which picturesque remark of Mr. Warton's could not have been excelled even by the nice and critical pen of the late Sir U. Price; and when he informs us, in more than one instance, of the great Earl of Chatham's "turning his mind to the embellishment of rural nature."
Thomas Whateley, on whose "Observations on Modern Gardening," the Encyclopædia of Gardening (that most comprehensive assemblage of every thing delightful and curious in this art,) observes, "It is remarkable, that so little is known of a writer, the beauty of whose style, and the justness of whose taste, are universally acknowledged." The same work further says, "his excellent book, so frequently referred to by all succeeding writers on garden scenery, ought to be in the hands of every man of taste." And the same work still further observes, that "its style has been pronounced by Ensor, inimitable, and the descriptions with which his investigations are accompanied, have been largely copied, and amply praised by Alison, in his work On Taste. The book was soon translated into the continental languages, and is judiciously praised in the Mercure de France, Journal Encyclopédique, and Weiland's Journal. G. Mason alone dissents from the general opinion, enlarging on the very few faults or peculiarities which are to be found in the book. Wheatley, or Whately (for so little is known of this eminent man, that we have never been able to ascertain satisfactorily the orthography of his name,) was proprietor of Nonsuch Park, in Surrey; and was secretary to the Earl of Suffolk. He published only this work, soon after which he died. After his death, some remarks on Shakspeare, from his pen, were published in a small 12mo." A second edition of this elegant little work was published in 1808, by Parson, Oxford; or Rivington, St. Paul's; in which, the advertisement to the reader informs us, that "the respectable author intended to have gone through eight or ten of the principal characters of Shakspeare, but suspended his design, in order to finish his Observations on Modern Gardening, first published in the year 1770; immediately after which time, he was engaged in such an active scene of public life, as left him but little leisure to attend to the Belles Lettres; and in the year 1772 he died."[57]
His remarks on some of the characters of Shakspeare (whom, in his Observations, he calls the great master of nature) breathe in many of his pages, that fire, which he could have caught only from those of the great poet. Such was his eagerness to complete his Observations, that he for a short while "suspended his design" of examining other characters of the poet, when the bright effusions of his genius "fled up to the stars from whence they came." This elegant little work is merely a fragment, nay, even an unfinished fragment. It must, then, cause deep regret, that death should so prematurely have deprived us of that rich treasure of animated thoughts, which, no doubt, would have sprung from his further tracing the poet's deep and piercing knowledge of the human heart. One may safely apply to Mr. Whateley, what he himself applies to the poet:—"He had a genius to express all that his penetration could discover." The Journal Encyclopédique, Juilliet, 1771, when speaking of the French translation of Whateley's Observations, says, "On ne peut guères se faire une idée de ces jardins, si l'on n'a été à Londres. Accoutumés à la symétrie des nôtres, nous n'imaginons pas qu'on puisse établir une forme irregulière, comme une regle principale: cependant ceux qui sentent combien la noble simplicité de la nature est supérieure à tous les rafinemens symétriques de l'art, donneront peuetêtre la préference aux jardins Anglois. C'est l'effet que doit produire la lecture de cet ouvrage, qui quoique destiné aux amateurs et aux compositeurs des jardins, offre aux gens de goût, aux artistes et sur-tout aux peintres, des observations fines et singulieres sur plusieurs effets de perspective et sur les arts en général; aux philosophes, des réflections justes sur les affections de notre ame; aux poëtes, des descriptions exactes, quoique vives, des plus beaux jardins d'Angleterre dans tous les genres, qui décèlent dans l'Auteur un œil infiment exercé, une grande connoissance des beaux arts, une belle imagination et un esprit accoutumé à penser."
