Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/82

 from poets, ancient and modern, with the most artful care, in order that every word may have its appropriate feature in the scene to which it applies, compleat the list of ornaments in the famed Hagley grounds—ornaments highly in vogue half a century since, an æra in the history of English gardening when a classical mania had seized upon our improvers, after their escape from the strait lines and clipped yews of the Dutch manner, but utterly exploded as soon as good taste and common sense taught our designers of pleasure-ground, that their proper business was to assist nature, and not to destroy her; to tame her extravagance and soften her harshness, without changing her simplicity, wildness, and variety, for the operose and studied productions of artificial skill. The ruin, however, is good in its kind, and being situated upon the summit of a lofty hill, gratifies the eye with a prodigiously wide and diversified scene. The urn, also, dedicated to Pope, with this short inscription—

and the pavilion, sacred to Thomson, bearing these lines—