Bid harbours open, public ways extend, 200 the execution was left to the carpenter above mentioned, who would have made it a wooden one; to which our author alludes in these lines: 66 'Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile ?- See the notes on that place. 28 [An echo of a line in Dryden's Virgil, book vi.- ADDITIONAL NOTES. EARL OF BURLINGTON. Pope could not have dedicated an Epistle on taste more appropriately than to this nobleman, who, both by his skill and his munificence, did so much for the encouragement of art in this kingdom. Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, and fourth Earl of Cork, was born in 1695, and, consequently, was in his thirty-sixth year at the date of this poem. He was then engaged in ornamenting his gardens, and building his villa at Chiswick. The celebrated front and colonnade at Burlington House had been erected some years before, in 1718. There is reason to believe that, in this splendid improvement, his Lordship, then very young, had the assistance of a practical architect, Colin Campbell, though Walpole considers that the design is too good for Campbell. The same lively and picturesque writer describes the effect which the Burlington colonnade had upon him when first seen. "Soon after my return from Italy," he says, "I was invited to a ball at Burlington House. As I passed under the gate by night it could not strike me. At daybreak, looking out of the window to see the sun rise, I was surprised with the vision of the colonnade that fronted me. It seemed one of those edifices in fairy tales that are raised by genii in a night-time." The colonnade still remains, but the dead wall in front conceals from the public all view of the fine architectural structure. The Earl of Burlington was at the expense of repairing St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, the work of Inigo Jones; and, by his publication of the designs of Jones and Palladio, no less than by his own noble buildings, he revived a taste for architecture in England. Not less honourable to his Lordship is his patronage of that pure and simple-hearted philosopher, Dr. Berkeley, who, being introduced to him by Pope, was so warmly recommended by his Lordship, that he was appointed one of the chaplains to the Duke of Grafton, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and afterwards became Dean of Derry, and Bishop of Cloyne. Lord Burlington died in 1753, and with his demise a title, honoured and ennobled through three generations, by genius, and virtue, and public spirit, became extinct. BUBB DODINGTON, LORD MELCOMBE. Ver. 20. Bids Bubo build.] In 1720, George Bubb (the son of an apothecary at Carlisle) fell heir to a large estate in Dorsetshire, which had belonged to his maternal uncle, George Dodington, Esq., of Eastbury. By the will of his relative, Bubb had to complete the magnificent house at Eastbury, which Vanbrugh designed. It is to this erection that the poet alludes. Like most of the vast and ostentatious structures of that day, the mansion at Eastbury has disappeared. It was pulled down by Earl Temple, on whom it was entailed in case of Bubb's having no issue. Dodington," says Walpole, "had a great deal of wit, great knowledge of business, and was an able speaker in Parliament, though an affected one, and though most of his speeches were premeditated. servile, and corrupt. Walpole, and in an himself, 66 He was, as his Diary shows, vain, fickle, ambitious, Early in his life he had been devoted to Sir Robert epistle to him, which Pope quotes, had professed 'In power, a servant; out of power, a friend.' "At a much later period of life, he published an Epistle to Lord Bute whom he styled Pollio. Mr. Wyndham, editor of his Diary, wrote to Dr. Joseph Warton, in 1784, that he had found among Dodington's papers an old copy of that poem, but inscribed to Sir Robert Walpole! He fell more than once under the lash of Pope, who coupled him with Sir William Yonge in this line, 'The flowers of Bubbington and flow of Yonge.' "Soon after the arrival of Frederick Prince of Wales in England, Dodington became a favourite, and submitted to the Prince's childish horse-play, being once rolled up in a blanket, and trundled down stairs; nor was he negligent in paying more solid court, by lending his Royal Highness money. This is a strange country, this England,' said his Royal Highness once; I am told Dodington is reckoned a clever man; yet I got £5000 out of him this morning, and he has no chance of ever seeing it again."" Walpole dwells on Bubb's good-nature, his ready wit, his want of taste, and tawdry ostentation in his dress and furniture. All this is undoubted; with the addition, that Bubb had no political honesty or principle-in fact, knew not the meaning of the words. His Diary records the most contemptible, mean, and selfish transactions on his part, in which, apparently, he saw nothing wrong. His complacency never forsook him. The best feature in his character is his hearty hospitality and patronage of literary men. Being himself a dabbler in verse, he loved to have poets about him, and he evinced substantial kindness to Thomson, who was enabled by his bounty to travel in France and Italy. The anecdote of Thomson sauntering about Bubb's gardens, at Eastbury, with his hands in his breeches-pockets, eating the sunny side of the peaches, is well known. Mr. Bowles says he had examined all Bubb's correspondence, and, though there are letters from many literary men, upon literary subjects-from Young, Voltaire, Thomson, &c.-Pope's name is never once mentioned. The close of Dodington's career was in keeping with its whole progress. He secured the confidence of Lord Bute, and in 1761 was advanced to the peerage, under the title of Lord Melcombe Regis. Thus elevated, the magnificent" Bubo " had nothing further to look for, and he died the next year, aged seventy-one. His extraordinary Diary was not published till 1784. STOWE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. Ver. 70. A work to wonder at-perhaps a Stowe.] Stowe has often been termed an Elysium. It is-or rather was-as near an approach to it as the English soil and climate will permit. It was the first specimen of landscape gardening on a great scale in this country. Whatever art, opulence, and vanity could command, was here collected. Nowhere else were united such magnificent gardens and grounds, such a profusion of temples, obelisks, and towers, rising among groves and lawns of the richest verdure; such a succes sion of inimitable walks and landscapes. "If anything under Paradise," says Pope, in one of his letters," could set me beyond all earthly cogitations, Stowe might do it." Thomson ranked its sylvan scenes above the charms of "Persian Cyrus on Ionia's shore." The cynical Horace Walpole and the courtly Lord Chesterfield were equally charmed with it. The great Lord Chatham spent much of his early leisure amongst its shades. Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Lyttelton delighted to resort to it. Princes were also among its visitors. Frederick Prince of Wales (father of George the Third), and the Princess Amelia, were often there. Some of the clumps of oak were planted by Louis XVIII., Charles X., and Louis Philippe; and Queen Victoria has set her fair foot on its walks. Whole generations of Court beauties, maids of honour, titled matrons, patricians, and intriguing politicians, seem to fill the glades and avenues with forms once familiar to the spot. "O fair ladies," said John Knox to the attendants of Queen Mary of Scotland, "how pleasing were this life of yours if it could ever abide; and then, in the end, if ye could go to Heaven with all your gay gear! |