Chapter M: STEVENSON published in small 4to. 1661, a book called The Twelve (4)

LORD KAMES. His portrait is prefixed to the memoirs of him, by Lord Woodhouselee, in 2 vols. 4to. 1807. There is an edition of the same work, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1814, with the same portrait, which is engraved from a drawing by D. Martin. His "Gentleman Farmer" spread his fame through Scotland. Its preface is particularly interesting. Mr. Smellie, in his Literary Lives of Gregory, Home, Hume, Adam Smith, and Lord Kames, after giving many interesting particulars of the latter, and after noticing his benevolence to the poor, during the whole course of his long life, proceeds:--"One great feature in the character of Lord Kames, besides his literary talents, and his public spirit, was a remarkable innocency of mind. He not only never indulged in detraction, but when any species of scandal was exhibited in his company, he either remained silent, or endeavoured to give a turn to the conversation. As natural consequences of this amiable disposition, he never meddled with politics, even when politics ran to indecent lengths in this country; and what is still more remarkable, he never wrote a sentence, notwithstanding his numerous publications, without a direct and a manifest intention to benefit his fellow creatures. In his temper he was naturally warm, though kindly and affectionate. In the friendships he formed, he was ardent, zealous and sincere. So far from being inclined to irreligion, as some ignorant bigots insinuated, few men possessed a more devout habit of thought. A constant sense of Deity, and a veneration for Providence, dwelt upon his mind. From this source arose that propensity, which appears in all his writings, of investigating final causes, and tracing the wisdom of the Supreme Author of Nature." He had the honour to be highly esteemed by the celebrated Mrs. Montagu.

The European Magazine of Nov. 1790, which gives an engraved portrait of him, being a copy of the above, thus speaks: "He was one of the very first who to great legal knowledge, added a considerable share of polite literature. He arrived at the highest rank to which a lawyer could attain in his own country; and he has left to the world such literary productions, as will authorize his friends to place him, if not in the highest, yet much above the lowest, class of elegant and polite writers. He died in 1783, leaving to the world a proof, that an attention to the abstrusest branches of learning, is not incompatible with the more pleasing pursuits of taste and polite literature." He was kind-hearted and humane. His pure taste in landscape scenery, is acknowledged by Mr. Loudon, in p. 81 of the Encyclopaedia of Gardening. _Blair Drummond_ will long be celebrated as having been his residence, and he there displayed his superior taste in planting and improving.

In his "Elements of Criticism," (a truly original work) there is a distinct chapter on architecture and gardening. He therein thus addresses the reader:--"These cursory observations upon gardening, shall be closed with some reflections that must touch every reader. Rough uncultivated ground, dismal to the eye, inspires peevishness and discontent: may not this be one cause of the harsh manners of savages? A field richly ornamented, containing beautiful objects of various kinds, displays in full lustre the goodness of the Deity, and the ample provision he has made for our happiness. Ought not the spectator to be filled with gratitude to his Maker, and with benevolence to his fellow creatures? Other fine arts may be perverted to excite irregular and even vicious emotions; but gardening, which inspires the purest and most refined pleasures, cannot fail to promote every good affection. The gaiety and harmony of mind it produceth, inclineth the spectator to communicate his satisfaction to others, and to make them happy as he is himself, and tends naturally to establish in him a habit of humanity and benevolence."

JOHN ABERCROMBIE'S manly and expressive countenance is best given in the portrait prefixed to an edition in 2 vols. 8vo. published Feb. 1, 1783, by Fielding and Debrett. He is also drawn at full-length at his age of seventy-two, in the sixteenth edition, printed in 1800, with a pleasing view of a garden in the back-ground, neatly engraved. This honest, unassuming man, persevered "through a long life of scarcely interrupted health," in the ardent pursuit of his favourite science. The tenor of his life exemplified how much a garden calms the mind, and tranquilly sets at rest its turbulent passions. Mr. Loudon's Encyclop. of Gardening, after giving some interesting points of his history, thus concludes: "In the spring of 1806, being in his eightieth year, he met with a severe fall, by which he broke the upper part of his thigh bone. This accident, which happened to him on the 15th of April, terminated in his death. After lying in a very weak exhausted state, without much pain, he expired in the night, between April and May, as St. Paul's church struck twelve. He was lamented by all who knew him, as cheerful, harmless, and upright." One of his biographers thus relates of him: "Abercrombie from a fall down stairs in the dark, died at the age of eighty, and was buried at St. Pancras. He was present at the famous battle of Preston Pans, which was fought close to his father's garden walls. For the last twenty years of his life he lived chiefly on tea, using it three times a-day: his pipe was his first companion in the morning, and last at night.[87] He never remembered to have taken a dose of physic in his life, prior to his last fatal accident, nor of having a day's illness but once." A list of his works appears in Watts's Bibl. Brit., and a most full one in Johnson's History of English Gardening, who, with many collected particulars of Abercrombie, relates the great and continually increasing sale of some of his works.

LAUNCELOT BROWNE, Esq. His portrait was painted by Dance, and engraved by Sherwin. Under this portrait are engraved the following lines, from the pen of Mr. Mason, which are also inscribed on the tomb of Mr. Browne, in the church of Fen-Staunton, Huntingdonshire:

_Ye sons of elegance, who truly taste
The simple charms which genuine art supplies,
Come from the sylvan scenes his genius drew,
And offer here your tributary sighs.
But know, that more than genius slumbers here,
Virtues were his that art's best powers transcend,
Come, ye superior train! who these revere,
And weep the christian, husband, father, friend._

Mr. Walpole, too, pays Mr. Browne this elegant compliment: "Did living artists come within my plan, I should be glad to do justice to Mr. Browne; but he may be a gainer by being reserved for some abler pen." This celebrated landscape gardener died suddenly, in Hertford Street, May Fair, on the 6th of February, 1783, on his return from a visit to his old friend the Earl of Coventry. Mr. Browne, though bred a common gardener at Stowe, possessed a cultivated mind, and his society was much courted. Joseph Cradock, Esq. called him "a most agreeable, unassuming man." He amassed a large fortune. He was consulted by most of the nobility and gentry, and the places he laid out or altered, were, as Mr. Loudon observes, beyond all reckoning. Mr. Repton has given a list of his principal works.

