Behold Villario's ten years toil complete;

80

His Quincunx darkens, his Espaliers meet;
The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite,
And ftrength of Shade contends with ftrength of Light;
A waving Glow the bloomy beds difplay,
Blufhing in bright diverfities of day,

With filver-quiv'ring rills mæander'd o'er-
Enjoy them, you! Villario can no more;

Tir'd of the scene Parterres and Fountains yield,
He finds at laft he better likes a Field.

85

90

Thro' his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus ftray'd,
Or fate delighted in the thick'ning fhade,
With annual joy the red'ning fhoots to greet,
Or see the stretching branches long to meet!
His Son's fine Tafte an op'ner Vista loves,
Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves;
One boundless Green, or flourish'd carpet views,
With all the mournful family of Yews;

The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made,
Now sweep thofe Alleys they were born to shade.
At Timon's Villa let us pass a day,

95

Where all cry out, "What fums are thrown away!"
So proud, fo grand; of that ftupendous air,
Soft and Agreeable come never the.e.

VER. 95. The two extremes in parterres, which are equally faulty: a boundless Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourish'd carpet, where the greatnefs and nobleness of the piece is leffened by being divided into too many parts, with scrolled works and beds, of which the examples are frequent.

VER. 96.-mournful family of Yews ;] Touches upon the ill tafte of those who are fo fond of Evergreens (particularly Yews, which are the most tonfile) as to destroy the nobler Foreft-trees, to make way for fuch little ornaments as Pyramids of dark-green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral proceffion.

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This defcription is intended to comprize the principles of a falfe Tafte of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it.

105

Greatnefs, with Timon, dwells in such a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.
To compass this, his Building is a Town,
His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down:
Who but muft laugh, the Master when he fees,
A puny infect, fhiv'ring at a breeze!
Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground.
Two Cupids fquirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keenness of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,
On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleafing Intricacies intervene,
No artful wildness to perplex the scene;
Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,
And half the platform juft reflects the other.
The fuff'ring eye inverted Nature sees,
Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees;
With here a Fountain, never to be play'd;
And there a Summer-house, that knows no fhade;

115

120

VER. 104.-all Brobdignag] A region of giants, in the fatire of Gulliver.

VER. 117, 118. Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,And balf the flatform jufts reflects the other.] This is exactly the two puddings of the citizen in the foregoing table, only ferved up a little more magnificently: But both on the fame abfurd principle of wrong tafte, viz. that one can never have too much of a good thing.

Ibid. Grove nods at grove, etc.] The exquifite humour of this expreffion arifes folely from its fignificancy. These groves that have no meaning, but very near relationship, can express themselves only like twin-idiots by nods;

Fœdera

-nutant ad mutua Palmæ

as the Poet fays, which just serves to let us understand, that they know one another, as having been nurfed, and brought up by one common parent.

Here Amphitrite fails thro' myrtle bow'rs;
There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Unwater'd fee the drooping fea-horse mourn,
And swallows roost in Nilus' dufty Urn.
My Lord advances with majestic mien,
Smit with the mighty pleasure to be feen:
But foft-by regular approach—not yet—

125

First thro' the length of yon hot Terrace fweat;

130

And when up ten steep flopes you've drag'd your thighs,

Juft at his Study-door he'll bless your eyes.

His Study! with what Authors is it stor'd?
Lord;
In Books, not Authors, curious is my
To all their dated backs he turns you round;
Thefe Aldus printed, thofe Du Sueil has bound,
Lo fome are Vellom, and the rest as good

135

For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood.
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,
These shelves admit not any modern book.

140

And now the Chapel's filver bell you hear,

That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r :

VER. 124. The two Statue of the Gladiator pugnans and Gladiator moriens. VER. 130. The Approaches and Communications of houfe with garden, or of one part with another, ill judged, and inconvenient. VER. 133. His Study, etc.] The falfe tafte in Books; a fatire on the vanity of collecting them, more frequent in men of Fortune than the ftudy to understand them. Many delight chiefly in the elegance of the print, or of the binding; fome have carried it fo far, as to caufe the upper shelves to be filled with painted books of wood; others pique themselves fo much upon books in a language they do not understand, as to exclude the most useful in one they do.

