A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honorouble the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in Buckinghamshire — John Shaqi
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
_Polypth._ As you have thus painted the near Objects, let my Pencil, I
beg, come in for a few rough Touches in the backgrounds: Without
something of an Off-skip, your Man of Art, you know, seldom esteems his
View perfect. And in this Landskip there are as many beautiful Objects
thrown off to a Distance as can well be imagined: That Variety of fine
Wood; that bright Surface of Water, with the pointed Obelisk in the
Midst of it; those two Pavilions upon the Banks of the Canal; and the
still more distant View into the Country, are Objects which, in my
Opinion, make no small Addition to the Beauty of your Landskip; or, to
carry on your Allusion, may very well come in as a second Course in your
Entertainment.----Our Attention, I think, in the next Place, is demanded
by this venerable Assembly. That old Gentleman there sits with great
Dignity: I like his Attitude extremely: If I understood the _Runic_
Character, I might have known probably (for this Inscription I fancy
would inform me) by what Title he is distinguished. But the Gracefulness
of his Posture discovers him to have been nothing less than an Hero of
the first Rank. He puts me in Mind of a _Roman_ Senator, sitting in his
Curule Chair to receive the _Gauls_.
_Calloph._ Why, Sir, you have done him great Honour I must own; but you
have not yet honoured him according to his Dignity: He is nothing less,
Sir, I assure you, than the Representative of a _Saxon_ Deity. You see
here
__Thor_ and _Woden_ fabled Gods_----
with the whole System of your Ancestor's Theology. Walk round the
Assembly, they will smile upon a true _Briton_, and try if you can
acknowledge each by his distinct Symbol.
_Polypth._ I must confess they do not to me seem accoutered like Gods:
For my Part, I should rather suspect them to be Statues of Heroes and
Lawgivers, metamorphised into Divinities by the Courtesy of the Place: I
shall not however go about to dispute their Titles; but like my good
Ancestors before me, acquiesce piously in what other People tell
me.----Tho' I cannot say but that Lady there, bearing the Sun (who
represents I suppose _Sunday_) looks whimsical enough; and makes just
such an Appearance as I could imagine the misled Conception of an
enthusiastic _Saxon_ might mould his Deities into. But in these other
Figures I must own I cannot see Superstition at all characterized, which
you may observe generally forms its Objects of Worship into the most
mis-created things that can possibly enter the Imagination of Man.
_Calloph._ Why, Sir, amongst the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, you may observe
several very well-shaped Deities: The _Hercules_, the _Apollo_, and the
_Venus_, are at this Day Standards of Beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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