It has been the fate of this eminent master of landscape embellishment, to be severely censured by some, and lavishly praised by others. The late keen and consummate observer of landscape scenery, Sir Uvedale Price, harshly condemns the too frequent cold monotony and tameness of many of Mr. Browne's creations, and his never transfusing into his works any thing of the taste and spirit which prevail in the poet Mason's precepts and descriptions; and in one of his acute, yet pleasant pages, he alludes to his having but _one_ and the same plan of operation; _Sangrado_-like, treating all disorders in the same manner. Perhaps the too general smoothness and tameness of Mr. Browne's pleasure-grounds ill accorded with Sir Uvedale's enthusiasm for the more sublime views of forest scenery, rapid and stony torrents and cascades, wild entangled dingles, and craggy breaks; or with the high and sublime notions he had imbibed from the rich scenery of nature so often contemplated by him in the landscapes of _Claude_, or in those of _Rubens_, _Gaspar Poussin_, _Salvator Rosa_, or of _Titian_, "the greatest of all landscape painters." Perhaps Sir Uvedale preferred "unwedgeable and gnarled oaks," to "the tameness of the poor pinioned trees of a gentleman's plantation, drawn up straight," or the wooded banks of a river, to the "bare shaven border of a canal."[88]

Daines Barrington happily said, "Kent has been succeeded by Browne, who hath undoubtedly great merit in laying out pleasure-grounds; but I conceive that in some of his plans, I see rather traces of the kitchen-gardener of old Stowe, than of Poussin or Claude Lorraine: I could wish, therefore, that Gainsborough gave the design, and that Browne executed it."[89] Mr. Loudon observes, "that Browne must have possessed considerable talents, the extent of his reputation abundantly proves; but that he was imbued with much of that taste for picturesque beauty, which distinguished the works of Kent, Hamilton, and Shenstone, we think will hardly be asserted by any one who has observed attentively such places as are known to be his creations." Mr. George Mason candidly asks, "why Browne should be charged with all the defects of those that have called themselves his followers, I have seen no good reason alleged, nor can I suppose it possible to produce one." Many of his imitators exhibited so little talent in their creations, that Mr. Browne's name considerably suffered in the estimation of many.

Mr. Gilpin speaks of Browne's improvements at Blenheim in high terms. Mr. Marshall in his Survey of Stowe and Fisherwick, in vol. i. of his "Planting and Rural Ornament," and at p. 384, pays a fair tribute to him. Much general information respecting him may be seen in Mr. Loudon's chapter "Of the rise, progress, and present state of gardening in the British Isles." The candour and rich conciseness of this review, embraces the whole _magic of the art_, as respects landscape gardening.[90]

FRANCIS ZAVIER VISPRE wrote "A Dissertation on the Growth of Wine in England", Bath, 8vo. 1786. Mr. Vispre died poor, between thirty and forty years ago, in St. Martin's Lane. He excelled in painting portraits in crayons: Sir Joshua much esteemed him. He was a most inoffensive man, of the mildest manners, and of the purest integrity. I have seen his portrait in crayons, in an oval, finely finished by himself, but know not now where that is. On his mode of training the vine _very near the ground_, see p. 757 of the Encyclop. of Gardening.

WILLIAM MASON, precentor and canon of York, died in 1797. His friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted an impressive portrait of him, which is engraved by Doughty. A masterly copy of this fine portrait is in Mr. Cadell's Contemporary Portraits. A copy is also prefixed to the edition of his works, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1811, published by Mr. Cadell. His portrait was also taken by Vaslet, and engraved by Carter, 1771. It is a large metz etching. He translated Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, to which Sir Joshua added some notes. Mr. Mason has prefixed an Epistle to Sir Joshua, which thus concludes:

And oh! if ought thy poet can pretend
Beyond his favourite wish, to _call thee friend_:
Be it that here his tuneful toil has dress'd
The muse of _Fresnoy_ in a modern vest;
And, with what skill his fancy could bestow,
Taught the close folds to take an easier flow;
Be it that here, thy partial smile approv'd
The pains he lavish'd on the art he lov'd.

Mr. Mason's attachment to painting was an early one, is conspicuous in many of his writings, and in his English Garden, is visible throughout:

----feel ye there
What _Reynolds_ felt, when first the Vatican
Unbarr'd her gates, and to his raptur'd eye
Gave all the god-like energy that flow'd
From _Michael's_ pencil; feel what _Garrick_ felt,
When first he breath'd the soul of _Shakspeare's_ page.

Sir Joshua, in his will, bequeaths his then supposed portrait of Milton to Mr. Mason.

Mr. Gray thus observes of Mason, when at Cambridge:--"So ignorant of the world and its ways, that this does not hurt him in one's opinion; so sincere and so undisguised, that no mind with a spark of generosity would ever think of hurting him, he lies so open to injury; but so indolent, that if he cannot overcome this habit, all his good qualities will signify nothing at all."

Mr. Mason, in 1754, found a patron in the Earl of Holderness, who presented him with the living of _Aston_, in Yorkshire. This sequestred village was favourable to his love of poetry and picturesque scenery; which displayed itself at large in his English Garden, and was the foundation of his lasting friendship with Mr. Gilpin, who to testify his esteem, dedicated to him his _Observations on the Wye_. A biographer of the late Mr. Shore, of Norton Hall, (the friend of Priestley), thus mentions _Aston_:--"That truly conscientious, and truly learned and excellent man, Mr. Lindsey, spent a whole week in this neighbourhood. He was during that time the guest of his friend Mr. Mason, who was residing on his rectory at _Aston_, the biographer of Gray, and one whose taste, gave beauty, and poetry, celebrity, to that cheerful village." His friendship for Mr. Gray, terminated only with the life of the latter. In 1770 Mr. Mason was visited at Aston, for the last time, by him. His last letter to Mr. Mason was from Pembroke-hall, in May, 1771, and on the 31st of the next month, and at that place, this sublime genius paid the debt of nature. The following epitaph was written by Mr. Mason, and inscribed on the monument in Westminster Abbey:

No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns;
To Britain let the nations homage pay:
She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains,
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray.

