LORD BYRON 253 



rhododendron, there an arbutus. The stream, you see, is become 

 a canal : the banks are perfectly smooth and green, sloping to 

 the water's edge : and there is Lord Littlebrain, rowing in an 

 elegant boat. 



Squire Headlong. Magical, faith ! 



Mr Milestone. Here is another part of the ground in its 

 natural state. Here is a large rock, with the mountain-ash 

 rooted in its fissures, over-grown, as you see, with ivy and moss, 

 and from this part of it bursts a little fountain, that runs bubbling 

 down its rugged sides. 



Miss Tenorina. O how beautiful ! How I should love the 

 melody of that miniature cascade ! 



Mr Milestone. Beautiful, Miss Tenorina ! Hideous. Base, 

 common, and popular. Such a thing as you may see anywhere, 

 in wild and mountainous districts. Now, observe the meta- 

 morphosis. Here is the same rock, cut into the shape of a 

 giant. In one hand he holds a horn, through which the little 

 fountain is thrown to a prodigious elevation. In the other is 

 a ponderous stone, so exactly balanced as to be apparently ready 

 to fall on the head of any person who may happen to be beneath, 

 and there is Lord Littlebrain walking under it. 



Squire Pleadlong. Miraculous, by Mahomet ! Headlong Hall. 



I HAVE sent for my daughter from Venice, and I ride daily and LORD 

 walk in a garden, under a purple canopy of grapes, and sit by 

 a fountain, and talk with the gardener of his tools, which seem 

 greater than Adam's, and with his wife, and with his son's wife, 

 who is the youngest of the party, and, I think, talks best of the 

 three. Letter to Mr Murray. Bologna, Aug. 24, 1819. 



It is worthy of remark that after all this outcry about * indoor 

 nature,' and 'artificial images,' Pope was the principal inventor of 

 that boast of the English, Modern Gardening. He divides this 

 honour with Milton. . . . His various excellence is really wonder- 

 ful : architecture, painting, gardening, are all alike subject to his 