VER. 141. The falfe tafte in Music, improper to the subject, as of light airs in churches, often practifed by the organifts, etc.

VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:] This abfurdity is very happily exprefied; Pride, of all human follies, being the first we should leave behind us when we approach the facred altar. But he who could take Meannefs for Magnificence, might eafily mistake Humility for Meanness.

To reft, the Cushion and soft Dean invite,
Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.

150

But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call;
A hundred footsteps scrape the marble Hall:
The rich Buffet well colour'd Serpents grace,
And gaping Tritons fpew to wash your face.
Is this a dinner? this a genial room?
No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb.
A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in state,

You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.

155

VER. 145. And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) of naked figures in Churches, etc. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of thofe of the best mafters.

VER. 146. Verrio or Laguerre,] Verrio (Antonio) painted many cielings, etc. at Windfor, Hampton-Court, etc. and Laguerre at Blenheim-caftle, and other places.

VER. 150. Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.] This is a fact; a reverend Dean preaching at Court, threatened the finner with punishment in "a place which he thought it not decent to name in "fo polite an affembly."

VER. 153. Taxes the incongruity of Ornaments (though sometimes practifed by the ancients) where an open mouth ejects the water into a fountain, or where the fhocking images of ferpents, etc. are introduced in Grottos or Buffets.

VER. 153. The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,] The circumftance of being well-colour'd fhews this ornament not only to be very abfurd, but very odious too; and has a peculiar beauty, as, in one inftance of falfe Tafte, viz. an injudicious choice in imitation, he gives (in the epithet employed) the fuggeftion of another, which is the injudicious manner of it.

VER. 155. Is this a dinner, etc.] The proud Festivals of fome men are here fet forth to ridicule, where pride deftroys the cafe, and formal regularity all the pleasurable enjoyment of the enterJainment.

So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there. 160
Between each Act the trembling falvers ring,

From foup to fweet-wine, and God blefs the King.
In plenty starving, tantaliz'd in ftate,
And complaifantly help'd to all I hate,

Treated, carefs'd, and tir'd, I take my leave,
Sick of his civil pride from morn to eve;
I curfe fuch lavish coft, and little skill,

165

And fwear no day was ever past fo ill.

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed; Health to himself, and to his infants bread

170

The Lab'rer bears: What his hard Heart denies,
His charitable Vanity supplies.

Another age fhall fee the golden Ear

Imbrown the Slope, and nod on the Parterre,

Deep Harvest bury all his pride has plan'd,

175

And laughing Ceres reaffume the land.

Who then fhall grace, or who improve the Soil? Who plants like BATHURST, or who builds like BOYLE. 'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence,

And Splendor borrows all her rays from Senfe. 180

VER. 160. Sancho's dread Doftor] See Don Quixote, chap. xlvii. VER. 169. Yet hence the Poor, etc.] The Moral of the whole, where PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to those who fquander it in this manner. A bad Tafte employs more hands, and diffufes Expence more than a good one. This recurs to what is laid down in Book 1. Ep. ii. ver. 230-7, and in the Epiftle pre-` ceding this, ver. 161, etc.

VER. 176. And laughing Ceres reaffume the land. The great beauty of this line is an inftance of the art peculiar to our poet; by which he has fo difpofed a trite claflical figure, as not only to make it do its vulgar office, of reprefenting a very plentiful barveft, but also to affume the Image of Nature, re-establishing herfelf in her rights, and mocking the vain efforts of falfe magnificence, which would keep her out of them.

VER. 179, 180. 'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence-And Splendor borrows all her rays from Senfe.] Here the poet, to make the examples of good Tofte the better understood, introduces them