He farther evinced his attachment to this elegant scholar by publishing his poems and letters, to which he prefixed memoirs of him. He commences the third book of his English Garden with an invocation to his memory, and records, in lofty language, his eye glistening and his accents glowing, when viewing the charms of all-majestic Nature--the heights of Skiddaw and the purple crags of Borrowdale. And on a rustic alcove, in the garden at Aston, which he dedicated to Mr. Gray, he inscribed this stanza from the celebrated elegy:

_Here scatter'd oft, the loveliest of the year,
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found;
The red-breast loves to build and warble here,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground._

Mr. Mason married in 1765 a most amiable woman; she fell at length into a rapid consumption, and at Bristol hot-wells she died. Gray's letter to Mr. Mason while at that place, is full of eloquence; upon which the latter observes, "I opened it almost at the precise moment when it would be necessarily most affecting. His epitaph on the monument he erected on this lady, in the Bristol cathedral, breathes such tender feeling and chaste simplicity, that it can need no apology for being noticed here:

Take, holy earth! all that my soul holds dear;
Take that best gift which heav'n so lately gave:
To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care
Her faded form: she bow'd to taste the wave
And died. Does youth, does beauty, read the line?
Does sympathetic fears their breasts alarm?
Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine:
E'en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm.
Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee;
Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move;
And if so fair, from vanity as free;
As firm in friendship, and as fond in love.
Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die,
('Twas e'en to thee) yet the dread path once trod,
Heav'n lifts its everlasting portals high,
And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."

A very short time after Mrs. Mason's death, he began his English Garden, and invokes the genius both of poetry and painting

----that at my birth
Auspicious smil'd, and o'er my cradle dropp'd
Those magic seeds of Fancy, which produce
A Poet's feeling, and a Painter's eye.
----with lenient smiles to deign to cheer,
At this sad hour, my desolated soul.
For deem not ye that I resume the lyre
To court the world's applause; my years mature
Have learn'd to slight the toy. No, 'tis to soothe
That agony of heart, which they alone,
Who best have lov'd, who best have been belov'd,
Can feel, or pity: sympathy severe!
Which she too felt, when on her pallid lip
The last farewell hung trembling, and bespoke
A wish to linger here, and bless the arms
She left for heav'n.--She died, and heav'n is her's!
Be mine, the pensive solitary balm
That recollection yields. Yes, angel pure!
While memory holds her seat, thine image still
Shall reign, shall triumph there; and when, as now,
Imagination forms a nymph divine,
To lead the fluent strain, thy modest blush,
Thy mild demeanour, thy unpractis'd smile,
Shall grace that nymph, and sweet Simplicity
Be dress'd (ah, meek Maria!) in thy charms.

Dr. Thomas Warton thus speaks of the above poem, when reviewing Tusser's Husbandry:--"Such were the rude beginnings in the English language of didactic poetry, which, on a kindred subject, the present age has seen brought to perfection, by the happy combination of judicious precepts, with the most elegant ornaments of language and imagery, in Mr. Mason's English Garden." His Elfrida and Caractacus, are admired for boldness of conception and sublime description. Elfrida was set to Music by Arne, and again by Giardini. Caractacus was also set to music. Mr. Mason's success with both these dramatic poems was beyond his most sanguine expectation.

Dr. Darwin wrote an epitaph on Mr. Mason; these lines are its concluding part:

Weave the bright wreath, to worth departed just,
And hang unfading chaplets on his bust;
While pale Elfrida, bending o'er his bier,
Breathes the soft sigh and sheds the graceful tear;
And stern Caractacus, with brow depress'd
Clasps the cold marble to his mailed breast.
In lucid troops shall choral virgins throng,
With voice alternate chant their poet's song.
And, oh! in golden characters record
Each firm, immutable, immortal word!

"Those last two lines from the final chorus of Elfrida, (says Miss Seward), admirably close this tribute to the memory of him who stands second to Gray, as a lyric poet; whose English Garden is one of the happiest efforts of didactic verse, containing the purest elements of horticultural taste, dignified by freedom and virtue, rendered interesting by episode, and given in those energetic and undulating measures which render blank verse excellent; whose unowned satires, yet certainly his, the heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers, and its postscript, are at once original in their style, harmonious in their numbers, and pointed in their ridicule; whose tragedies are the only pathetic tragedies which have been written in our language upon the severe Greek model. The Samson Agonistes bears marks of a stronger, but also of an heavier hand, and is unquestionably less touching than the sweet Elfrida, and the sublime Caractacus."

Mr. Mason, in 1756 published four Odes. "It would be difficult to say, (says the biographer of the annual Necrology of 1797,) which is most to be admired, the vividness of the conception, or the spirit of liberty, and the ardent love of independance throughout. The address to Milton in his Ode to Memory, and to Andrew Marvel, in that to Independance, cannot be too much admired. At the period when the Middlesex election was so much agitated, he united with those independant freeholders, who, by their declarations and petitions, throughout the nation, opposed corruption, and claimed a reform in parliament; and when the county of York assembled in 1779, he was of the committee, and had a great share in drawing up their spirited resolutions. The animated vindication of the conduct of the freeholders, and other papers, though printed anonimously in the newspapers, and so printed in Mr. Wyvill's collection of political tracts, in 3 vols. are well known to be Mr. Mason's production. This conduct rendered him obnoxious to the court party. He was at this time one of the king's chaplains, but when it became his turn to preach before the royal family, the queen appointed another person to supply his place. It has been observed, that his sentiments in a later period of his life, took a colour less favourable to liberty. Whether alarmed at the march of the French revolution, or from the timidity of age, we know not. His friend Horace Walpole, charges him with flat apostacy:" The _Heroic Epistle_ to Sir W. Chambers, and the _Heroic Postscript_, are now positively said to have been written by Mr. Mason. Mr. Thomas Warton observed, "they may have been written by Walpole, and buckramed by Mason."

