12!) 



Garden, says, " I had before called Bacon the prophet, and 

 Milton, the herald of true taste in gardening. The former, 

 because, in developing the constituent properties of a princely 

 garden, he had largely expatiated upon that adorned natural 

 wildness which we now deem the essence of the art. The 

 latter, on account of his having made this natural wildness 

 the leading idea in his exquisite description of Paradise. I 

 here call Addison, Pope, Kent, &c. the champions of this 

 true taste." As Mr. Mason has added an Sfc, may we not 

 add to these respected names, that of honest old Bridgman? 

 It was the determination of Lord Byron (had his life been 

 longer spared), to have erected, at his own expence, a 

 monument to Pope.* We can gather even from his rapid 

 and hurried " Letter on the Rev. W. L. Bowles's Stric- 

 tures," his attachment to the high name of Pope: — " If 

 Lucretius had not been spoiled by the Epicurean system, 

 we should have had a far superior poem to any now in exist- 

 ence. As mere poetry, it is the first of Latin poems. What 

 then has ruined it? His ethics. Pope has not this defect; 

 his moral is as pure as his poetry is glorious." — " Pope's 

 charities were his own, and they were noble and extensive, 

 far beyond his fortune's warrant." — " I have loved and 

 honoured the fame and name of that illustrious and unri- 

 valled man, far more than my own paltry renown, and the 

 trashy jingle of the crowd of schools and upstarts, who 

 pretend to rival, or even surpass him. Sooner than a single 

 leaf should be torn from his laurel, it were better that all 



* How applicable are Gray's lines to Lord Byron himself, now! 



Can storied urn or animated bust 



Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 



Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, 

 Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death? 



Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 



Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire! — 



S 



