scene; a small lawn of well-varied ground, encompassed with hills and well-grown oaks, and embellished with a cast of the piping Faunus, amid trees and shrubs on a slope upon the left, and on the right, and nearer the eye, with an urn thus inscribed:

'Ingenio et amicitiæ

Gulielmi Somervile.'

And on the opposite side,

The scene is enclosed on all sides by trees: in the middle only there is an opening, where the lawn is continued, and winds out of sight.

Here entering a gate, you are led through a thicket of many sorts of willows, into a large roothouse, inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Stamford. It seems that worthy peer was present at the first opening of the cascade, which is the principal object from the root-house, where the eye is presented with a fairy vision, consisting of an irregular and romantic fall of water, very unusual, one hundred and fifty yards in continuity; and a very striking scene it affords. Other cascades may possibly have the advantage

TRANSLATION.

To the genius and friendship

of

WILLIAM SOMERVILĖ,
By W. S.

Sprinkling the ashes of a friendly bard
With tributary tears.

of a greater descent and a larger torrent; but a more wild and romantic appearance of water, and at the same time strictly natural, is what I never saw in any place whatever. This scene, though comparatively small, is yet aggrandized with so much art, that we forget the quantity of water which flows through this close and overshaded valley; and are so much transported with the intricacy of the scene, and the concealed height from whence it flows, that we, without reflection, add the idea of magnificence to that of beauty. In short, it is not but upon reflection that we find the stream is not a Niagara, but rather a waterfall in miniature; and that the same artifice, upon a larger scale, were there large trees instead of small ones, and a river instead of a rill, would be capable of forming a scene that would exceed the utmost of our ideas. But I will not dwell longer upon this inimitable scene; those who would admire it properly must view it, as surely as those that view it must admire it beyond almost any thing they ever saw.

Proceeding on the right hand path, the next seat affords a scene of what Mr. Shenstone used to call his Forest-ground, consisting of wild green slopes peeping through dingle, or irregular groups of trees, a confused mixture of savage and cultivated ground, held up to the eye, and forming a landscape fit for the pencil of Salvator Rosa.

Winding on beside this lawn, which is overarched with spreading trees, the eye catches, at intervals, over an intermediate hill, the spire of Hales Church, forming here a perfect obeliskthe urn to Mr. Somervile, &c; and now passing

through a kind of thicket, we arrive at a natural bower of almost circular oaks, inscribed in the manner following:

TO MR. DODSLEY.

Come then, my friend! thy silvan taste display;
Come, hear thy Faunus tune his rustic lay:
Ah! rather come, and in these dells disown
The care of other strains, and tune thine own.'

On the bank above it, amid the forementioned shrubs, is a statue of the piping Faun, which not only embellishes this scene, but is also seen from the court before the house, and from other places: it is surrounded by venerable oaks, and very happily situated. From this bower also you look down upon the fore-mentioned irregular ground, shut up with trees on all sides, except some few openings to the more pleasing parts of this grotesque and hilly country. The next little bench affords the first, but not most striking view of The Priory.' It is indeed a small building, but seen as it is beneath trees, and its extremity also hid by the same, it has in some sort the dignity and solemn appearance of a larger edifice.

Passing through a gate, we enter a small open grove, where the first seat we find, affords a picturesque view, through trees, of a clump of oaks at a distance, overshadowing a little cottage upon a green hill: we thence immediately enter a perfect dome or circular temple of magnificent beeches, in the centre of which it was intended to place an antique altar, or a statue of Pan. The path serpentizing through this open grove, leads us by an easy ascent to a small bench with this

-Me gelidum nemus

Nympharumque leves cum satyris chori

Secernant populo 5.'

HOR.

which alludes to the retired situation of the grove. There is also seen, through an opening to the left, a pleasing landscape of a distant hill, with a whited farm-house upon the summit; and to the right hand a beautiful round slope, crowned with a clump of large firs, with a pyramidal seat on its centre; to which, after no long walk, the path conducts us.

But we first come to another view of 'The Priory,' more advantageous, and at a better distance; to which the eye is led down a green slope, through a scenery of tall oaks, in a most agreeable manner; the grove we have just passed on one side, and a hill of trees and thicket on the other, conducting the eye to a narrow opening through which it appears.

We now ascend to a small bench, where the circumjacent country begins to open: in particular, a glass-house appears between two large clumps of trees, at about the distance of four miles; the glass-houses in this country not ill resembling a distant pyramid. Ascending to the next seat, which is in the Gothic form, the scene grows more and more extended; woods and lawns, hills and valleys, thicket and plain, agreeably intermingled. On the back of this seat is the following inscription, which the Author told

5 EXPLANATION. May the cool grove,

And gay assembled nymphs with sylvans mix'd,
Conceal me from the world!

me that he chose to fix here, to supply what he thought some want of life in this part of the farm, and to keep up the spectator's attention till he came to scale the hill beyond:

INSCRIPTION.

Shepherd, wouldst thou here obtain
Pleasure unalloy'd with pain;

Joy that suits the rural sphere?
Gentle shepherd! lend an ear.
• Learn to relish calm delight,
Verdant vales and fountains bright,
Trees that nod on sloping hills,
Caves that echo tinkling rills.
'If thou canst no charm disclose
In the simplest bud that blows,
Go, forsake thy plain and fold,
Join the crowd, and toil for gold.
'Tranquil pleasures never cloy;
Banish each tumultuous joy;
All but love-for love inspires
Fonder wishes, warmer fires.

'Love and all its joys be thine-
Yet ere thou the reins resign,
Hear what reason seems to say,
Hear attentive, and obey:

Crimson leaves the rose adorn,
But beneath them lurks a thorn;
Fair and flowery is the brake,
Yet it hides the vengeful snake.

Think not she, whose empty pride
Dares the fleecy garb deride;
Think not she who, light and vain,
Scorns the sheep can love the swain.

'Artless deed and simple dress
Mark the chosen shepherdess;
Thoughts by decency controll'd,
Well conceived, and freely told :

'Sense, that shuns each conscious air,
Wit, that falls ere well aware;
Generous pity, prone to sigh,
If her kid or lambkin die.