The late Sir U. Price, in the generous and patriotic conclusion of his letter to Mr. Repton, pays a delicate compliment to the genius of Mr. Mason in whatever concerns rural scenery; and his respect for Mr. Mason, and his high opinion of his talents, is farther shewn in pp. 295 and 371 of his first volume, and in p. 94 of vol. ii. Mr. Mathias, after supposing Mr. Mason to have been the author of the Heroic Epistle, and after paying a high compliment to his general poetry, thus concludes his generous tribute:

Whence is that groan? no more Britannia sleeps,
But o'er her lov'd Musaeus bends and weeps.
Lo, every Grecian, every British muse
Scatter the recent flowers and gracious dews
Where MASON lies!
And in his breast each soft affection dwelt,
That love and friendship know; each sister art,
With all that colours, and that sounds impart,
All that the sylvan theatre can grace,
All in the soul of MASON found their place!
Low sinks the laurell'd head: in Mona's land
I see them pass, 'tis Mador's drooping band,
To harps of woe, in holiest obsequies,
In yonder grave, they chant, our Druid lies!

ERASMUS DARWIN. In the life of this justly celebrated physician, by Miss Seward, she informs us, that in the year 1770, he sat to Mr. Wright of Derby; and that it was "a contemplative portrait, of the most perfect resemblance." Whether it has been engraved I know not. He was then in his thirty-eighth year. Dr. Thornton, in his superb work on botany, has given a fine portrait of Dr. Darwin, at a more advanced period of his life. It breathes intelligence in every feature, and is a masterly likeness. The late Mr. Archdeacon Clive preserved a highly-finished miniature portrait of him, which was ordered by Dr. Darwin for the express purpose of being presented to this worthy clergyman, whom he so much esteemed.[91]

Dr. Darwin published,

1. Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life.

2. Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, 4to. 1800. "A vast field of treasured observation and scientific literature."

3. The Botanic Garden.

Lord Byron, and others, have been severe on this poem. The lines, however, on the soldier's wife and infants, after watching the battle of Minden--those animated ones to Mr. Howard--or when the mother, during the plague in London, commits her children to the grave,

_When o'er the friendless bier no rites were read,
No dirge slow chanted, and no pall outspread;_

these make one gladly acknowledge, that pathetic powers were the gift of Darwin's muse. The sublimity of the following address to our _first_ daring aeronaut, merits insertion:

--Rise, great Mongolfier! urge thy venturous flight
High o'er the moon's pale, ice-reflected light;
High o'er the pearly star, whose beamy horn
Hangs in the east, gay harbinger of morn;
Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing,
Jove's silver guards, and Saturn's dusky ring;
Leave the fair beams, which issuing from afar
Play with new lustres round the Georgian star;
Shun with strong oars the sun's attractive throne,
The burning Zodiac, and the milky Zone:
Where headlong comets with increasing force
Through other systems bend their burning course!
For thee Cassiope her chair withdraws,
For thee the Bear retracts his shaggy paws;
High o'er the north thy golden orb shall roll,
And blaze eternal round the wondering pole.[92]

Miss Seward, after stating that professional generosity distinguished Dr. Darwin's medical practice at Lichfield, farther says, that "diligently also did he attend to the health of the poor in that city, and afterwards at Derby, and supplied their necessities by food, and all sorts of charitable assistance. In each of those towns, _his_ was the cheerful board of almost open-housed hospitality, without extravagance or pride; deeming ever the first unjust, the latter unmanly. Generosity, wit and science, were his household gods."[93] She again states that when he removed from Lichfield to Derby, "his renown, as a physician, still increased as time rolled on, and his mortal life declined from its noon. Patients resorted to him more and more, from every part of the kingdom, and often from the continent. All ranks, all orders of society, all religions, leaned upon his power to ameliorate disease, and to prolong existence. The rigid and sternly pious, who had attempted to renounce his aid, from a superstition that no blessing would attend the prescriptions of a sceptic, sacrificed, after a time, their superstitious scruples to their involuntary consciousness of his mighty skill." Mr. Mathias, though he severely criticizes some of Dr. Darwin's works, yet he justly calls him "this very ingenious man, and most excellent physician, for such he undoubtedly was."

From scattered passages in Miss Seward's Life of him, one can easily trace the delight he took (notwithstanding his immense professional engagements,) in the scenery of nature and gardens;--witness his frequent admiration of the tangled glen and luxuriant landscape at _Belmont_, its sombre and pathless woods, impressing us with a sense of solemn seclusion, like the solitudes of _Tinian_, or _Juan Fernandes_, with its "silent and unsullied stream," which the admirable lines he addresses to the youthful owner of that spot so purely and temperately allude to:--

O, friend to peace and virtue, ever flows
For thee my silent and unsullied stream,
Pure and untainted as thy blameless life!
Let no gay converse lead thy steps astray,
To mix my chaste wave with immodest wine,
Nor with the poisonous cup, which Chemia's hand
Deals (fell enchantress!) to the sons of folly!
So shall young Health thy daily walks attend,
Weave for thy hoary brow the vernal flower
Of cheerfulness, and with his nervous arm
Arrest th' inexorable scythe of Time.

