Horace Walpole. 201 



designs. At Esher, 'where Kent and Nature vied 

 for Pelham's love,' the prospects more than aided the 

 painter's genius." 



" Sir Henry Englefield, " he presently adds, " was 

 one of the first improvers on the new style, and 

 selected with singular taste that chief beauty of 

 all gardens, prospect and fortunate points of 

 view." 



It may scarcely be requisite to explain that 

 I have been the more copious in my extracts 

 from Walpole' s Essay, because he stands as 

 nearly as possible midway between the old 

 school of gardening and the new; and he 

 was contemporary with Bridgman and Kent, 

 two of the most eminent landscape gardeners 

 of the eighteenth century ; and nearly so with 

 Pope, who, by Walpole's acknowledgment, 

 did much to promote the development of a 

 better taste and feeling, not exactly in horti- 

 culture, but in the arrangement of grounds. 

 What Walpole says of Sir Henry Englefield 

 may have been due to that gentleman's 

 personal discernment and insight ; but it was 

 probably rather the outcome of his employ- 

 ment of some one who saw the possibility 

 of carrying Kent's improvements still farther ; 



