158 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



General Wolfe dined the evening before he left England for 

 Quebec, Chatham died, and William Pitt was born. 



Lord Mahon, in his History of England, says that at Hayes 

 in former years Chatham "had made improvements, which his 

 memory fondly recalled : plantations for example, pursued with 

 so much ardour and eagerness, that they were not even interrupted 

 at nightfall, but were continued by torchlight, and with relays of 

 labourers." The belts thus planted are pointed out to this day 

 at Hayes (Timbs's "Anecdote Biography," which has a vignette 

 of Hayes Place on the title-page). 



— WXAa'^" 



SAMUEL XTO^"^ ^vas excited his (Shenstone's) delight in rural pleasures, 

 JOHNSON IN and his ambition of rural elegance : he began from this time 

 (1 709- 1 784). ^^ p^.^^ j^.g prospects, to diversify his surface, to entangle his 

 walks, and to wind his waters ; which he did with such judgment 

 and such fancy as made his little domain the envy of the great 

 and the admiration of the skilful — a place to be visited by 

 travellers and copied by designers. Whether to plant a walk in 

 undulating curves, and to place a bench at every turn where 

 there is an object to catch the view — to make water run where it 

 will be heard, and to stagnate where it will be seen — to leave 

 intervals where the eye will be pleased, and to thicken the 

 plantation where there is something to be hidden — demand any 

 great powers of the mind, I will not enquire : perhaps a surly and 

 sullen spectator may think such performances rather the sport 

 than the business of human reason. But it must at least be 

 confessed that to embellish the form of nature is an innocent 

 amusement, and some praise must be allowed by the most 

 scrupulous observer to him who does best what multitudes are 

 contending to do well. — Lives of the Poets. {Shenstone.) 



The truth is, he (Dr Johnson) hated to hear about prospects 

 and views, and laying out ground, and taste in gardening : " That 

 was the best garden," he said, "which produced most roots and 

 fruits; and that water was most to be prized which contained 