So early, and indeed throughout his whole life, did Dr. Darwin enforce the happy consequences of temperance and sobriety; from his conviction of the pernicious effects of all kinds of intemperance on the youthful constitution. He had an absolute horror of spirits of all sorts, however diluted. Pure water was, throughout the greater part of his temperate life, his favourite beverage. He has been severely censured (no doubt very justly so), for some of his religious prejudices. Old Walter Mapes, the jovial canon of Salisbury, precentor of Lincoln, and arch-deacon of Oxford, in the eleventh century, considered _water_ as fit only for _heretics_.

One may again trace his fondness for the rich scenery of nature, when he in 1777 purchased a wild umbrageous valley near Lichfield, with its mossy fountain of the purest water. This spot he fondly cultivated. The botanic skill displayed by him on this spot, did not escape the searching eye of Mr. Loudon, for in p. 807 of his Encyclop. of Gardening, he pays a deserved compliment to him.[94] Miss Seward wrote some lines on this favoured valley, and these are part of them:

O! may no ruder step these bowers profane,
No midnight wassailers deface the plain;
And when the tempests of the wintry day
Blow golden autumn's varied leaves away,
Winds of the north, restrain your icy gales,
Nor chill the bosom of these hallow'd vales.

His attachment to gardens, induced him to honour the memory of Mr. Mason, by lines once intended for his monument; and he was suggesting improvements at the priory at Derby (and which he had just described the last morning of his life in a sprightly letter to a friend), when the fatal signal was given, and a few hours after, on the 18th of April, 1802, and in his sixty-ninth year, he sunk into his chair and expired. "Thus in one hour (says his affectionate biographer) was extinguished that vital light, which the preceding hour had shone in flattering brightness, promising duration; (such is often _the cunning flattery of nature_), that light, which through half a century, had diffused its radiance and its warmth so widely; that light in which penury had been cheered, in which science had expanded; to whose orb poetry had brought all her images; before whose influence disease had continually retreated, and death so often "turned aside his levelled dart!"[95] That Dr. Darwin, as to his religious principles or prejudices, displayed great errors of judgment in his _Zoonomia_, there can be no doubt. An eminent champion of Christianity, truly observed, that Dr. Darwin "was acquainted with more links in the chain of _second_ causes, than had probably been known to any individual, who went before him; but that he dwelt so much, and so _exclusively_ on second causes, that he too generally seems to have forgotten that there is a first." For these errors he must long since have been called to his account, before one who can appreciate those errors better than we can. Though the _Accusing Spirit_ must have blushed when he gave them in, yet, let us hope, that the _Recording Angel_, out of mercy to his humane heart, and his many good and valuable qualities, may have blotted them out for ever.

REV. WILLIAM GILPIN, who, as Mr. Dallaway, in his Observations on the Arts, observes, "possesses unquestionably the happy faculty to paint with words;" and who farther highly compliments him in his supplementary chapter on Modern Gardening, annexed to his enriched edition of Mr. Walpole's Anecdotes. The Topographer says he "describes with the language of a master, the artless scenes of uncultivated nature." Mr. Walpole in his postscript to his Catalogue of Engravers, after premising, that it might, perhaps, be worth while "to melt down this volume and new cast it," pays this tribute to him: "Were I of authority sufficient to name my successor, or could prevail on him to condescend to accept an office which he could execute with more taste and ability; from whose hands could the public receive so much information and pleasure as from the author of the _Essay on Prints_, and from the _Tours_, &c.? And when was the public ever instructed by the pen and pencil at once, with equal excellence in the style of both, but by Mr. Gilpin?"

Had Mr. Gilpin written nothing more than his "Lectures on the Catechism," that alone would have conferred on him the name of a meritorious writer. His allusion to Plato, his reflections on the Last Judgment, his animated address to youth, and his conclusion of his sixteenth lecture, must strike deep into the heart of every reader. His "Sermons preached to a Country Congregation," prove him a pious, charitable, and valuable man.[96]

The glowing imagery of his style, when viewing the beautiful scenery in many parts of England, and some of the vast and magnificent ones of Scotland, is fraught with many fervid charms. Still we are forced to join Mr. Mathias, in the remonstrance he so justly makes as to the jargonic conceit of some of his language. Mr. Gilpin's first work on picturesque beauty, was his Observations on the River Wye, made in the year 1770. He afterwards published:

Forest Scenery--Picturesque Beauties of the Highlands--Mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland--Western parts of England--Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex--Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. Three Essays, on Picturesque Beauty, on Picturesque Travel, and on Sketching Landscape, to which is added, a poem on Landscape Painting. A full account of his numerous works may be seen in Watts's Bibl. Brit. A complete list of them is also given by Mr. Nichols, in vol. i. of his Illustrations, with a brief memoir. Mr. Johnson also gives a list of such of his works as relate to picturesque scenery, with their titles at large. His portrait was painted by Walton, and engraved in metz by Clint.

JAMES ANDERSON published the following works; and I have given the price of such of them as appeared in the late Mr. Harding's Agricultural Catalogue:--

1. The Bee, or Literary Intelligencer, 18 vols. 8vo. _Edinb._ 1791.

2. Recreations in Agriculture, Natural History, Arts and
Miscellaneous Literature, 6 vols. 8vo. _Lond._ 3_l._ 10s.

3. Essays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 3 vols. 8vo.
1_l._ 7s.

4. Practical Treatise on draining Bogs, 8vo. 6s.

5. Practical Treatise on Peat Moss, 8vo. 5s.

6. On Lime as a Cement and Manure, 8vo. 2s. 6d.

7. An Account of the different kinds of Sheep found in the Russian
Dominions, and amongst the Tartar Hordes, 8vo. 6s.

8. Investigation of the Causes of Scarcity of 1800. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

9. Miscellaneous Thoughts on Planting Timber Trees, chiefly for the
climate of Scotland, by Agricola, 8vo. _Edinb._ 1777.

