A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honorouble the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in BuckinghamshireGilpin, William
Philosophy
A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honorouble the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in Buckinghamshire
Gilpin, William
Cobham, Richard Temple, Viscount, 1669?-1749; Landscape gardening -- Early works to 1800
_Calloph._ Nay, if you are inclined to rest, come along with me: I'll
carry you to where you may indulge your Humour with great Propriety.
Deep in the Retirement of that Wood, the God of Sleep has reared his
Habitation, where he will afford you every Convenience to make a Nap
agreeable----It comes into my Head that I forgot to carry you to a
little Place, which it is hardly worth while to travel back to from this
Distance: It is called _St. Austin_'s Cave, and answers its Title very
well; it appears quite Cell-like, stands retired, and is made of no
other Materials but Roots and Moss. In the Inside a Straw Couch offers
you an hard Seat, and the Walls three humorous Inscriptions, in Monkish
Verse. You may buy them, bound up with Copies of all the other
Inscriptions, in a Six-penny Pamphlet, that will be offered us at the
Inn.----There, Sir, is the Temple of Sleep.
_Polypth._ Why really I must confess _Ovid_ himself could scarce have
buried the senseless God in an happier Retirement. This gloomy Darkness,
these easy Couches, and that excellent _Epicurean_ Argument above the
Door, would incline me wonderfully to indulge a little, if these
beautiful Ornaments did not keep my Attention awake. There is wanting
too a purling Stream, to sing a Requiem to the Senses; tho' the Want is
in some measure made up by the drowsy Lullibies of that murmuring Swarm,
which this Shade has invited to wanton beneath it. You would laugh at
me, or I should certainly throw myself down upon one of these Couches;
I am persuaded I should need no Opium to close my Eyes.
_Calloph._ I own sleeping is a Compliment as much due to this Place, as
Admiration and Attention are to _Raphael_ at _Hampton-Court_. But try if
your Curiosity cannot keep you awake. Come, leave these drowsy Abodes,
they are infectious; like luscious Food they will blunt your Appetite
before the Entertainment is half over. Walk down that Alley, and pop
your Head into the first Door you come to.
_Polypth._ What the D----l have we got here? What wretched Scrawler has
been at work upon these Walls?
_Calloph._ I assure you, Sir, I look upon this as a very great
Master-piece. You must know this House is inhabited by a Necromancer;
and that Inscription lets you see the Hand that has been employed to
paint it. The Composition, Drawing, and Pencilling, I can allow you, are
not the most elegant; yet if the Design and Figures are the Artist's
own, I can assure you he has shewn excellent Humour, and an exceeding
good Invention. That Consultation is well imagined; and so are these
Witches and Wizards; their Employments likewise, their Forms and
Attitudes are well varied.---- But I see this is a Scene not suited to
your Taste: Our next, I hope, will please you better.
_Polypth._ Pray, what Building is that before us? I cannot say I dislike
the Taste it is designed in. It seems an Antique.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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