The "bloom of an orchard, the festivity of a hay field, and the carols of harvest home," could not have met with a more cheerful and benevolent pen than Mr. Whateley's; a love of country pervades many of his pages; nor could any one have traced the placid scenery, or rich magnificence of nature, with a happier pen than when he records the walk to the cottage at Claremont, the grandeur and majesty of the scene at Blenheim, or Stowe, Persfield, Wotton in the vale of Aylesbury—the rugged, savage, and craggy points of Middleton Dale, "a chasm rent in the mountain by some convulsion of nature, beyond the memory of man, or perhaps before the island was peopled," with its many rills, springs, rivulets, and water-falls—the vast cliffs of rocks at Matlock, Bath, that "scene of romantic magnificence; from such scenes, probably, was conceived the wild imagination, in ancient mythology, of the giants piling Pelion upon Ossa; the loftiness of the rocks, and the character of the Derwent, a torrent in which force and fury prevail; the cascades in it are innumerable; before the water is recovered from one fall, it is hurried down another; and its agitation being thus increased by repeated shocks, it pushes on with restless violence to the next, where it dashes against fragments of rocks, or foams among heaps of stones which the stream has driven together"—the dusky gloom at the iron forge, "close to the cascade of the Weir, (between Ross and Monmouth) where the agitation of the current is increased by large fragments of rocks, which have been swept down by floods from the banks, or shivered by tempests from the brow; and the sullen sound, at stated intervals, from the strokes of the great hammers in the forge, deadens the roar of the water-fall"—the solitude, the loveliness, and the stillness of Dovedale, "the whole of which has the air of enchantment; grotesque as chance can cast, wild as nature can produce"—the monkish tomb-stones, and the monuments of benefactors long since forgotten, which appear above the green sward, at Tintern Abbey, with its maimed effigies, and sculpture worn with age and weather—his view to the approach to Lord Cadogan's, near Reading—his feeling and enchanting description of the Leasowes—"the wonderful efforts which art has made at Painshill to rival nature;" where the massy richness of its hanging wood "gives an air of grandeur to the whole"—the Tinian, and other lawns, and noble and magnificent views in that vast sylvan scene Hagley, where, in a spot which once delighted Mr. Pope, is inscribed an urn to his memory, "which, when shewn by a gleam of moonlight through the trees, fixes that thoughtfulness and composure to which the mind is insensibly led by the rest of this elegant scene."
His section "Of the Seasons," where he descants on the spirit of the morning, the excess of noon, or the temperance of evening," must strike every one by its felicity of style; and the reader may judge of the rich pages which this book contains, even from what he says of water:—"It accommodates itself to every situation; is the most interesting object in a landscape, and the happiest circumstance in a retired recess; captivates the eye at a distance, invites approach, and is delightful when near; it refreshes an open exposure; it animates a shade; cheers the dreariness of a waste, and enriches the most crowded view; in form, in style, and in extent, may be made equal to the greatest compositions, or adapted to the least; it may spread in a calm expanse to soothe the tranquillity of a peaceful scene; or hurrying along a devious course, add splendour to a gay, and extravagance to a romantic, situation. So various are the characters which water can assume, that there is scarcely an idea in which it may not concur, or an impression which it cannot enforce; a deep stagnated pool, dank and dark with shades which it dimly reflects, befits the seat of melancholy; even a river, if it be sunk between two dismal banks, and dull both in motion and colour, is like a hollow eye which deadens the countenance; and over a sluggard, silent stream, creeping heavily along all together, hangs a gloom, which no art can dissipate, nor even the sunshine disperse. A gently murmuring rill, clear and shallow, just gurgling, just dimpling, imposing silence, suits with solitude, and leads to meditation; a brisker current, which wantons in little eddies over a bright sandy bottom, or babbles among pebbles, spreads cheerfulness all around; a greater rapidity, and more agitation, to a certain degree are animating; but in excess, instead of wakening, they alarm the senses; the roar and the rage of a torrent, its force, its violence, its impetuosity, tend to inspire terror; that terror, which, whether as cause or effect, is so nearly allied to sublimity."[58]
Daniel Malthus, Esq. purchased, in 1759, the Rookery, near Dorking, noted for its beauties of hill, dale, wood, and water; he sold it in 1768. He translated Gerardin, De la Composition des Paysages, 12mo. 1783, to which he prefixed a preface, being, chiefly, remarks on what the gardens of the Greeks and Romans were; a view of Rosseau's tomb is prefixed. Mr. Malthus justly observes, that this Essay "is full of the most insinuating eloquence, that it is wrote by the friend of Rousseau, and from scenes which realize some of its most beautiful descriptions." He further observes, that "trifling as this enquiry will appear in itself, it may add something towards the benevolent purpose of M. d'Ernonville, which is to make men sensible of the exhaustless charms of nature, to lead them back to their simple and original tastes, to promote the variety and resources of a country life, and to unite its usefulness with its embellishment."[59]
John Kennedy published a Treatise upon Planting, Gardening, &c. 8vo. York, 1776.
N. Swinden, "an ingenious gardener and seedsman at Brentford-End," wrote The Beauties of Flora Displayed; 8vo. 1778.
Samuel Fulmer wrote The Young Gardener's Best Companion for the Kitchen, and Fruit Garden; 12mo. 1781.
Charles Bryant published Flora Dietetica; or, the History of Esculent Plants: 8vo. 1785. Also, a Dictionary of Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and Plants; 8vo. Norwich, 1790.