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. 
2 Manuscript belonging to the Earl of Egmont. 
