60 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 fcale, Or fcoops in circling theatres the Vale; Calls in the Country, catches op'ning glades, Joins willing woods, and varies fhades from shades; Now breaks or now directs, th'intending Lines; Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs. Still follow Sense, of ev'ry Art the Soul, Parts anfw'ring parts shall slide into a whole, 65 70 Without it, proud Versailles! thy glory falls; And Nero's Terraces defert their walls: NOTES. VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts fall flide into a whole,] i. e. fhall not be forced, but go of themfelves; as if both the parts and whole were not of yours, but of Nature's making. The metaphor is taken from a piece of mechanifm finished by fome great mafter, where all the parts are so previ oufly fitted, as to be eafily put together by any ordinary workman: and each part flides into its place, as it were thro' a groove ready made for that purpose. VER. 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Vifcount Cobham in Buckinghamshire. P. VER. 72. And Nero's The vaft Parterres a thousand hands shall make, NOTES. Terraces defert their walls:] The expreffion is very fignificant. Had the Walls been faid to defert the Terraces, this would have given us the image of a destruction, effected by time only; which had been foreign to the poet's intention; who is here fpeaking of the punishment of unsupported Tafte, in the defigned fubverfion of it, either by good or bad, as it happens; one of which is fure to do its bufinefs, and that foon; therefore it is with great propriety he fays, that the Terraces defert their walls, which implies purpose and violence in their fubverfion.. on whom it is bestowed, as making him the fubftitute of Good Senfe. This office, in the original plan of the poem, was given to another Man of TASTE; who not having the SENSE to fee a compliment was intended him, convinced the poet it did not belong to him. VER. 75, 76. Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll wish your bill or shelter'd feat again.] This was done in Hertfordshire, by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000 l. 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 defend VER. 74. Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake] An high compli-ed by beautiful woods. P. ment to the noble perfon VER. 78.-fet Dr Clarke.] Behold Villario's ten-years toil compleat ; His Quincunx darkens, his Efpaliers meet; The Wood supports the Plain, the parts unite, 80 And ftrength of Shade contends with ftrength of A waving Glow the bloomy beds display, 85 Thro' his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus ftray'd, Or fat delighted in the thick'ning shade, NOTES. Dr S. Clarke's bufto placed | by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr duely frequented the Court. P. VER. 84. Blushing in bright diverfities of day,] i.e. The feveral colours of 90 the grove in bloom, give feveral different tints to the lights and shades. VER. 94. For to the Dryads of his Father's groves ;] Finely intimating, by this fublime claffical image, that 96 One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views, The thriving plants ignoble broomsticks made, NOTES. the Father's tafte was enthufiaftical; in which paffion there is always fomething great and noble; tho' it be too apt, in its flights, to leave fenfe behind it: and this was the good man's cafe. But his Son's was a poor defpicable fuperftition, a low fombrous paffion, whose perverfity of Tafte could only gratify itself With all the mournful family of Yews. VER. 95. The two ex- |(particularly Yews, which tremes in parterres, which are the moft tonfile) as to are equally faulty; a bound- deftroy the nobler Foreftlefs Green, large and naked trees, to make way for fuch as a field, or a flourish'd Car- little ornaments as Pyramids pet, where the greatnefs and of dark green continually nobleness of the piece is lef- repeated, not unlike a Fufened by being divided into neral proceffion. P. too many parts, with fcroll'd works and beds, of which the examples are frequent. VER. 96.-mournful family of Yews;] Touches upon the ill tafte of those who are so fond of Ever-greens VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This description is intended to comprize the principles of a false Tafte of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it. P. So proud, fo grand; of that ftupendous air, To compass this, his building is a Town, His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down: Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around! 105 The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground. II 115. No artful wildness to perplex the scene; NOTES. VER. 104.-all Brobdig-| body, but the foul of the nag] A region of giants in the fatires of Gulliver. VER. 109. Lo! what huge heaps of littleness around,] Grandeur in building, as in the human frame, takes not its denomination from the work: when the foul therefore is loft or incumber'd in its invelope, the unanimated parts, how huge foever, are not members of grandeur, but mere heaps of littleness. |