dozen of seats placed in the best 

 possible positions, besides the rustic and architectural buildings already 

 noticed ; and the majority of them were furnished with appropriate inscrip- 

 tions. Doubtless this is a legitimate means of deepening the impression 



arising from the contemplation of beautiful scenerj', of inculcating moral 

 lessons, or of setting forth the charms of retirement and rural life. Shenstone, 

 and some others, may have multiplied inscriptions and seats to excess, but 



