234 Gbe Garden 



too ridiculously prejudiced in favor of his own 

 historic compositions. 



Of all his works, his favorite production was 

 the Karl of Leicester's house, at Holkam, in 

 Norfolk. The great hall, with the flight of 

 steps at the upper end, in which he proposed 

 to place a colossal Jupiter, was a noble idea. 

 How the designs of that house, which I have 

 seen a hundred times in Kent's original draw- 

 ings, came to be published under another name, 

 and without the slightest mention of the real 

 architect, is beyond comprehension. The bridge, 

 the temple, the great gateway, all built, I be- 

 lieve, the two first certainly, under Kent's own 

 eye, are alike passed off as the works of another ; 

 and yet no man need envy or deny him the 

 glory of having oppressed a triumphal arch with 

 an Egyptian pyramid. Holkam has its faults, 

 but they are Kent's faults, and marked with all 

 the peculiarities of his style. 



As I intend to consider him as the inventor 

 of modern gardening in a chapter by itself, I 

 will conclude this account of him with the few 

 remaining circumstances of his life. By the 

 patronage of the queen, of the Dukes of Graf- 

 ton and Newcastle, and Mr. Pelham, and by the 

 interest of his constant friend, he was made 

 master carpenter, architect, keeper of the pic- 

 tures, and, after the death of Jervas, principal 



