recevoir avocat. Une eloquence naturelle, cultivee avec soin, le fit
briller dans le Barreau, et lui consila l'estime des premiers
magistrais. Quoi qu'il eut peu de temps dont il put disposer, il en
trouvoit neanmoins suffisament pour satisfaire la passion qu'il avoit
pour l'agriculture. Il augmenta ses connoissances sur le jardinage, dans
un voyage qu'il fit en Italie. De retour a Paris, il se livra tout
entier a l'agriculture, et fit un grand nombre d'experiences curieuses
et utiles. Le grand Prince de _Conde_, qui aimoit l'agriculture, prenoit
une extreme plaisir a s'entretenir avec lui; et Charles II. Roi
d'Angleterre lui offrit une pension considerable pour l'attacher a la
culture de ses Jardins, mais il refusa ses offres avantageuses par
l'amour qu'il avoit pour sa patrie, et trouva en France les recompenses
due a son merite. On a de lui un excellent livre, intitule 'Instructions
pour les Jardins Fruitiers et Potagers, Paris, 1725, 2 tom. 4to.' _et
plusieurs Lettres sur la meme matiere_." Switzer, in his History of
Gardening, says, that in Mons. de la Quintinye's "Two Voyages into
England, he gained considerable friendship with several lords with whom
he kept correspondence by letters till his death, and these letters,
says Perrault, are all _printed at London_." And he afterwards says,
speaking of Lord Capel's garden at Kew, "the greatest advance made by
him herein, was the bringing over several sorts of fruits from France;
and this noble lord we may suppose to be one that held for many years a
correspondence with Mons. de la Quintinye." Such letters on such
correspondence if ever printed, must be worth perusal.
[55] Lamoignon de Malherbes (that excellent man) had naturalized a vast
number of foreign trees, and at the age of eighty-four, saw every where,
in France, (as Duleuze observes) plants of his own introduction.
The old Earl of _Tweedale_, in the reign of Charles II. and his
immediate successor, planted more than six thousand acres, in Scotland,
with fir trees. In a Tour through Scotland, in 1753, it mentions, that
"The county of Aberdeen is noted for its timber, having in it upwards of
five millions of fir trees, besides vast numbers of other kinds, planted
within these seventy years, by the gentry at and about their seats."
Mr. Marshall, in his "Planting and Rural Ornament," states, that "In
1792, his Grace the Duke of Athol (we speak from the highest authority)
was possessed of a thousand larch trees, then growing on his estates of
Dunkeld and Blair only, of not less than two to four tons of timber
each; and had, at that time, a million larches, of different sizes,
rising rapidly on his estate."
The zeal for planting in Scotland, of late years, has been stimulated by
the writings of James Anderson, and Lord Kames.
It is pleasing to transcribe the following paragraph from a newspaper of
the year 1819:--"Sir Watkin Williams Wynn has planted, within the last
five years, on the mountainous lands in the vicinity of Llangollen,
situated from 1200 to 1400 feet above the level of the sea, 80,000 oaks,
63,000 Spanish chesnuts, 102,000 spruce firs, 110,000 Scotch firs,
90,000 larches, 30,000 wych elms, 35,000 mountain elms, 80,000 ash, and
40,000 sycamores, all of which are, at this time, in a healthy and
thriving condition." It is impossible, on this subject, to avoid paying
a grateful respect to the memory of that bright ornament of our church,
and literature, the late Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, whose extensive
plantations, near Ambleside, have long since enriched that part. The
late Richard Crawshay (surpassed by no being during the whole course of
his very long life, for either integrity or generosity) assured the
present writer, that during an early period of Dr. Watson's planting, he
offered him, on the security of his note of hand only, and to be repaid
at his own entire convenience, ten thousand pounds, and that he (with
grateful thanks to Mr. Crawshay) refused it.
[56] How widely different has the liberal and classic mind of Dr. Alison
viewed the rich pages of Mr. Whateley, in his deep and learned Essays on
Taste, first published nearly twenty years after Mr. Whateley's decease.
One regrets that there is no Portrait of Mr. Whateley. Of Dr. Alison,
there is a masterly one by Sir Henry Raeburn, admirably engraved by W.
Walker, of Edinburgh, in 1823. Perhaps it is one of the finest Portraits
of the present day. One is happy to perceive marks of health expressed
in his intellectually striking countenance.
[57] In Biographical Anecdotes, 3 vols. 8vo. appears a correspondence in
London, with Dr. Franklin, and William Whateley, and Joseph Whateley, in
1774. This relates to a duel with Mr. Temple, by a brother of Thomas
Whateley. In some of the Lives of Dr. Franklin, it appears, that
inflammatory and ill-judged letters were written by George Hutchinson,
and others, to _Thomas_ Whateley, Esq. _private Secretary to Lord
Grenville_, respecting some disturbances in America, concerning Lord
Grenville's Stamp Act. On the death of Thomas, these letters were placed
in the hands of Dr. Franklin, whose duty, as agent to the colony, caused
him to transmit them to Boston. A quarrel arose between William Whateley
and Mr. Temple, as to which of them gave up those letters, and a duel
was fought. Dr. Franklin immediately cleared both those gentlemen from
all imputation. Of the celebrated interview in the council chamber,
between Mr. Wedderburn and Dr. Franklin, an account is given by Dr.
Priestley, in vol. xv. page 1. of the Monthly Magazine, and which candid
account entirely acquits Dr. Franklin from having deserved the rancorous
political acrimony of Mr. Wedderburn, whose intemperate language is
fully related in some of the Lives of Dr. Franklin, and in his Life,
published and sold by G. Nicholson, _Stourport_, 12mo. price 9d. and
which also includes Dr. Priestley's account.
Lord Chatham spoke of Franklin in the highest strain of panegyric, when
adverting, in the year 1777, to his dissuasive arguments against the
American war.
William Whateley was administrator of the goods and chattels of his
brother Thomas, who, of course, died without a will.
In vol. ii. of Seward's Biog. Lit. and Political Tracts, the nineteenth
chapter consists of his account of two _Political_ Tracts, by Thomas
Whateley, Esq. and he thus concludes this chapter:--"Mr. Whateley also
wrote a tract on laying out pleasure grounds." In vol. iii. is an
account of the quarrel and duel with Mr. Temple and one of the brothers.
It appears that Thomas Whateley died in June, 1772, and left two
brothers, William and Joseph. Thomas is called "Mr. Secretary Whately."
Debrett published "Scarce Tracts," in 4 vols. 8vo. In vol. i. is one
called "The Budget," by D. Hartley, Esq. This same volume contains a
reply to this, viz. "Remarks on the Budget, by Thomas Whateley, Esq.
Secretary to the Treasury." There is also in vol. ii. another tract by
Thomas Whateley, Esq. entitled "Considerations on the Trade and Finances
of the Kingdom." These two pamphlets, upon subjects so very different
from the alluring one on landscape gardening, and his unfinished one on
Shakspeare, convinces us, what a powerful writer he would have been, had
his life been longer spared.
[58] The reader will be amply gratified by perusing page 158 of the late
Sir U. Price's well known Letter to Mr. Repton, as well as Mr. Morris's
Observations on Water, as regards Ornamental Scenery; inserted in the
Gardener's Magazine for May, 1827. Mr. Whateley's distinction between a
river, a rivulet, and a rill, form, perhaps, five of the most seductive
pages of his book. Our own Shakspeare's imagery on this subject, should
not be overlooked:--
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with the enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage:
And so by many winding nooks he strays
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
[59] The benevolent mind of the marquis shines even in his concluding
chapter; for he there wishes "to bring us back to a true taste for
beautiful nature--to more humane and salutary regulations of the
country--to produce the _moral_ landscapes which delight the mind. His
view of the good mother, seeing her children playing round her at their
cottage, near the common, thus "endearing her home, and making even the
air she breathed more delightful to her, make these sort of commons, to
me, the most delightful of _English gardens_. The dwellings of the happy
and peaceful husbandmen would soon rise up in the midst of compact
farms. Can there exist a more delightful habitation for man, than a neat
farm-house in the centre of a pleasing landscape? There avoiding disease
and lassitude, useless expence, the waste of land in large and dismal
parks, and above all, by preventing misery, and promoting happiness, we
shall indeed have gained the prize of having united the agreeable with
the useful. Perhaps, when every folly is exhausted, there will come a
time, in which men will be so far enlightened as to prefer the real
pleasures of nature to vanity and chimera."
[60] Perhaps it may gratify those who seek for health, by their
attachment to gardens, to note the age that some of our English
horticulturists have attained to:--Parkinson died at about 78;
Tradescant, the father, died an old man; Switzer, about 80; Sir Thomas
Browne died at 77; Evelyn, at 86; Dr. Beale, at 80; Jacob Bobart, at 85;
Collinson, at 75; a son of Dr. Lawrence (equally fond of gardens as his
father) at 86; Bishop Compton, at 81; Bridgman, at an advanced age;
Knowlton, gardener to Lord Burlington, at 90; Miller, at 80; James Lee,
at an advanced age; Lord Kames, at 86; Abercrombie, at 80; the Rev. Mr.
Gilpin, at 80; Duncan, a gardener, upwards of 90; Hunter, who published
_Sylva_, at 86; Speechley, at 86; Horace Walpole, at 80; Mr. Bates, the
celebrated and ancient horticulturist of High Wickham, who died there in
December, 1819, at the great age of 89; Marshall, at an advanced age;
Sir Jos. Banks, at 77; Joseph Cradock, at 85; James Dickson, at 89; Dr.
Andrew Duncan, at 83; and Sir U. Price, at 83. Mr. Loudon, at page 1063
of his Encyclop. inform us, that a market garden, and nursery, near
Parson's Green, had been, for upwards of two centuries, occupied by a
family of the name of Rench; that one of them (who instituted the first
annual exhibition of flowers) died at the age of ninety-nine years,
having had thirty-three children; and that his son (mentioned by
Collinson, as famous for forest trees) introduced the moss-rose, planted
the elm trees now growing in the Bird-cage Walk, St. James's Park, from
trees reared in his own nursery, married two wives, had thirty-five
children, and died in 1783, in the same room in which he was born, at
the age of a hundred and one years. Reflecting on the great age of some
of the above, reminds me of what a "Journal Encyclopedique" said of
Lestiboudois, another horticulturist and botanist, who died at Lille, at
the age of ninety, and who (for even almost in our ashes _live their
wonted fires_) gave lectures in the very last year of his life. "When he
had (says an ancient friend of his) but few hours more to live, he
ordered snow-drops, violets, and crocuses, to be brought to his bed, and
compared them with the figures in Tournefort. His whole existence had
been consecrated to the good of the public, and to the alleviation of
misery; thus he looked forward to his dissolution with a tranquillity of
soul that can only result from a life of rectitude; he never acquired a
fortune; and left no other inheritance to his children, but integrity
and virtue."
[61] About eighty years previous to Hyll's Treatise on Bees, Rucellai,
an Italian of distinction, who aspired to a cardinal's hat, and who
laboured with zeal and taste (I am copying from De Sismondi's View of
the Literature of the South of Europe) to render Italian poetry
classical, or a pure imitation of the ancients, published his most
celebrated poem on Bees. "It receives (says De Sismondi) a particular
interest from the real fondness which Rucellai seems to have entertained
for these creatures. There is something so sincere in his respect for
their virgin purity, and in his admiration of the order of their
government, that he inspires us with real interest for them. All his
descriptions are full of life and truth."
[62] Ben Jonson, in his _Discourses_, gives the following eulogy on this
illustrious author:--"No member of his speech but consisted of his own
graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss.
He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his
devotion: no man had their affections more in his power; the fear of
every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end." Mr. Loudon,
when treating on the study of plants, observes, that "This wonderful
philosopher explored and developed the true foundations of human
knowledge, with a sagacity and penetration unparalleled in the history
of mankind." What Clement VIII. applied to the eight books of Hooker's
Ecclesiastical Polity, may well apply to the writings of Bacon:--"there
is no learning that this man hath not searched into. His books will get
reverence by age, for there is in them such seeds of eternity, that they
will continue till the last fire shall devour all learning." Monsieur
Thomas, in his Eulogy of Descartes, says, "Bacon explored every path of
human knowledge, he sat in judgment on past ages, and anticipated those
that were to come." The reader will be gratified by inspecting the
second volume of Mr. Malone's publication of Aubrey's Letters, in the
Bodleian Library, as well as the richly decorated and entertaining
Beauties of England and Wales, and Pennant's Tour from Chester to
London, for some curious notices of the ancient mansion, garden, and
orchard, at Gorhambury.
