THE ARTIFICIAL LANDSCAPE GARDENS 231 



memorative of royal visitors, artificial ruins, bridges over artificial 

 waters, a Gothic temple, and a large tablet to a dead dog. 



Most of these buildings were furnished with inscriptions on 

 which were bestowed much ingenuity, scholarship, and neatness 

 of versification. For thirty or forty years monuments were 

 added as occasion arose, either to commemorate the death of 

 a distinguished acquaintance, or the visit of some royal person- 

 ages. Horace Wai pole was half repelled, yet wholly attracted 

 by this curious panorama. The modern visitor is filled with 

 much the same emotions. The mere catalogue sounds inane, 

 yet the whole idea is carried out with so much skill, the buildings 

 themselves are so charming that, once we accept the artificial 

 atmosphere of the place, we wander from point to point with 

 unabated interest and admiration. Nowhere else can we gain 

 so vivid an insight into the laborious elegance of the age. 



Walpole's lively account of his visit to meet the Princess 

 Amelia, in July 1770, gives an excellent idea of the impressions 

 the place made upon him. The view through the archway, 

 erected in honour of her royal highness, he describes as " a 

 tall landscape framed by the arch and the embowering trees, 

 and comprehending more beauties of light, shade, and buildings, 

 than any picture of Albano I ever saw." x " Twice a day we 

 made a pilgrimage to almost every heathen temple in that 

 province that they call a garden ; and there is no sallying out 

 of the house without descending a flight of steps as high as 

 St Paul's." He describes an al fresco supper, which they 

 attended in state, in one of the grottoes on a cold evening. It 

 reduces to very human dimensions the lordliness of the great 

 scheme. A large concourse of people from Buckingham and 

 the district came to behold the distinguished company at their 

 revels. Before this crowd the house party descended the vast 

 flight of steps leading from the house. " I could not help 

 laughing as I surveyed our troop, which, instead of tripping 

 lightly to such an Arcadian entertainment, were hobbling down 

 by the balustrades, wrapped up in cloaks and great-coats for 

 fear of catching cold. The earl, you know, is bent double, 

 the countess very lame ; I am a miserable walker, and the 

 princess, though as strong as a Brunswick lion, makes no figure 

 in going down fifty stone stairs." 



Stowe, and Hagley in Worcestershire, which both owe much 



1 Letter to George Montagu, 7th July 1770; also to H. S. Conway, 

 1 2th July 1770. 



