"His race, his form, his name almost unknown?" The "Man of Ross" was of one of the best families in the county of Hereford, was allied to the Scudamores, the Traceys, the Clarkes, and all other the then principal private families; and the Kyrles, by marriage, brought into the Clarke family an estate, called the "Hill," of the value of two hundred pounds a-year. The estates of Much Marcle, of the value of four thousand pounds per annum, belonged to his cousin, Sir John Kyrle, Bart. who left four daughters and no son; and I believe that the limitation was in the will to the heirs male general, and that they might have taken it, had he chosen. Splendid monuments of the family are to be seen in Much Marcle church, Walford, near Ross, and other places. He wrote out his own pedigree on parchment, commencing in the reign of Henry the Seventh, now in Mr. Hutcheson's possession; and it is a very accurate and methodical arrangement. A good picture of him was at the inn, which had been his dwelling-house, but not an original, which the innkeeper, Ball, removed. There is an original picture in the possession of Mrs. Jones. There are several little stories amongst the old people in the country, as to the plain attire of the "Man of Ross," and the consequent mistakes of persons seeing him in such, and their surprise when they approached his hospitable mansion to partake of his liberality, and witness his mode of living. This general outline, I submit, is fully sufficient to verify the truths which run through the whole of Pope's lines, in praise of the character which, from all I have learned, was only exaggerated by the elegance of the poetical writing. 66 "NEVER was protection and great wealth 1,” says an able judge of the subject, more generously and judiciously diffused than by this great person (Lord Burlington), who had every quality of a genius and artist, except envy. Though his own designs were more chaste and classic than Kent's, he entertained him in his house till his death, and was more studious to extend his friend's fame than his own. As we have few samples of architecture more antique and imposing than the colonnade within the court of his house in Piccadilly, I cannot help mentioning the effect it had on myself. I had not only never seen it, but had never heard of it, at least with any attention, when, soon after my return from Italy, I was invited to a ball at Burlington-house. As I passed under the gate by night, it could not strike me. At day-break, 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's time." Pope having appeared an excellent moralist in the foregoing Epistles, in this appears to be as excellent a connoisseur, and has given not only some of our first, but our best rules and observations on architecture and gardening, but particularly on the latter of these useful and entertaining arts, on which he has dwelt more largely, and with rather more knowledge of the subject. The following is copied verbatim from a little paper which he gave to Mr. Spence: "Arts are taken from nature; and, after a thousand vain efforts for improvements, are best when they return to their first simplicity. A sketch or analysis of the first principles of each art, with their first consequences, might be a thing of most excellent service. Thus, for instance, all the rules of architecture might be reducible to three or four heads; the justness of the openings; bearings upon bearings; the regularity of the pillars, &c. That which is not just in buildings is disagreeable to the eye (as a greater upon a lesser, &c.), and this may be called the reasoning of the eye. In laying out a garden, the first and chief thing to be considered is the genius of the place. Thus at Riskins, now called Piercy Lodge, Lord *** should have raised two or three mounts, because his situation is all a plain, and nothing can please without variety." Mr. Walpole, in his elegant and entertaining History of Modern Gardening, has clearly proved that Kent was the artist to whom the English nation was chiefly indebted for diffusing a taste in laying out grounds, of which the French and Italians have no idea. But he adds, much to the credit of our author, that Pope undoubtedly contributed to form Kent's taste. The design of the Prince of Wales's garden at Carlton House was evidently borrowed from the Poet's at Twickenham. There was a little affected modesty in the latter, when he said, of all his works, he was most proud of his garden. And yet it was a singular effort 1 Mr. Walpole, p. 108. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iv. |