198 



landscape scenery, from the most rural to the grandest, 

 " have been consecrated by long uninterrupted admiration." 

 Instead of the narrow, mechanical practice of a few English 

 gardeners, or layers-out of grounds, he wishes " the noble 

 and varied works of the eminent painters of every age, and 

 of every country, and those of their supreme mistress NA- 

 TURE, should be the great models of imitation."* He has 

 supported many of his opinions or observations, or embel- 

 lished or enlivened them, by acute allusions, not only to Mil- 

 ton but to Shakspeare, whom he calls " that most original 

 creator, and most accurate observer."f 



He has depicted his own mind in p. 378 of the first volume 

 of his Essays ; for after lamenting that despotic system of 

 improvement which demands all to be laid open, all that 

 obstructs to be levelled to the ground, houses, orchards, 

 gardens, all swept away, nothing tending to humanize the 

 mind and that a despot thinks every person an intruder 

 who enters his domain, wishing to destroy cottages and path- 

 ways, and to reign alone, he thus proceeds : " Here I can- 

 not resist paying a tribute to the memory of a beloved uncle, 

 and recording a benevolence towards all the inhabitants 

 around him, that struck me from my earliest remembrance ; 

 and it is an impression I wish always to cherish. It seemed 

 as if he had made his extensive walks as much for them as 

 for himself; they used them as freely, and their enjoyment 

 was his. , The village bore as strong marks of his and of his 

 brother's attentions (for in that respect they appeared to 

 have but one mind), to the comforts and pleasures of its 

 inhabitants. Such attentive kindnesses, are amply repaid by 



* Mr. George Mason justly observes that " Nature's favourite haunts are 

 the school of gardening." 



t Dion. Chrysostom said of Xenophon, that " he had something of witch- 

 craft in his writings." It would not be too much to say the same of this 

 poet. 



