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ple and entertaining: the brawling of a cafcade near the foot of the first feat, plunging down a fcattered heap of rag ged rock and ftones, is ftrikingly conducted; and a fort of ftone quarry on the oppofite fteep hill, covered with trees and bushes, is an agreeable addition to the rudeness of its correfponding parts. On the back of the firft feat, under the wall of the priory gate, is this infcrip

tion :

Lucis habitamus opacis

Riparumque toras, et prata recentia rivis
Incolimus,

That is,

-Unfettled we remove,

As pleasure calls from verdant grove to grove,
Stretch'd on the flow'ry meads, at eafe we lie,
And hear the filver rills run bubbling by. PITT.

The hanging fides of this umbrageous recefs are differently varied.

That on the

left

left rifes in great beauty; lofty trees, bushes, and the lively verdure of the turf, adorned with a thousand natural flowers, and the rambling path oblique, within the cool refreshing fhade, is truly pleafing; fometimes the trunk, or root, of a lofty oak, projects into the path; another, in the very middle of it. This I prefume is meant to give it a more perfect air of fimplicity; but a man of the nicest taste may lose himself in aiming at too great a diftinction in this respect, and fall into the very error he is fo cautious to fhun: however pleafing this novelty in the priory walk may be to fome, it is certainly abfurd and unnatural; inftead of being ftruck with its fimplicity, I fee nothing but the most evident affectation of it, and I immediately conclude, the defigner, merely for the fake of the whim, did it at the expence of his better judgment,

The

The oppofite fide of the dell is left in its natural ftate, wild, and clofely bushed to the bottom, where the mazy current, from the cascade above dropping in abrupt falls, lends its foothing note, till having found a more peaceful haunt in the calm pool below, changes the fylvan fcene.

The landscape which ftarts upon the fpectator on approaching the water is exceeding chearful, but not extensive. Hales Owen steeple, a large house, the adjoining fields, and an agreeable peep of Clent hills over the water, enriched by the trees on its steep banks, are collected in this lively picture.

The inscription on the feat here is,

AMICITIA ET MERITIS
RICARDI GRAVE S.

-Ipfæ te Tityre, pinus

Ipfi te Fontes, ipfa hæc Arbufta vocabunt.

[blocks in formation]

That is,

To the friendship and merit

Of RICHARD GRAVES.

-For thee detain'd

The pines, the fhrubs, the bubbling fprings com

plain'd.

WARTON

The path from hence winds by the fide of the pond in the moft fimple manner along the lowly dale, where another dripping rill falls gently in foft murmurs. from the higher parts of it, and loses itself in the fame lake.

On another feat are thefe lines,

Huc ades, O Meliboe! caper tibi falvus et hodi Et fi quid ceffare potes, requiefce fub umbra.

That is,

hither Melibaeus hafte,

Safe are thy goat and kids: one idle hour

Come waste with me beneath this cooling bow'r

WARTON

From

From this fhady bench the whole of the fequeftered valley is taken in; upon the left in the midft of a rifing grove of oaks, feathered with coppice wood and gofs, ftands the statue of a Faunus playing upon a pipe. This, fo finely feen among the trees, has a very agreeable effect, and on the opposite fide, an urn in a lone spot adds to its native gloom and folemnity; this contemplative fcene is intirely confined by steep declivities on either fide; lofty trees are thinly dropped about, from the more darkened bank; and the lovely wood beyond the ftatue connecting, forms a chearful lawn, gently falling by the foot of the feat and down to the water below.

The infcription on the urn is,

INGENIO, ET AMICITIE
GULIELMI SOMERVILE

G. S. POSUIT.

Debita fpargens lacrimâ favillam

Vatis amici.

C 2

That

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