foreign fruit liquors, it will be of less concern to the public, whether their estimated merits, in producing it, be real or imaginary.' We have with pleasure followed Mr. M. into the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, and over the heaths of Surrey, and into the Isle of Wight: but into these districts we must not think of conducting our readers. In exploring the district of Petworth, he experienced the politeness of the Earl of Egremont, which he gratefully acknowleges. An interesting experiment made by this noble Earl, on fatting porkers at grass, is here recorded; and Mr. M. assures us that this grass-pork was firm! finely flavoured, and the colour peculiarly delicate. It will however be of more importance to farmers, particularly those who cultivate strong soils, to attend to a hint which Mr. M. throws out to prevent the expensive process of limeburning. As the effect of chalk as a manure on stiff soils depends on its being pulverized, and as it is burnt into lime solely for this purpose, he recommends, where fuel is scarce, the substitution of a mill, turned either by wind or water, to bruise it to the state of powder. We could extract many other instances, to prove the author's solicitude to aid the farmer in his important business, and to perfect the rural economy of the kingdom: but this article is already of sufficient extent, and the agricultural works of Mr, Marshall do not require our recommendation. ART. VII. The Gardens, a Poem. Translated from the French of the Abbé de Lille. 4to. pp. 120. 158. Boards. Edwards. 1798. R ESPECT for this poem has increased with the celebrity of the author, who is still living, and who is regarded by his countrymen as the first poet of the present age *. He confesses, in his text and notes, that the style of gardening which he describes was first attempted with success in England, by Kent, a famous architect, and designer of the landscape garden which now begins to prevail all over Europe:'--but the Abbé, supposing that the Chinese were the original inventors of this style, quotes Sir William Chambers's Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, and mentions not Mr. Mason's English Garden, nor * We announced this poem, in the original, in our Ixixth volume, p. 72. An English version of it, also, was mentioned in our vth vo lume, New Series, p. 154. but whether from inferiority of translation, or from whatever cause, we did not then experience that pleasure in the perusal of it which we have now derived. Mr. Moo-y Mr. Walpole's (late Lord Orford) Essay on Modern Gardening, though both must have appeared before this poem was pubJished. The truth is that the English taste in gardens, and laying out the grounds surrounding villas and great provincial mansions, was suggested by Milton, (in his description of the garden of Eden,) by Addison, and by Pope, and was pursued and reduced to practice by Kent and Brown, a considerable time before even tradition had carried it to the continent. We were certainly the first in Europe who quitted the regular style, and destroyed parterres, straight lines, vegetable sculpture, symmetry, and unnatural regularity, to give place to open prospects and inequalities of ground; in order to catch a view of distant hills, woods, and flowing (not stagnant) waters: imitating rivers at least, by concealing the beginning and termination of lakes and pieces of standing water, and giving to the whole the semblance of Nature's work. From what we read in Sir William Chambers's Dissertation, in Pere du Halde, and other missionaries and travellers, and from what we hear related concerning the magnificence, splendour, art, and refinement of the Chinese in imitating nature, en grand, we are unable, (and, let us hope, unwilling,) from the enormous expence and occupation of soil, to copy their extravagance in gardening. Yet, though the simplicity, freedom, and unaffected imitation of nature in laying out pleasure grounds, on a small scale, may perhaps have been practised by the Chinese in much higher antiquity than by ourselves, we rather think that this method was invented a second time in England, and came on progressively from the precepts of Bacon, Wotton, Milton, Addison, and Pope, than that it was stolen or servilely imitated from the practice of any other country. Lord Orford and Mr. Mason are offended with the French writers on the present irregular style of gardening, for asserting that we had it from China; ascribing to envy their unwillingness to allow us the merit of invention :-but however they may wish to rob us of this sprig of laurel, there is English authority for the supposition: for Sir William Temple, when describing Moor Park (which was entirely in the old geometric style) as the sweetest place that