Wesley Corpus

Having so lately seen Stourhead and Cobham gardens, I was now desired to take a view of the much more celebrated gardens at Stow. The first thing I observed was the beautiful water which runs through the gardens, to the front of the house. The tufts of trees, placed on each side of this, are wonderfully pleasant; and so are many of the walks and glades through the woods, which are disposed with a fine Oct. 1779.] JOURNAL. 169 variety. The large pieces of water interspersed give a fresh beauty to the whole. Yet there are several things which must give disgust to any person of common sense:--1. The build ings, called Temples, are most miserable, many of them both within and without. Sir John Vanbrugh's is an ugly, clumsy lump, hardly fit for a gentleman’s stable. 2. The temples of Venus and Bacchus, though large, have nothing elegant in the structure; and the paintings in the former, representing a lewd story, are neither well designed nor executed. Those in the latterare quite faded, and most of theinscriptions vanishedaway. 3. The statues are full as coarse as the paintings, particularly those of Apollo and the Muses, whom a person, not otherwise informed, might take to be nine cook-maids. 4. Most of the water in the ponds is dirty, and thick as puddle. 5. It is childish affectation to call things here by Greek or Latin names, as Styx, and the Elysian Fields. 6. It was ominous for My Lord to entertain himself and his noble company in a grotto built on the bank of Styx; that is, on the brink of hell. 7. The river on which it stands is a black, filthy puddle, exactly resembling a common sewer. 8. One of the stateliest monuments is taken down, the Egyptian Pyramid; and no wonder, considering the two inscriptions, which are still legible; the one,-- Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placems Uror : Neque harum, quas colus, arborum Te praeter invisas cupressos, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur ! The other, I,usisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti : Tempus abire tibi est: Ne potum largius acquo Rideat, et pulset lasciva decentius attas. * Upon the whole, I cannot but prefer Cobham gardens to those at Stow : For, 1.