96 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



POPE'S VILLA AT TWICKENHAM. 



Now the residence of the Right Honourable Wellebore Ellis, 1789. 

 From the ' Topographer.'* 



OF all the villages situated on the banks of the 

 Thames, Twickenham is acknowledged to be 

 one of the most pleasant. Its vicinity to the metropolis, 

 its fine prospect of the river, and the enchanting view 

 of perhaps the richest landscapes in England, have, of 

 late years, made it the centre of wealth and fashion, 

 and at the distance of more than half a century ago 

 captivated the taste, and procured it to the residence 

 of one of the most elegant and harmonious of our 

 poets. With the same veneration that a true Mussul- 

 man makes a pilgrimage to the tomb of his prophet, a 

 lover of the Muses visits that hallowed spot where the 

 last notes were echoed from the lyre of Pope ! So 



* Brewer, in the Beauties of England and Wales, most feelingly 

 relates the devastation committed on this spot a few years since, 

 which 'the bright sunshine of intellect once illumined.' One 

 may apply to Mr. Pope the line which Shakespeare addressed to 

 Anne Hathaway : 



' Thy eternal summer shall not fade.' 



