230 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



appearance. But this was not till other innovators had broke 

 loose too, from rigid symmetry." 



The names of several landscape-gardeners are known in 

 connection with StoW, in Buckinghamshire, each in turn 

 having added something to the place. The garden was looked 

 upon as quite the acme of perfection by this school of garden- 

 designers. Pope's lines on the principles of landscape gardening 

 are summed up in the one word, Stow : 



" Still follow Sense, of ev'ry art the soul, 

 Parts answ'ring parts shall slide into a whole ; 

 Spontaneous beauties all around advance, 

 Start ev'n from difficulty, strike from chance, 

 Nature shall join you ; time shall make it grow, 

 A work to wonder at — perhaps a STOW." 



Sir Richard Temple, who died in 1697, commenced rebuilding 

 the house at Stow, and his son, Lord Cobham, continued it, and 

 began the gardens, which were constantly being added to until 

 1755. By that time they covered a space of 500 acres. 

 Bridgeman was the first designer, and after him, Kent, while 

 Sir John Vanbrugh constructed several of the temples and 

 monuments. In one of the numerous descriptions of Stow, a 

 pyramid is specially mentioned as being the last design he 

 executed i 1 



"... Ascends 

 The pointed pyramid ; this, too, is thine, 

 Lamented Vanbrugh ! this thy last design. 

 Among the various structures, that around, 

 Formed by thy hand adorn this happy ground." 



As this was the ideal garden of the period, there are several 

 contemporary guides and descriptions to it published. As 

 smaller places copied it, and were composed of the same sort 

 of collection of temples, gardens, and vistas, it will be necessary 

 to go through its varied features in detail, so I have transcribed 

 in full a letter from that same delightful correspondent, Lord 

 Percival, to his brother-in-law, Dering, giving his own impres- 

 sions of the gardens, to which he paid a visit in 1724 : 2 



1 Stow, The Gardens of the Right Hon. Richard, Lord Viscount Cobham, 

 1732. Anonymous. 

 1 Manuscript belonging to the Earl of Egmont. 



