A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honorouble the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in Buckinghamshire

Polypth. I wonder you should not know me better than to imagine I am always in earnest when I find fault. My Thoughts and yours, I assure you, agree exactly upon this Subject. I only wanted to engage you in some Discourse till the Shower was over; and as the Sky seems now quite clear, if you will, we'll venture out, and visit what we have yet to see.

Calloph. You are a humorous Fellow: This is not the first time you have made me play my Lungs to no purpose. – As we walk along this Terrace, you may observe the great Advantage of low Walls: By this means the Garden is extended beyond its Limits, and takes in every thing entertaining that is to be met with in the range of half a County. Villages, Works of Husbandry, Groups of Cattle, Herds of Deer, and a Variety of other beautiful Objects, are brought into the Garden, and make a Part of the Plan. Even to the nicest Taste these rural Scenes are highly delightful.

Polypth. Nay you may add, that whoever has no Relish for them, gives Reason for a Suspicion that he has no Taste at all.

Straight mine Eye hath caught new Pleasures,Whilst the Landskip round it measures;Russet Lawns, and Fallows gray.Where the nibbling flocks do stray;Mountains, on whose barren BreastThe labouring Clouds do often rest;Meadows trim with Daisies pide,Shallow Brooks, and Rivers wide:Towers and Battlements it seesBosom'd high in tufted Trees,Where perhaps some Beauty lies,The Cynosure of neighbouring Eyes.Hard by a Cottage Chimney smokes,From betwixt two aged Oaks.

Calloph. Can you repeat no more? I could have listened with great Pleasure if you had gone on with the whole Piece. It is quite Nature: That View of an old Castle, bosom'd high in tufted Trees, pleases me exceedingly: And the two following Lines, give it an elegant, romantic Air; and add greatly to the Idea before conceived. – But to pursue our former Argument: It must be owned indeed that these Walks want such Openings into the Country as little as any Place can well be imagined to do; yet even Stow itself, I assure you, is much improved by them. They contrast beautifully with this more polished Nature, and set it off to greater Advantage. After surfeiting itself with the Feast here provided for it, the Eye, by using a little Exercise in travelling about the Country, grows hungry again, and returns to the Entertainment with fresh Appetite. Besides, there is nothing so distasteful to the Eye as a confined Prospect (where the Reasonableness of it does not appear) especially if a dead Wall, or any other such disagreeable Object steps in between. The Eye naturally loves Liberty, and when it is in quest of Prospects, will not rest content with the most beautiful Dispositions of Art, confined within a narrow Compass, but (as soon as the Novelty of the Sight is over) will begin to grow dissatisfied, till the whole Limits of the Horizon be given it to range through.

Where perhaps some Beauty lies,The Cynosure of neighbouring Eyes,

Polypth. The Eye, according to your Account, seems to be something like a Bee: Plant as many Flowers as you will near its Hive, yet still the little Insect will be discontented, unless it be allowed to wander o'er the Country, and be its own Caterer. – I have got a few very severe Exclamations at my Tongue's End, which I will not vent till you have told me the Architect's Name, who has loaded the Ground with that monstrous Piece of Building, tho' I believe I can guess him without your Information.

Calloph. Suffer me to intercede in his Behalf. You are so unmerciful a Reprover, that I have not Patience to hear you. The Room above is designed, I am told, to be fitted up in a very elegant manner; but as very little is yet done to it, we shall find nothing I fancy to answer the Trouble of going up Stairs. – This Part of the Garden, you see, is yet unfinished. If we have the Pleasure of your Company in this Country next Year, you will see I dare say great Alterations here. That Base is to shoot up into a lofty Monument: And several of those Objects you see before you are to take new Forms upon them.

Polypth. Yonder likewise seems to be a Monument19 rising: Pray who is it intended to do Honour to?

Since this View of the Gardens was taken, the Monument here spoken of has been finished. The following Lines are a Translation of its Inscription, which in the Original is wrote in Latin.

Calloph. Why, Sir, it is intended to do Honour to a Gentleman, who has done Honour to his Country: It is dedicated to the Memory of Captain Grenville, and joins with the Nation in applauding a Man, who pushed forwards by Honour, and a Love for his Country, met Danger and Death with the Spirit of a Roman. – Well, how do you like the Plan which you see laid out before you?

Polypth. As far as I can judge of the future Landskip from this Sketch, it will be an admirable one. I am extremely taken with it. That Bason has a very fine Effect. – I could return back the same Round with great Pleasure, but my Watch informs me that Mr. – , has been expecting us this half Hour.

Calloph. Is it so late? The Time has stole off very slily. However you need be under no Apprehensions; that honest Gentleman is seldom very hasty in his Motions.

Having thus finished their Round, our two Gentlemen directed their Faces back again towards the Gate.

Polypthon, notwithstanding the sour Humour he had given so many Evidences of in his Walk, began now to relent, and could talk of nothing but the agreeable Entertainment that had been afforded him. Sometimes he would run out into the highest Encomiums of the many beautiful Terminations of the several Walks and Vistas; and observe how many Uses each Object served, and in how many different Lights it was made to vary itself. "For Instance, says he, the Pavilion you shewed me from the Temple of Venus, terminates that Terrace in a very grand Manner; and makes likewise a very magnificent Appearance, where it corresponds with another of the same Form, at the Entrance into the Park: Yet the same Building, like a Person acquainted with the World, who can suit his Behaviour to Time and Place, can vary itself upon occasion into a more humble Shape, and when viewed thro' a retired Vista, can take upon it the lowly Form of a close Retreat." – When he had enlarged pretty copiously upon this Subject, he would next launch out into the highest Praises of the vast Variety of Objects that was every where to be met with: "Men of all Humours, says he, will here find something pleasing and suited to their Taste. The thoughtful may meet with retired Walks calculated in the best Manner for Contemplation: The gay and chearful may see Nature in her loveliest Dress, and meet Objects corresponding with their most lively Flights. The romantic Genius may entertain itself with several very beautiful Objects in its own Taste, and grow wild with Ideas of the inchanted kind. The disconsolate Lover may hide himself in shady Groves, or melancholy wander along the Banks of Lakes and Canals; where he may sigh to the gentle Zephyrs; mingle his Tears with the bubbling Water; or where he may have the best Opportunity, if his Malady be grown to such an Height, of ending his Despair, and finishing his Life with all the Decency and Pomp of a Lover in a Romance. In short, says he, these Gardens are a very good Epitome of the World: They are calculated for Minds of every Stamp, and give free Scope to Inclinations of every kind: And if it be said that in some Parts they too much humour the debauched Taste of the Sensualist, it cannot be denied on the other hand, but that they afford several very noble Incitements to Honour and Virtue." – But what beyond all other things seemed most to please him, was the amicable and beautiful Conjunction of Art and Nature thro' the whole: He observed that the former never appeared stiff, or the latter extravagant.

Upon many other Topicks of Praise Polypthon run out with great Warmth. Callophilus seemed surprized, and could not forbear asking him, By what means his Opinions became so suddenly changed? "Why, says he, Sir, I have said nothing now that contradicts any thing I said before. I own I met with two or three Objects that were not entirely to my Taste, which I am far from condemning for that Reason; tho' if I should, it is nothing to the purpose, because I am now taking a Survey of the whole together; in which Light I must confess I am quite astonished with the View before me. Besides, I hate one of your wondering Mortals, who is perpetually breaking out into a Note of Admiration at every thing he sees: I am always apt to suspect his Taste or his Sincerity. It is impossible that all Genius's can alike agree in their Opinions of any Work of Art; and the Man who never blames, I can scarce believe is qualified to commend. Besides, finding fault now and then, adds Weight to Commendation, and makes us believed to be in earnest. However, notwithstanding what you may think of my frequent Cavils, I assure you, with the greatest Sincerity, I never before saw any thing of the kind at all comparable to what I have here seen: I shall by no means close this Day with a Diem perdidi; nor would the Roman Emperor himself, I believe, have made the Reflection if he had spent his condemned Hours in this Place."

By this time the Gentlemen were come to the Gate, thro' which Polypthon assured his Friend he passed with the greatest Reluctance, and went growling out of this delightful Garden, as the Devil is said to have done out of Paradise.

FINIS

1

Before 1753 there was no guide to any English garden except Stowe; by then the Stowe guidebook had gone through sixteen editions (one in French) plus two pirated editions, the Dialogue itself which mentions the guidebook on p. 17, and two sets of engraved views. For a modern account of Stowe see Christopher Hussey, English Gardens and Landscapes, 1700-1750 (London: Country Life, 1967), pp. 89-113. As a companion piece to this facsimile of Dialogue, ARS plans to publish in its 1976-77 series a facsimile of the Beauties of Stowe (1750), with an introduction by George Clarke.

2

Gilpin's authorship is argued by William D. Templeman, The Life and Works of William Gilpin (1724-1804), Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, XXIV. 3-4 (Urbana, 1939), pp. 34-5.

3

The distinction is made by Thomas Whately, Observations on Modern Gardening, 5th ed. (London, 1793), pp. 154-5.

4

The Grecian Valley is seen first on Bickham's engraved plan of 1753. This and other plans of Stowe are reproduced by George Clarke, "The Gardens of Stowe," Apollo (June, 1973), pp. 558-65.

5

See Peter Willis, "Jacques Rigaud's Drawings of Stowe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Eighteenth-Century Studies, 6 (1972), 85-98.

6

See George Clarke, op. cit., p. 560.

7

On this topic see two essays by Ronald Paulson: "Hogarth and the English garden: visual and verbal structures," Encounters, Essays on Literature and the Visual Arts, ed. John Dixon Hunt (London: Studio Vista, 1971), and "The Pictorial Circuit and related structures in eighteenth-century England," The Varied Pattern, ed. Peter Hughes and David Williams (Toronto: Hakkert, 1971).

8

"There is more Variety in this Garden, than can be found in any other of the same Size in England, or perhaps in Europe" (p. 290).

9

Derek Clifford, A History of Garden Design (London: Faber, 1962), pp. 138-9.

10

"Poetry, Painting, and Gardening, or the Science of Landscape, will forever by men of taste be deemed Three Sisters, or the Three New Graces who dress and adorn nature": MS. annotation to William Mason's Satirical Poems, published in an edition of the relevant poems by Paget Toynbee (Oxford: Clarendon, 1926), p. 43. For an anthology of similar comments see The Genius of the Place: The English Landscape Garden 1620-1820, ed. John Dixon Hunt and Peter Willis (London: Elek, 1975).

11

See Kenneth Woodbridge, Landscape and Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1970), plates 2a, 2b, and 3.

12

On this see Derek Clifford, op. cit., pp. 140 and 158.

13

I. W. U. Chase, Horace Walpole: Gardenist. An edition of Walpole's 'The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening' with an estimate of Walpole's contribution to landscape architecture (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1943), p. 26.

14

This is an apt example of the psychological theory of sight proposed by E. H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (New York: Pantheon, 1961).

15

Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty; on Picturesque Travel; and on Sketching Landscape (London, 1792), p. 49.

16

Carl Paul Barbier, William Gilpin, His Drawings, Teaching and Theory of the Picturesque (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1963), pp. 71, 106 and 139.

17

Op. cit., p. 49.

18

Cited by Templeman, op. cit., p. 228.

19

As a MonumentTo testify both his Applause and Grief,Richard Lord Viscount CobhamErected this Naval Pillar to the Memory of his NephewCaptain Grenville,Who commanding a Ship of War in the British FleetUnder Admiral Anson,In an Engagement with the French, wasMortally wounded upon the ThighBy a Fragment of his shattered Ship;Yet with his last Breath had the Bravery to cry out,How much more desireable is it thus to meet Death,"Than, convicted of Cowardice, to meet Justice!"May this noble Instance of VirtueProve instructive to an abandoned Age,And teach Britons how to actIn their Country's Cause!