"LYTTLETON, the friend!"
Yet these lines will kindle the delight and reverence of every lover of
Nature, in common with the effect of the _Seasons_ on the reader, who
"wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows him, and that he
never yet has felt what Thomson impresses."[1]
[1] Johnson's Life of Thomson.
But we quit these nether flights of song to describe the locality of
Hagley Park, of whose beauties our Engraving is but a mere vignette, and
in comparison like holding a candle to the sun. The village of Hagley is
a short distance from Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, whence the
pleasantest route to the park is to turn to the right on the Birmingham
road, which cuts the grounds into two unequal parts. The house is a
plain and even simple, yet classical edifice. Whately, in his work on
Gardening, describes it as surrounded by a lawn, of fine uneven ground,
and diversified with large clumps, little groups, and single trees; it
is open in front, but covered on one side by the Witchbury hills; on the
other side, and behind by the eminences in the park, which are high and
steep, and all overspread with a lofty hanging wood. The lawn pressing
to the front, or creeping up the slopes of three hills, and sometimes
winding along glades into the depth of the wood, traces a beautiful
outline to a sylvan scene, already rich to luxuriance in massive
foliage, and stately growth. The present house was built by the first
Lord Lyttleton, not on, but near to, the site of the ancient family
mansion, a structure of the sixteenth century. Admission may be obtained
on application to the housekeeper; and for paintings, carving, and
gilding, Hagley is one of the richest show-houses in the kingdom.[2]
[2] _Show-houses_ is a very appropriate term for such of the
mansions of our nobility and gentry as are open to public
inspection. Hagley is extremely rich in treasures of art. A mere
catalogue of them would occupy the whole of our sheet; but we
must notice two curiously carved mahogany tables, which cost
£200.; four exquisitely carved busts of Shakspeare, Milton,
Spenser, and Dryden, by Scheimaker, and bequeathed to George,
Lord Lyttleton, by Pope; the portrait of Pope and his dog,
Bounce; a fine Madonna, by Rubens; several pictures by Vandyke,
Sir Peter Lely, Le Brun, &c. &c. the Gobelin tapestry of the
drawing room; the ceiling painted by Cipriani; and the family
pictures, among which is Judge Lyttleton, copied from the
painted glass in the Middle Temple Hall.
Much as the visiter will admire the refined taste displayed within the
mansion, his admiration will be heightened by the classic taste in which
the grounds are disposed. A short distance from the house, embosomed in
trees, stands the church, built in the time of Henry III.; with a
sublime Gothic arch, richly painted windows, and a ceiling fretted with
the heraldic fires of the Lyttleton family, whose tombs are placed on
all sides; among them, the resting-place of the gay poet is
distinguished by the following plain inscription:--
This unadorned stone was placed here
By the particular desire and express
Directions of the Right Honourable
GEORGE, LORD LYTTLETON,
Who died August 22, 1773, aged 64.
Leaving the church we ascend to the crest of a hill, on which stands the
Prince of Wales's Pillar. From this point, the view is inexpressibly
beautiful, in which may be seen an octagon seat sacred to the memory of
Thomson, and erected on the brow of a verdant steep, his favourite spot.
In the foreground is a gently winding valley; on the rising hill beyond
is a noble wood, whilst to the right the open country fades in the
distance; on the left the Clent hills appear, and a dusky antique tower
stands just below them at the extremity of the wood; whilst in the midst
of it, we can discern the _Doric temple sacred to Pope_. This exquisite
gem of the picturesque is represented in our Engraving.
In the adjoining grove of oaks is the antique tower; in a beautiful
amphitheatre of wood, an Ionic rotunda; and in an embowering grove a
Palladian bridge, with a light airy portico. Here on a fine lawn is the
urn inscribed to Pope, mentioned by Shenstone:
Here Pope! ah, never must that towering mind
To his loved haunts, or dearer friend return;
What art, what friendship! oh! what fame resign'd;
In yonder glade I trace his mournful urn.
At the end of the valley, in an obscure corner is a hermitage, composed
of roots and moss, whence we look down on a piece of water in the
hollow, thickly shaded with tall trees, (_see the engraving_,) over
which is a fine view of distant landscape. This spot is the extremity of
the park, and the Clent hills rise in all their wild irregularity,
immediately behind it.
We have not space to describe, or rather to abridge from Whately's
beautiful description, a tithe of the classic embellishments of Hagley.
Shenstone as well as Pope has here his votive urn. Ivied ruin, temple,
grotto, statue, fountain, and bridge; the proud portico and the humble
rustic seat, alternate amidst these ornamental charms, and never were
Nature and art more delightfully blended than in the beauties of Hagley.
Here Pope, Shenstone, and Thomson[3] passed many hours of calm
contemplation and poetic ease, amidst the hospitalities of the noble
owner of Hagley. To think of their kindred spirits haunting its groves,
and their imaginative contrivances of votive temples, urns, and tablets,
and to combine them with these enchanting scenes of Nature, is to
realize all that Poets have sung of Arcadia of old. Happy! happy life
for the man of letters; what a retreat must your bowers have afforded
from the common-place perplexities of every-day life: Alas! the picture
is almost too sunny for sober contemplation.
[3] Thomson's affectionate letter to his sister, (quoted by
Johnson, who received it from Boswell,) is dated "Hagley, in
Worcestershire, October the 4th, 1747."
* * * * *
_In part of the impression of our last Number, we stated the architect
of the front of_ Apsley House, _to be Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, instead of
Mr. Benjamin Wyatt, by whom the design was furnished, and under whose
superintendence this splendid improvement has been executed. Mr. B.
Wyatt is likewise the architect of the superb mansion built for the late
Duke of York._
* * * * *