10. Description of a Patent Hot-house, 1804. 12mo. 5s.

In "Public Characters of 1800 and 1801," a portrait is given of him, a list of his works, and it thus speaks of him: "The manners of this ingenious and very useful man were plain and frank, an indication of an honest and good heart. He was benevolent and generous, a tender parent, and a warm friend, and very highly respected in the circle of his acquaintance." There is a portrait of him, painted by Anderson, and engraved by Ridley. A copy is given in the Mirror, (published by Vernon and Hood), of Nov. 1799. Another is given in the Gentleman's Magazine. He died at West Ham, Essex, in 1808, aged 69. Mr. Lysons, in the Supplement to his Environs of London, gives a few particulars of him.

HORACE WALPOLE. He was the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, who so long guided the destinies of England, and whose attractive and benevolent private life, seems to have fully merited the praise of Pope's elegant muse:

_Seen him I have; but in his happier hour
Of social pleasure,--ill exchang'd for power--
Seen him uncumber'd with the venal tribe,
Smile without art, and win without a bribe._

The best portraits of this intelligent and acute writer, Horace Walpole, are the portrait in Mr. Dallaway's richly decorated edition of the Anecdotes of Painting, from Sir Joshua Reynolds, and that in Mr. Cadell's Contemporary Portraits, from Lawrence. Dance also drew him. Another portrait is prefixed to the ninth volume of his works, in 4to. 1825, from a picture in the possession of the Marquis of Hertford. There is another portrait, engraved by Pariset, from Falconot. Mr. Walpole died in March, 1797, at his favourite seat at Strawberry-hill, at the age of eighty. His manners were highly polished, from his having, during the course of a long life, frequented the first societies. His conversation abounded with interesting anecdote and playful wit. Felicity of narration, and liveliness of expression, mark his graceful pen. The Prince de Ligne (a perfect judge) thus speaks of his _History of the Modern Taste in Gardening_:--"Je n'en admire pas moins l'eloquence, et la profondeur, de son ouvrage sur les jardins." Mr. Walpole himself says:--"We have given the true model of gardening to the world: let other countries mimic or corrupt our taste; but let it reign here on its verdant throne, original by its elegant simplicity, and proud of no other art than that of softening nature's harshnesses, and copying her graceful touch."

Sir U. Price, in vol. i. p. 18 of his Essays, pays high respect to Mr. Walpole, and differs from him "with great deference and reluctance." He observes:--"I can hardly think it necessary to make any excuse for calling Lord Orford, Mr. Walpole; it is the name by which he is best known in the literary world, and to which his writings have given a celebrity much beyond what any hereditary honour can bestow." Mr. Johnson observes:--"To his sketch of the improvements introduced by Bridgman and Kent, and those garden artists, their immediate successors, we may afford the best praise; he appears to be a faithful, and is, an eloquent annalist." It is impossible to pass by this tribute, without reminding my reader, that Mr. Johnson's own review of our ornamental gardening, is energetic and luminous; as is indeed the whole of his comprehensive general review of gardening, from the earliest period, down to the close of the last century.

THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. He devoted himself to literary pursuits; was a profound antiquary, and a truly worthy man. He died in 1800, aged 73, at his chambers in the Temple, and was buried in the Temple church. The attractive improvements in the gardens there, may be said to have originated with him. He possibly looked on them as classic ground; for in these gardens, the proud Somerset vowed to dye their white rose to a bloody red, and Warwick prophesied that their brawl

----in the Temple garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

He published,

1. Observations on the more Ancient Statutes, 4to. To the 5th
edition of which, in 1796, is prefixed his portrait.

2. The Naturalist's Calendar, 8vo.

3. A translation of Orosius, ascribed to Alfred, with notes, 8vo.

4. Tracts on the probability of reaching the North Pole, 4to.

5. In vol. vii. of the Archaeologia, is his paper On the Progress of
Gardening. It was printed as a separate tract by Mr. Nichols, price
1s. 6d.

6. Miscellanies on various subjects, 4to.

Mr. Nichols, in his Life of Bowyer, calls him "a man of amiable character, polite, communicative and liberal;" and in the fifth volume of his Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, he gives a neatly engraved portrait of Mr. Barrington, and some memorials or letters of his. Mr. Boswell ("the cheerful, the pleasant, the inimitable biographer of his illustrious friend"), thus relates Dr. Johnson's wish to become acquainted with Mr. Barrington:--"Soon after he had published his excellent Observations on the Statutes, Johnson waited on that worthy and learned gentleman, and having told him his name, courteously said, 'I have read your book, Sir, with great pleasure, and wish to be better known to you.' Thus began an acquaintance which was continued with mutual regard as long as Johnson lived." John Harris, Esq. the learned author of Philological Enquiries, thus speaks of Mr. Barrington's Observations on the Statutes:--"a valuable work, concerning which it is difficult to decide, whether it is more entertaining or more instructive."

JOSEPH CRADOCK, Esq. whose "Village Memoirs" display his fine taste in landscape gardening. This feeling and generous-minded man, whose gentle manners, polite learning, and excellent talents, entitled him to an acquaintance with the first characters of the age, died in 1826, at the great age of eighty-five. This classical scholar and polished gentleman, who had (as a correspondent observes in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1827) "the habit of enlivening and embellishing every thing which he said with a certain lightning of eye and honied tone of voice," shone in the first literary circles, and ranked as his intimate and valued friends (among many other enlightened persons), David Garrick, and Warburton, Hurd, Johnson, Goldsmith, Percy, and Parr. Dr. Johnson called him "a very pleasing gentleman." Indeed, he appears from every account to have been in all respects an amiable and accomplished person. He had the honour of being selected to dance a minuet with the most graceful of all dancers, Mrs. Garrick, at the Stratford Jubilee. It was to Mr. Cradock, that Dr. Farmer addressed his unanswerable Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare. In acts of humanity and kindness, he was surpassed by few. Pope's line of _the gay conscience of a life well spent_, might well have been applied to Mr. Cradock. When in Leicestershire, "he was respected by people of all parties for his worth, and idolized by the poor for his benevolence." This honest and honourable man, depicted his own mind in the concluding part of his inscription, for the banks of the lake he formed in his romantic and picturesque grounds, in that county:--

