Polypth. I wonder you should not know me better than to imagine I am always in earnest when I find fault. My Thoughts and yours, I assure you, agree exactly upon this Subject. I only wanted to engage you in some Discourse till the Shower was over; and as the Sky seems now quite clear, if you will, we'll venture out, and visit what we have yet to see.
Calloph. You are a humorous Fellow: This is not the first time you have made me play my Lungs to no purpose.——As we walk along this Terrace, you may observe the great Advantage of low Walls: By this means the Garden is extended beyond its Limits, and takes in every thing entertaining that is to be met with in the range of half a County. Villages, Works of Husbandry, Groups of Cattle, Herds of Deer, and a Variety of other beautiful Objects, are brought into the Garden, and make a Part of the Plan. Even to the nicest Taste these rural Scenes are highly delightful.
Polypth. Nay you may add, that whoever has no Relish for them, gives Reason for a Suspicion that he has no Taste at all.
Straight mine Eye hath caught new Pleasures, Whilst the Landskip round it measures;
Russet Lawns, and Fallows gray. Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Mountains, on whose barren Breast The labouring Clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with Daisies pide, Shallow Brooks, and Rivers wide: Towers and Battlements it sees Bosom'd high in tufted Trees, Where perhaps some Beauty lies, The Cynosure of neighbouring Eyes. Hard by a Cottage Chimney smokes, From betwixt two aged Oaks.
Calloph. Can you repeat no more? I could have listened with great Pleasure if you had gone on with the whole Piece. It is quite Nature: That View of an old Castle, bosom'd high in tufted Trees, pleases me exceedingly: And the two following Lines,
Where perhaps some Beauty lies, The Cynosure of neighbouring Eyes,
give it an elegant, romantic Air; and add greatly to the Idea before conceived.——But to pursue our former Argument: It must be owned indeed that these Walks want such Openings into the Country as little as any Place can well be imagined to do; yet even Stow itself, I assure you, is much improved by them. They contrast beautifully with this more polished Nature, and set it off to greater Advantage. After surfeiting itself with the Feast here provided for it, the Eye, by using a little Exercise in travelling about the Country, grows hungry again, and returns to the Entertainment with fresh Appetite. Besides, there is nothing so distasteful to the Eye as a confined Prospect (where the Reasonableness of it does not appear) especially if a dead Wall, or any other such disagreeable Object steps in between. The Eye naturally loves Liberty, and when it is in quest of Prospects, will not rest content with the most beautiful Dispositions of Art, confined within a narrow Compass, but (as soon as the Novelty of the Sight is over) will begin to grow dissatisfied, till the whole Limits of the Horizon be given it to range through.