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
The _Dialogue_ allows these and related distinctions to emerge, even
though it does not grapple with their implications. As Callophilus
explains, there should be a grand terrace for strangers, and the shade
of a "close vista" for friends (p. 31). Stowe provided both, just as it
catered to the propensity for retirement--the Hermitage, the Temple of
Friendship, or the Temple of Sleep--as well as for the obligations of
public life--the Temple of British Worthies, the gothic Temple of
Liberty. The most emblematic items in the gardens, upon which
Callophilus predictably expatiates because they were designed to be
easily "read," are in the public places, where they firmly control the
visitors' mental reactions and leave less scope for the private and
enthusiastic reveries of Polypthon. It is a fair assumption that most
visitors to the Temples of Liberty or Ancient and Modern Virtue would
have understood their meanings just as Callophilus did (pp. 40 and
19-21).
But the aesthetic taste of Polypthon for the forms and shapes rather
than the meanings of landscape betrays a potential for less controlled
and more private rhapsodies. His quest "after beautiful Objects" (p. 24)
takes him as much to the northern parts of Great Britain as to gardens
like Stowe, and is obviously prophetic of Gilpin's own picturesque
travels. Like Warton's _Enthusiast or the Lover of Nature_ (1740),
Polypthon rejects "gardens deck'd with art's vain pomps." This is
because he is fascinated with the more radical landscapes of solely
formal elements--the serpentine windings of the river at Stirling (p.
44) or what has been called the abstract garden[9] that comes to
fruition only in the decades after Gilpin's visit under the management
of "Capability" Brown. But the fact that Polypthon finds sufficient
abstract patterns to engage his attention at Stowe suggests that the
Brownian mode was already latent among the richnesses of the
Buckinghamshire gardens.
The "rejection" of Stowe by Polypthon as by Warton also signals their
desire to indulge the enthusiastic fit. His very first reaction upon
arrival at Stowe is an "Exclamation" that expresses _his_ expectations
of aesthetic delight (p. 2). Although his companion is equally
susceptible and is accused by Polypthon of being an "Enthusiast" (p. 49)
and in the third edition of the _Dialogue_ (p. 12) determines himself to
"indulge the thrilling Transport," it seems to be Polypthon whom Gilpin
intends to characterize by expressive as opposed to explanatory
outbursts as they proceed round the gardens. And it is he who concludes
their visit (p. 58) with a catalogue of the various human moods for
which the gardens cater, rather more extravagant in its expressive
fervour than Callophilus' traditional identification of the passions on
faces of other visitors (p. 51).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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