_Here on the bank Pomona's blossoms glow,
And finny myriads sparkle from below;
Here let the mind at peaceful anchor rest,
And heaven's own sunshine cheer the guiltless breast._[97]

In 1773 he partly took his "Zobeide" from an unfinished tragedy by Voltaire. On sending a copy to Ferney, the enlightened veteran thus concluded his answer: "You have done too much honour to an old sick man of eighty. I am, with the most sincere esteem and gratitude,

"Sir, your obedient servant,
"VOLTAIRE."[98]

I cannot refrain from adding a short extract from the above quoted magazine, as it brings to one's memory another much esteemed and worthy man:--"Here, perhaps, it may be allowable to allude to the sincere attachment between Mr. Cradock, and his old friend Mr. Nichols. For very many years Mr. Nichols had been accustomed to pay Mr. Cradock an annual visit at Gumley Hall; but on Mr. Cradock settling in London, the intercourse became incessant, and we doubt not that the daily correspondence which took place between them, contributed to cheer the latter days of these two veterans in literature. They had both of them in early life enjoyed the flattering distinction of an intimacy with the same eminent characters; and to hear the different anecdotes elicited in their animated conversations respecting Johnson and others, was indeed an intellectual treat of no ordinary description. Mr. Cradock and Mr. Nichols possessed a similarity in taste and judgment. They were both endowed with peculiar quickness of comprehension, and with powers and accuracy of memory rarely equalled." One may say of the liberal minded Mr. Nichols, what Mr. Murphy said of Dr. Johnson, that his love of literature was a passion that stuck to his last stand. The works of Mr. Cradock have, since his decease, been published by Mr. J. B. Nichols, in 4 vols. 8vo. They contain his Essay on Gardening and Village Memoirs. They are enriched by a miniature portrait of him, by Hone, in 1764, when Mr. Cradock was in his prime of life, in his twenty-second year, and when his piercing eyes and intelligent countenance, were thought to have resembled those of Mr. Garrick. There is also a profile shade of Mr. Cradock, taken of him only a month before his decease. In the above quoted magazine, is a copy of this profile, with a memoir.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS. There is a fine portrait of him by Russel, engraved by Collyer. In Mr. Cadell's Contemporary Portraits is another fine one, from the pencil of Lawrence. His portrait is preserved by the Horticultural Society of London, and in the British Museum is his bust, chiselled and presented by the Hon. Mrs. Damer. A good copy of the engraving by Collyer is in the European Magazine for Feb. 1795, and from the memoir there given I select the following:

"If to support the dignity of the first literary society in the world, and by firmness and candour to conciliate the regard of its members; if rejecting the allurements of dissipation, to explore sciences unknown, and to cultivate the most manly qualities of the human heart; if to dispense a princely fortune in the enlargement of science, the encouragement of genius, and the alleviation of distress, be circumstances which entitle any one to a more than ordinary share of respect, few will dispute the claim of the person whose portrait ornaments the present magazine.... In short, he is entitled to every praise that science, liberality, and intelligence can bestow on their most distinguished favourites."

Dr. Pulteney, in his handsome dedication of his Sketches on the progress of Botany, to Sir Joseph, thus alludes to his voyage with Cook:--"To whom could a work of this nature with so much propriety be addressed, as to him who had not only relinquished, for a series of years, all the allurements that a polished nation could display to opulence; but had exposed himself to numberless perils, and the repeated risk of life itself, that he might attain higher degrees of that knowledge, which these sketches are intended to communicate."

The Academy of Sciences at Dijon, in their "Notice sur Sir Jos. Banks," thus apostrophizes his memory:--"Ombre de Banks! apparois en ce lieu consacre au culte des sciences et des lettres; viens occuper la place que t'y conservent les muses, accepter les couronnes qu'elles-memes t'ont tressees! viens recevoir le tribut de nos sentimens, temoignage sincere de notre douleur et de not regrets; et par le souvenir de tes vertus, viens enflammer nos coeurs de cet amour pour le bien, qui fut le mobile de toutes tes actions!"[99]

Mr. Johnson, in his History of English Gardening, justly calls him "This universal patron of the arts and sciences. Natural history was the favourite of his scientific studies, and every part of it was enriched by his researches." He again hails him as "a munificent friend of science and literature." The name of Banks will always be associated with that of Solander, the favourite pupil of Linnaeus, and with that of the immortal Cook. De Lille closes his _Jardins_ with a most generous and animated invocation to the memory of this intrepid navigator.

WILLIAM FALCONER. The portrait of this eminent physician of Bath, is engraved by Fitler, from a painting by Daniel, of Bath, in 1791. It is prefixed to his "Influence of the Passions upon Disorders." He died in August, 1824, at the age of eighty-one. He published,

1. Essay on the Preservation of the Health of Persons employed in
Agriculture, 1s. Bath, 1789.

2. Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History; selected from
the principal writers of antiquity. 1793. 4to.

3. Remarks on the Influence of Climate, Situation, Nature of
Country, &c. The Encyclop. of Gardening calls this "a most
interesting work." A writer in the New Monthly Mag. says "it
displays an almost unlimited extent of learning and research."

4. An Historical View of the Taste for Gardening and Laying out
Grounds among the Nations of Antiquity. 8vo. 1s. 6d. 1783. _Dilly._

A list of his other works (nearly twenty in number), may be seen in the Dictionary of Living Authors, or in vol. xii. of the New Monthly Mag.; which last work says that the late Lord Thurlow, at whose table he was almost a constant guest, declared that "he never saw such a man; that he knew every thing, and knew it better than any one else." Neither this last publication, nor Dr. Watts in his Bibl. Brit. mention Dr. Falconer's Historical View of the Taste for Gardening.