[63] The reader will be amply gratified by Mr. Johnson's review of the
general state of horticulture at this period, in his History of English
Gardening, and with the zeal with which he records the attachment of
James I. and Charles, to this science; and where, in a subsequent
chapter, he glances on the progress of our Botany, and proudly twines
round the brows of the modest, but immortal, Ray, a most deserved and
generous wreath.
[64] I subjoin a few extracts from the first book of his English
Husbandman, 4to. 1635:--"A garden is so profitable, necessary, and such
an ornament and grace to every house and housekeeper, that the
dwelling-place is lame and maimed if it want that goodly limbe, and
beauty. I do not wonder either at the worke of art, or nature, when I
behold in a goodly, rich and fertill soyle, a garden adorned with all
the delights and delicacies which are within man's understanding,
because the naturall goodnesse of the earth (which not enduring to bee
idle) will bring forth whatsoever is cast into her; but when I behold
upon a barren, dry, and dejected earth, such as the Peake-hills, where a
man may behold snow all summer, or on the East-mores, whose best herbage
is nothing but mosse, and iron-stone, in such a place, I say, to behold
a delicate, rich, and fruitful garden, it shewes great worthinesse in
the owner, and infinite art and industry in the workeman, and makes mee
both admire and love the begetters of such excellencies."
And again,--"For the situation of the garden-plot for pleasure, you
shall understand, that it must ever bee placed so neare unto the
dwelling-house as it is possible, both because the eye of the owner may
be a guard and support from inconveniences, as all that the especial
roomes and prospects of the house may be adorned, perfumed, and inriched
with the delicate proportions, odoriferous smells, and wholesome airs
which shall ascend and vaporate from the same."
He then gives a variety of cuts of knots and mazes, and labyrinths, of
which he observes, that "many other adornations and beautifyings there
are, which belong to the setting forth of a curious garden, but for as
much as none are more rare or more esteemed than these I have set down,
being the best ornaments of the best gardens of this kingdome, I think
them tastes sufficient for every husbandman or other of better quality,
which delighteth in the beauty, and well trimming of his ground." He
thus remarks:--"as in the composition of a delicate woman, the grace of
her cheeke is the mixture of red and white, the wonder of her eye blacke
and white, and the beauty of her hand blew and white, any of which is
not said to be beautifull if it consist of single or simple colours; and
so in these walkes or alleyes the all greene, nor the all yellow cannot
be said to bee most beautifull, but the greene and yellow, (that is to
say, the untroade grasse, and the well knit gravell) being equally mixt,
give the eye both luster and delight beyond all comparison."
His description of the following flower is singular: "_The Crowne
Emperiall_, is, of all flowers, both forraigne and home-bred, the
delicatest, and strangest: it hath the true shape of an imperiall
crowne, and will be of divers colours, according to the art of the
gardener. In the middest of the flower you shall see a round pearle
stand, in proportion, colour, and orientnesse, like a true naturall
pearle, only it is of a soft liquid substance: this pearle, if you shake
the flower never so violently, will not fall off, neyther if you let it
continue never so long, will it eyther encrease or diminish in the
bignesse, but remaineth all one: yet if with your finger you take and
wipe it away, in less than an hour after you shall have another arise in
the same place, and of the same bignesse. This pearle, if you taste it
upon your tongue, is pleasant, and sweet like honey: this flower when
the sunne ariseth, you shall see it looke directly to the east, with the
stalk bent lowe thereunto, and as the sunne ariseth higher and higher,
so the flower will likewise ascend, and when the sunne is come into the
meridian or noone poynt, which is directly over it, then will it stand
upright upon the stalke, and looke directly upward, and as the sunne
declineth, so will it likewise decline, and at the sunne setting looke
directly to the west only."
His mention of another flower is attractive:--"Now for your _Wall
Gilliflower_, it delighteth in hard rubbish, limy, and stony grounds,
whence it commeth they covet most to grow upon walls, pavements, and
such like barraine places. It may be sowen in any moneth or season, for
it is a seed of that hardness, that it makes no difference betwixt
winter and summer, but will flourish in both equally, and beareth his
flowers all the yeere, whence it comes that the husbandman preserves it
most in his _bee-garden_, for it is _wondrous sweet_, and affordeth much
honey. It would be sowen in very small quantity, for after it hath once
taken roote, it will naturally of itself overspread much ground, and
hardly ever after be rooted out. It is of itselfe of so exceeding a
strong, and _sweet smell_, that it cannot be forced to take any other,
and therefore is ever preserved in its owne nature."
