CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GROTTO. 173 West sent petrifactions; and from various other parties were collected fossils from the petrifying spring at Knaresborough, verd antique from Egypt, marble from Plymouth, Kerry stones and Bristol stones, gold ore from the Peruvian mines, silver ore from Old Spain, Brazil pebbles, coral and petrified moss from the West Indies, humming-birds and their nests, crystals from the Hartz mines, &c. Among the latest contributions were incrustations from Mr. Allen, Bath, and a mass of curious stones to form an imitation of a ruin at the entrance to the grotto, and some stones from the Giant's Causeway (as yet Staffa and its basaltic columns were unexplored by the scientific), which were presented by Sir Hans Sloane. At the entrance to the grotto was inscribed on a stone the line from Horace: Secretum iter et fallentis semita vitæ. [Or down through life unknown to stray, To the close of his life the poet continued to make additions to the grotto and grounds; and the following hitherto unpublished correspondence with Dr. Oliver, Bath, is in the possession of the publisher, Mr. Henry G. Bohn: "Oct. 8th, 1740. "SIR,-I am ashamed not to have written to you so long, ashamed not to have written to your friends, Mr. Borlase and Mr. Cooper, more than once, to each, when their favours to me have been repeated in the most valuable and most durable presents of gems and marble. But I have been studying by what means to give them some tokens of my reconnissance; and you, Sir, in helping me to do this, will oblige me yet more, than in your assistance to procure the materials themselves of all my present pride and my pleasure. The work is executed in a manner that I think would please them; and I only wish I may ever have an opportunity of asking their approbation upon a sight of it. Something I would send them, if you could tell me what; something that might please them but the twentieth part as much as they have pleased me. In the mean time, pray write and tell them that I am placing two marble inscriptions, one over the grotto, which is spar and mineral, and one over the porch, which is marble, giving their names to each of those parts to which they have respectively been contributors. And I design you a Bath (which is the honour of a physician) to go by yours with a perennial Spring, by Mr. Allen's. I have entirely finished all except the outward façade, which my Lord Burlington opiniates should be of the same materials-Plymouth marbles and spars. But here my stores fail: I have not a stone, nor a diamond or mineral left. I expect a few from Wales, but not this autumn, and perhaps by next year I may be under the earth, but not in my grotto; and I protest I am so fond of it, that I should be more sorry to leave it unfinished, than any other work I at present can think of. "I hope, in a month's time, or not much longer, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Bath, and of renewing my obligations to you. Believe me, sir, "Your most affectionate, humble servant, Addressed "To Dr. Oliver, at his house, Bath." "A. POPE." On the blank page inside of Pope's letter is the following reply by Dr. Oliver-obviously a first draft, which accounts for its not being signed: "Bath, Oct. 15th, 1740. "SIR,-I heartily congratulate you on your having brought your work so near to perfection, in which you seem to take so much delight; but you must pardon me if I can't believe that any adamant will be as lasting as your productions upon paper. You do us too much honour by giving our names a place in your grotto, though we all have such strong longings after immortality that we cannot but be proud of what we are conscious we do not deserve. I think I have heard Mr. Allen hint that you designed to favour the public with a description of your mine; you can't but believe me impatient to see it, and though I don't doubt but that every diamond has acquired new lustre from its artful disposition, yet it will shine much brighter in your lines than it can do in your grotto. I must beg of you to let me know particularly what quantity of marble spar or diamonds you want for the finishing the façade, and I will immediately desire my friends to supply you with all expedition. They will gladly contribute all in their power to oblige him by whom they will think themselves and me so much obliged. But if you are disposed still to add to the favours already imposed, and will make me the judge of what will please them, I must be influenced by the pleasure I myself felt upon receiving your works, of which I know their opinion to be. Sir, you make this month tedious by promising to see me in the next. I hope to meet you in a state of health likely to last you many years above ground; but whenever the world is robbed of you, where can you be better deposited than in your own grotto? for I know you have no ambition to be laid near kings, and lie where you will, your own works must be your everlasting monument." Mr. Bohn also possesses a fragment of a letter by Pope respecting the grotto, accompanied by the following pen-andink sketch by the poet: "In the mean time, I'll take your advice, and go on with my plaything, the grotto. But I am at a full stop. The goldcliff rock Mr. Omer has taken so much pains about, although he writ me word three weeks ago it was promised, has never arrived, and I've inquired at both carriers very often in vain. Which way it was sent, from Wales, or Bristol, or Bath, I know not, and desire to have timely notice when anything comes. I need no more of your stone, and I rejoice extremely that Mrs. Allen has begun to imitate the great works of nature, rather than those baubles most ladies affect. I hope you have not impoverished your rock to beautify mine. I long for Dr. Oliver's supply. He and his friend, Mr. Borlase, ought to have their statues erected in my cave, but I would much rather see their persons there; and I should be prouder of their approbation, if they think I have imitated nature well, than they would be of statues, though art had counterfeited them ever so well. I would go to Cornwall on purpose to thank them, if I were able." On the whole, the Twickenham grotto and garden formed a Great Exhibition for the poet and his friends, and every ornament was a memento of kindness and regard. It would have been hard to refuse such contributions, even when their introduction militated against exact propriety of taste or preconceived plans. 66 Pope had afterwards an opportunity of carrying out some of his ideas on picturesque gardening on a large scale at Lord Bathurst's seat, near Cirencester; the "great wood," or enchanted forest" of which was one of his favourite haunts. The Prince of Wales's garden, at Kew, was also partly designed by him; and in one of his letters to Bathurst, he gives an amusing account of a consultation held on the subject: "Several critics," he says, "were of several opinions. One declared he would not have too much art in it; 'for my notion,' said he, 'of gardening is, that it is only sweeping nature.' Another told them that gravel walks were not of a good taste, for all the finest abroad were of a loose sand. A third advised peremptorily there should not be one lime-tree in the whole plantation. A fourth made the same exclusive clause, extended to horse-chesnuts, which he affirmed not to be trees but weeds. Dutch elms were condemned by a fifth; and thus about half the trees were prescribed contrary to the Paradise LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 177 of God's own planting, which is expressly said to be planted with all trees. There were some who could not bear evergreens, and called them never-greens; some who were angry at them only when cut into shapes, and gave the modern gardeners the name of evergreen tailors; some who had no dislike to cones and cubes, but would have them cut in forest-trees; and some who were in a passion against anything in shape, even against clipt edges, which they called green walls. These (my lord) are our men of taste, who pretend to prove it by tasting little or nothing. Sure such a taste is like such a stomachnot a good one, but a weak one. We have the same sort of critics in poetry; one is fond of nothing but heroics, another cannot relish tragedies, another hates pastorals, all little wits delight in epigrams. Will you give me leave to add, there are the same in divinity; where many leading critics are for rooting up more than they plant, and would leave the Lord's vineyard either very thinly furnished, or very oddly trimmed." The The most poetical of all Pope's editors, Mr. Bowles, was also, in taste and feeling, a landscape gardener; and he characterises these observations as very just, allowing for Pope's colouring. "The objection to limes and horsechesnuts," he says, "is the very short duration of their beauty; they are the first trees that fade, and none are more mournful in their discolouration and decay of leaves." same remark applies to the ash. In some seasons, when the autumn frosts are late, and the leaves are allowed to fade, there is scarcely any colouring in nature to be compared with the delicacy, the tenderness, the pathos, one might almost say, and the inimitable blending of the shades of green and yellow, that are seen for a few days in the fading ash. But this effect is, perhaps, more peculiarly confined to the mountain landscape, and is not seen in the rich groves of Twickenham and the Thames. N |
