49 



recording what he calls " the eternal duration" of Virgil** 

 works, or those of" the noble and majestic" Milton: — 



Flowers worthy of Paradise, which no nice art 

 In beds, and curious knots, but nature boon 

 Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. 



Though prim regularity, and ''parterres embroidered like 

 a petticoat," were in his time in high vogue, yet his pages 

 shew his enlarged views on this subject, and the magnificent 

 ideas he had formed, by surrounding them by rural enclo- 

 sures, (probably by reading Mr. Addison), perfumed with 

 blossoms, and bespangled with the rich tufts of nature. 

 Xothing, he says, is now so much wanted to complete the 

 grandeur of the British nation, as noble and magnificent 

 gardens, statues, and water-works; long extended shady 

 walks, and groves, and the adjacent country laid open to 

 view, and not bounded by high walls. The pleasant fields, 

 and paddocks, in all the beautiful attire of nature, would 

 then appear to be a part of it, and look as if the adjacent 

 country were all a garden. Walls take away the rural aspect 

 of any seat; wood, water, and such like, being the noble 

 and magnificent decorations of a country villa. Switzer calls 

 water the spirit and most enchanting beauty of nature. He 

 is so struck with " the beautifulness and nobleness of terrace 

 walks,'' and particularly with that truly magnificent and no- 

 ble one, belonging to the Right Honourable the Earl of 

 Nottingham, at Burleigh-on-the-HiU, that " for my own part 

 I must confess, that that design creates an idea in my mind 

 greater than I am well able to express." In his chapter of 

 "Woods and Groves," he enforces " a particular regard to 

 large old oaks, beech, and such like trees; in which case, 

 one would as soon fire one's house, as cut them down, since 

 it is the work of so many years, I may say ages, to rear 

 them; those ancient trees which our forefathers had all along 



H 