he had ever seen in his life at home or abroad, adds: "What I have said of the best forms of gardens is meant only of such as are in some sort regular; for there may be other forms wholly irregular, that may, for aught I know, have more beauty than any of the others; thing of this kind I have seen in some places, but heard more of it from others, who have lived among the CHINESES." X 4 - some Though 1 Though we were at war with France before this work was first published (1782), yet, from the urbanity of the author towards us, the poem was thought by some to spring from the remains of the Anglomania which was said to have raged in that country previously to this war. Not a hostile nor an invidious reflection against this nation escapes him throughout the whole work; and though, in civility to his countrymen, he is obliged to say that he does not venture to decide between the merit of Le Nôtre and Kent, Each to our choice presents a separate claim, yet he abandons the works of the one to destruction, and adopts for imitation those of the other. He recommends Milton's description of Paradise as a model for gardens, and owns that England taught his countrymen how to cover and embellish the earth: Mais enfin Angleterre Nous apprit l'art d'orner et d'habiller la terre." He also recommends Wheatley's description of the wild and grand features of Middleton-dale, and Dove-dale, and terminates his poem with an Eloge on Captain Cook, our celebrated circumnavigator. Exclusively of these civilities, the doctrine which he endeavours to instil into the taste of his countrymen in laying out garden grounds is so entirely English, though the poetical dress is his own, that our taste ought to be flattered by this adoption, as much as by good translations of our best classical writers into the language of a foreign learned country. This is "breaking ground at a great distance:" but we thought it necessary to say thus much respecting the original, in the way of préface to the present translation, before we entered on a discussion of its merits. We have now to observe that this version, which is avowed'y executed by a Lady, does great honour to her sex: for we scarcely remember to have seen, since the establishment of our court of inquiry, poetry translated with such exactness, facility, spirit, and elegance. We cannot resist the pleasure of presenting to our readers While Genius smiles in deathless wreaths attired, Yet Yet shall my cold, interpretative lays, Be viewed with rapture, and be crowned with praise; Till the wild flowers they place around my tomb, Protect these numbers which thy influence prove; In our extracts from the poem itself, if we could afford sufficient space, it would be but just to insert the original of each passage with the English version: as, by comparison, the reader would perceive that a translation of prose into prose could hardly be more close and literal; and that this is achieved without being either prosaic or laboured, For instance, Chant 1. French, 4to. edit. p. 9. "Je dirai comment l'art dans de frais paisages Dirige l'eau, les fleurs, les gazons, les ombrages." English, p. 1. I sing how art the imperfect landscape aids, "N'empruntons point ici d'ornement étranger; English, p. 2. Here let no borrowed ornaments be found, "Et quand les dieux offroient un Elysée aux sages, English, p. 3. And, when the good implored immortal powers, 1 No pains were taken in selecting these passages; they were the first which we compared with the original; and, as we find the infusion equally correct and happy through all the the four cantos of the poem, we shall now only cite the translation. We think that the English taste in gardens is accurately described in the following passage: Insult not Nature with absurd expense, Nor spoil her simple charms by vain pretence. Less grand than lovely, decked with modest care, Nature is yours, and your prolific hand Must, to create, her elements command.' The next ten lines, after having considered the genius of the place to be embellished, supply an admirable precept: 6 But, ere you plant, ere your adventurous spade In the maternal soil a wound has made, To form your gardens with unerring taste, Observe how Nature's choicest works are traced. The following verses are an expansion of Pope's admirable Counsel: • On Imitation ills unnumbered wait How to surmouut or shun them, Muse! relate, This rage too oft engenders forced effects. Aim not at beauties which the soil rejects. First to your site judiciously attend, Their laws despised, how oft are scenes misplaced, The subsequent passage, in which the author advises us to take lessons from painters, merit insertion equally for the original sentiment and its English dress: • Aptly discover, boldly daring, seize A grace |