[65] Mr. Loudon, in his Encycl. of Gardening, fondly reviews the taste
for flowers which pervaded most ranks during the time of Elizabeth, and
Evelyn.
The _Spectacle de la Nature_, of which we have a translation in 1740,
has a richly diffuse chapter on flowers. I here transcribe a small part
thereof:--
_Prior._ "The beauty of flowers never fails to inspire us with joy; and
when we have sufficiently examined the fairest, we are sensible they are
only proper to refresh the sight; and, indeed, the prospect they afford
is so touching, and we experience their power to be so effectual, that
the generality of those arts which are ambitious to please, seem most
successful when they borrow their assistance. Sculpture imitates them in
its softest ornaments; architecture bestows the embellishments of leaves
and festoons on those columns and fronts, which would otherwise be too
naked. The richest embroideries are little more than foliage and
flowers; the most magnificent silks are almost covered with these
charming forms, and are thought beautiful, in proportion as they
resemble the lively tinge of natural flowers.
"These have always been the symbols, or representations of joy; they
were formerly the inseparable ornaments of feasts, and are still
introduced with applause, toward the close of our entertainments, when
they are brought in with the fruit, to enliven the festival that begins
to languish. And they are so peculiarly adapted to scenes of pleasure,
that they are always considered as inconsistent with mourning. Decency,
informed by nature, never admits them into those places where tears and
affliction are predominant.
_Countess._ "The festivals in the country are never celebrated without
garlands, and the entertainments of the polite are ushered in by a
flower. If the winter denies them that gratification, they have recourse
to art. A young bride, in all the magnificence of her nuptial array,
would imagine she wanted a necessary part of her ornaments, if she did
not improve them with a sprig of flowers. A queen, amidst the greatest
solemnities, though she is covered with the jewels of the crown, has an
inclination to this rural ornament; she is not satisfied with mere
grandeur and majesty, but is desirous of assuming an air of softness and
gaiety, by the mediation of flowers.
_Prior._ "Religion itself, with all its simplicity and abstraction, and
amidst the abhorrence it professes to theatrical pomp, which rather
tends to dissipate the heart, than to inspire it with a due reverence
for sacred mysteries, and a sensibility of human wants, permits some of
its festivals to be celebrated with boughs, and chaplets of flowers."
[66] In his Diary is the following entry:--"1658, 27 Jan. After six fits
of an ague, died my son Richard, five years and three days old onely,
but, at that tender age, a prodigy for witt and understanding; for
beauty of body, a very angel; for endowment of mind, of incredible and
rare hopes. He was all life, all prettinesse. What shall I say of his
frequent pathetical ejaculations uttered of himselfe: _Sweete Jesus,
save me, deliver me, pardon my sins, let thine angels receive me!_ So
early knowledge, so much piety and perfection! Such a child I never saw!
for such a child I blesse God in whose bosome he is!"
Nanteuil's portrait is prefixed to his _Sylva_, 1664; and a fine copy of
the same, by Bartolozzi, is prefixed to Hunter's _Sylva_. Worlidge
engraved a fine portrait of him, prefixed to his _Sculptura_. Gaywood
engraved his portrait for the translation of _Lucretius_. In Walpole's
Anecdotes is his portrait, by Bannerman.
[67] In "A Picturesque Promenade round Dorking," are selected many
interesting particulars of Mr. Evelyn.
[68] Essex lost his head for having said that Elizabeth grew old and
cankered, and that her mind was as crooked as her carcase. Perhaps the
beauty of Mary galled Elizabeth.
The Quarterly Review of July, 1828, thus remarks:--"When Elizabeth's
wrinkles waxed many, it is reported that an unfortunate master of the
Mint incurred disgrace, by a too faithful shilling; the die was broken,
and only one mutilated impression is now in existence. Her maids of
honour took the hint, and were thenceforth careful that no fragment of a
looking glass should remain in any room of the palace. In fact, the
lion-hearted lady had not heart to look herself in the face for the last
twenty years of her life."