GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
fine that the disgraced and unhappy Somerset seeking to placate 
his offended sovereign, had offered it as a ‘‘ dainty dish to set before 
the King.” 
Pope and Gay were the products of an artificial age; or rather 
it would be more correct to say that the trend of their genius was 
decided by the manners and mental habits of the society in which 
they found themselves—but they were true poets, notwithstanding 
their upbringing, and therefore, being once brought into touch 
with nature, were more sensitive to her charms than ordinary 
folk of their class, and world. More especially was this so with 
Pope, whose earlier verse shows much appreciation of inanimate 
natural beauty ; and, as Campbell pointed out, the faculty which 
enabled him to describe so exquisitely and humorously the court 
and city manners, and objects of art, is essentially the same which 
would have made him, under other circumstances and in a different 
environment, a faithful lover, and student, and a poetic exponent, of 
outside nature. Even in that artificial day, a few choice spirits, 
such as Addison, found solace and refreshment in nature, and 
in communing with her. Addison, as we know, delighted in a 
garden, in its flowers, its seclusion, and its singing birds, to which 
last we have seen him cheerfully sacrificing his fruit in exchange 
for their songs. Minds such as his needed not to be “ brought 
into touch” with nature, for they already walked hand-in-hand 
with her. But others, like Pope and Gay, whose office it was to 
reflect in their writings as in a mirror, the manners of society, to 
satirize and show up its social vices, and its political venality, must 
sometimes have wearied of the task. For though it is true that 
as Pope himself says, “the proper study of mankind is man,” 
society was then largely compounded of men and women who 
lived chiefly in the limelight, and were perpetually posing ; who, 
metaphorically speaking, were always in full dress. The reality 
of pastoral life was unknown to them. Their rustic maidens were 
Arcadian’ shepherdesses, wearing saeques of flcwered brocade, 
carrying crooks bedecked with ribbons; and Corin, as well as 
Corinna, was utterly unreal: he was an impossible swain in an 
impossible country! The age of Pope and Gay was the age of 
petticoats— Stiff with hoops, and armed with ribs of whale ”— 
of snuff boxes, and pomander, of long stiff-skirted gold-laced satin 
or velvet coats, of ruffles, swords, and full-bottomed wigs. A 
176 
