156 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



sur Tart des jardins, mais par lequel certainement personne n'aura 

 appris 1'art d'dtablir un beau jardin." 



JOSEPH Friend of Pope and Horace Walpole ; in 1747 published ' Polymetis? and 



_ l a t er ^ Remarks on Virgil'-, in 1757, under the pseudonym of Sir Harry 



( 68 768') Beaumont^ he translated the Jesuit Pere Attire? s ' Account of the Emperor of 

 China's Gardens ', near Peking which largely contributed to the revolution in 

 European Garden-taste. 



A S for the Pleasure Houses, they are really charming. They 

 * stand in vast Compass of Ground. They have raised Hills 

 from Twenty to Sixty foot high ; which form a great Number of 

 Little Valleys between them. The Bottoms of these Valleys are 

 watered with clear streams ; which run on till they join together, 

 and form Larger pieces of Water and Lakes : They pass these 

 Streams, Lakes, and Rivers, in beautiful and magnificent Boats : 

 I have seen one, in particular, Seventy eight feet long, and Twenty 

 four feet broad, with a very handsome House raised upon it. In 

 each of these Valleys, there are Houses about the Banks of the 

 Water, very well disposed ; with their different Courts, open and 

 close Porticos, Parterres, Gardens and Cascades; which, when 

 viewed all together, have an admirable effect upon the eye. 



They go from one of the Valleys to another, not by formal 

 strait Walks as in Europe ; but by various Turnings and Windings, 

 adorned on the sides with little Pavilions and Charming Grottos ; 

 and each of these Valleys is diversified from all the rest, both by 

 their manner of laying out the Ground, and in the Structure and 

 Disposition of its Buildings. 



All the Risings and Hills are sprinkled with Trees ; and par- 

 ticularly with Flowering Trees, which are here very common. The 

 sides of the Canals, or lesser Streams, are not faced (as they are 

 with us) with smooth Stone, and in a straight Line; but look 

 rude and rustic, with different Pieces of Rock, some of which 

 jut out, and others recede inwards; and are pleased with so 

 much Art, that you would take it to be the work of Nature. 