WILLIAM CURTIS. This honest, much-esteemed, and inoffensive man, though so deservedly eminent as a botanist, published only the following work on horticulture:--"Directions for Cultivating the Crambe Maritima, or Sea-kale for the Use of the Table." A new edition, enlarged, with three engravings. 2s. 6d. Mr. Loudon says, that this pamphlet has done more to recommend the culture of _sea-kale_ and diffuse the knowledge of it, than all his predecessors. Nearly three pages of the Encyclopaedia are enriched with the result of all that has appeared on the cultivation of this vegetable by English, Scotch, or French writers.

The botanical works of Mr. Curtis have long been held in high esteem. The first number of his Flora Londinensis appeared in 1777. He commenced his Botanical Magazine in 1787. His Observations on British Grasses, appeared in a second edition, with coloured plates, in 1790. His Lectures were published after his death, to which is prefixed his portrait. His portrait is also given in Dr. Thornton's Botany. He died in 1799, was buried in Battersea church-yard, and on his grave-stone these lines are inscribed:--

_While living herbs shall spring profusely wild,
Or gardens cherish all that's sweet and gay,
So long thy works shall please, dear nature's child,
So long thy memory suffer no decay._

THOMAS MARTYN, Professor of Botany at Cambridge, whose striking portrait, from a picture by Russel, appears in Dr. Thornton's superb work on botany. He died in June, 1825, in the ninetieth year of his age. His edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, appeared in 4 vols. folio. Mr. Johnson observes, that this work "requires no comment. It is a standard, practical work, never to be surpassed." Mr. Martyn also published _Flora Rustica_, a description of plants, useful or injurious in husbandry, _with coloured plates_, 4 vols. 8vo.

SIR W. CHAMBERS. There are portraits of him by Sir J. Reynolds, engraved by Collyer and by Green; one by Cotes, engraved by Houston, in 1772; and a profile by Pariset, after a drawing by Falconot. He died in 1796, aged sixty-nine. He published,

1. Designs for Chinese Buildings.

2. Plans and Views of the Buildings and Gardens at Kew.

3. A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, second edition, with
additions. To which is annexed an Explanatory Discourse, 4to.
1773. This work gave rise to those smart satires, _An Heroic
Epistle_, and _An Heroic Postscript_.

HUMPHREY REPTON, Esq. His portrait is prefixed to his Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, folio. 1803. He also published on this subject:

1. Letter to U. Price, Esq. on Landscape Gardening, 8vo. 1794.

2. Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, folio, 1795.

3. Enquiry into the Changes in Landscape Gardening, 8vo. 1806.

4. On the Introduction of Indian Architecture and Gardening, folio,
1808.

5. On the supposed Effect of Ivy upon Trees. A charming little
essay inserted in the _Linn. Trans._ vol. xi.

6. Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening,
4to. 1816. In p. 80 of the Encyclop. of Gardening, is some general
information respecting Mr. Repton.

WILLIAM FORSYTH, Esq. His portrait is prefixed to the seventh edition of his Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees, 8vo. 1824; also to the 4to. edition of the same work in 1802. He also published Observations on the diseases, defects, and injuries in all kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees, with an account of a particular method of cure, 8vo. 1791. Mr. Forsyth died in 1804.

MR. JAMES DICKSON, who established the well-known seed and herb shop in Covent-garden, and died at the age of eighty-six, a few years ago, appears to have been very much esteemed. His family at Croydon possess his portrait, and there is another preserved by the Horticultural Society. He married for his second wife a sister of the intrepid traveller Mungo Park. Mr. Dickson, when searching for plants in the Hebrides, in 1789, was accompanied by him. Handsome mention is made of Mr. Dickson in the Life of Mungo Park, prefixed to the "Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa." In the above life, the friendly and generous assistance which Sir Joseph Banks shewed both to Mr. Dickson, and to Mungo Park, is very pleasingly recorded. A memoir of Mr. Dickson is given in the 5th vol. of the Hort. Transactions. He published, Fasciculus Plantarum Cryptog. Brit. 4 parts 4to. 1785-1801.

RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT, Esq. author of The Landscape, a didactic poem, 4to. 1794. A second edition, _with a preface_, appeared in 4to. in 1795. This poem is the only production of Mr. Knight, on the subject of landscape scenery, except his occasional allusions thereto, in his Analytical Enquiry into the Principles of Taste, the second edition of which appeared in 8vo. in 1805. This latter work embraces a variety of subjects, and contains many energetic pages, particularly those on Homer, and on the English drama. His philosophical survey of human life "in its last stages," (at p. 461), and where he alludes to "the hooks and links which hold the affections of age," is worthy of all praise; it is deep, solemn, and affecting. The other publications of this gentleman are enumerated in Dr. Watts's Bibl. Brit. Mr. Knight, in his Landscape, after invoking the genius of Virgil, in reference to his

_----O qui me gelidis in vallibus Hoemi
Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat unbra,_

thus proceeds, after severely censuring Mr. _Browne_, who

----bade the stream 'twixt banks close shaved to glide;
Banish'd the thickets of high-bowering wood,
Which hung, reflected o'er the glassy flood:
Where screen'd and shelter'd from the heats of day,
Oft on the moss-grown stone reposed I lay,
And tranquil view'd the limpid stream below,
Brown with o'er hanging shade, in circling eddies flow.
Dear peaceful scenes, that now prevail no more,
Your loss shall every weeping muse deplore!
Your poet, too, in one dear favour'd spot,
Shall shew your beauties are not quite forgot:
Protect from all the sacrilegious waste
Of false improvement, and pretended taste,
_One tranquil vale!_[100] where oft, from care retir'd
He courts the muse, and thinks himself inspired;
Lulls busy thought, and rising hope to rest,
And checks each wish that dares his peace molest.

After scorning "wisdom's solemn empty toys," he proceeds: