Rare monkish Manufcripts for Hearne alone, And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane. 10 For what has Virro painted, built, and planted? VER. 10. And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane.] Two eminent Phyficians; the one had an excellent Library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiofities; both men of great learning and humanity. VER. 12. Than bis fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.] By the Author's manner of putting together these two different Utenfils of falfe Magnificence, it appears, that, properly fpeaking, neither the Wife nor the Whore is the real object of modern tafte, but the Finery only: "And whoever wears it, whether the Wife or the Whore, it matters not; any further than that the latter is thought to deserve it best, as appears from her having most of it; and fo indeed becomes, by accident, the more fashionable Thing of the two. VER. 18. Ripley] This man was a carpenter, employed by a first Minifter, who raised him to an Architect, without any genius in the art and after some wretched proofs of his infufficiency in public Buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board of works, You fhow us, Rome was glorious, not profufe, And pompous buildings once were things of Ufe. Yet fhall (my Lord) your juft, your noble rules 25 Fill half the land with Imitating-Fools; Who random drawings from your fheets fhall take, On fome patch'd dog-hole ek'd with ends of wall; 30 That, lac'd with bits of ruftic, makes a Front. Shall call the wind thro' long arcades to roar, 35 Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door ; -- 40 VER. 23. The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Defigns of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio. VARIATIONS. After ver. 22. in the MS. Muft Bishops, Lawyers, Statefmen, have the skill 2 Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n, To build, to plant, whatever you intend, 50 He gains all points, who pleafingly confounds, 55 Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds. Confult the Genius of the Place in all; That tells the Waters or to rife, or fall; Or helps th' ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale, 60 VER. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. Le Nôtre, the defigner of the best Gardens in France. VER. 57. Confult the Genius of the Place, etc. to defigns, ver. 64.] The perfonalizing or rather deifying the Genius of the place, in order to be confulted as an Oracle, has produced one of the noblest and most sublime descriptions of Defign, that poetry could exprefs. Where this Genius, while prefiding over the work, is reprefented by little and little, as advancing from a fimple advifer, to a creator of all the beauties of improved Nature, in a variety of bold metaphors and allufions, all rifing one above another, till they com plete the unity of the general idea. Calls in the Country, catches op'ning glades, Still follow fenfe, of ev'ry Art the Soul, A Work to wonder at perhaps a Srow. Without it, proud Verfailles! thy glory falls And Nero's Terraces defert their walls : 65 70 The vaft Parterres a thouíand hands fhall make, Firft the Genius of the place tells the waters, or only fimply gives directions: Then he helps th' ambitious bill, or is a fellow-labourer: Then again he fcoops the circling Theatre, or works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rifing faft in our idea of dignity, he calls in the country, alluding to the orders of princes in their progrefs, when accustomed to display all their ftate and magnificence: His character then grows facred, he joins willing woods, a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the priesthood; 'till at length, he becomes a Divinity, and creates and prefides over the whole : Now breaks, or now directs th'intending lines, Much in the fame manner as the plaftic Nature is supposed to do, in the work of human generation. VER, 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire, Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, 75 8a Behold Villario's ten-years toil complete; His Quincunx darkens, his Efpaliers meet; The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite, And ftrength of Shade contends with ftrength of Light; A waving Glow the bloomy beds display, Blufhing in bright diverfities of day, With filver-quiv'ring rills mæander'd o'er - 85 99 Thro' his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus stray'd, Or fat delighted in the thick'ning fhade, With annual joy the red'ning fhoots to greet, Or fee the stretching branches long to meet! His Son's fine Taste an op❜ner Vista loves, Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves; VER 75, 76. Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll with your bill or shelter'd feat again.] This was done in Hertfordshire by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000 1. by which means (merely to overlook a dead plain) he let in the north-wind upon his house and parterre, which were before adorned and defended by beautiful woods. VER. 78. --- fet Dr. Clarke.] Dr. S. Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr. duely frequented the Court. P. But he should have added. with the innocence and difintereftedness of a Hermit. |