The Poem in Nature

A painting inspired by Stourhead Gardens.
Source: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/history/

When the gardens of the Stourhead estate were opened in the 1750s, a magazine described them as "a living work of art." With its sprawling vistas and carefully constructed views, the gardens were meant to look like something out of a landscape painting. As numerous examples show, the gardens often served as inspiration for many paintings.

Walking up the path to the Temple of Apollo, though, you can see that paintings were not the only type art Henry Hoare II sought to evoke in his gardens. With the Greek and Roman temples, the gardens harken back to the stories of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, placing the whimsy and mystery of pagan myths among the landscape of the English countryside. The wooden signs that decorate the path, though, bring the literature evoked up into a time more contemporary with the creation of the gardens, the 18th century. Each sign features an excerpt from Alexander Pope's "Epistles to Several People: Epistle IV." Pope held a great respect for the classics, just as Hoare did, evoking classic authors and philosophers throughout his "An Essay on Criticism"and remarking that the "Imitation of the ancients" is the ultimate standard for taste. For Pope, the highest form of literature involves imitating the ancient writers, just as for Hoare, the highest form of architecture and aesthetic design involves imitating the ancient architects and artists. It thus seems only logical that the contemporary poet who would be evoked in this celebration of the ancient world is a one who shares Hoare's ideals.

Pope wrote the epistle that adorns the signs leading up to the temple of Apollo as a commemoration of another garden, the Stowe gardens designed by Richard Boyle, the third Earl of Burlington. Boyle was considered largely responsible for developing the new taste in gardening and architecture in the early 18th century, which suggests that Boyle may have influenced the Stourhead gardens as well. Thus, the inclusion of Pope's poem to Boyle in the Stourhead garden layers the garden's dedication to include both ancient and contemporary influences on aesthetics.

The portion of Pope's poem that is excerpted on the path to the point in the garden with one of the most breathtaking views in the entire site offers a greater dedication, though, to the overarching force that inspired the gardens: nature. Each sign stands next to another outstanding point of view overlooking the lake and reminds the viewer that "in all, let Nature never be forgot." Pope's words remind one to "consult the Genius of the Place in all," so that each human design on nature will still correspond with the "Genius" of nature. Pope emphasizes how nature will change "th'intending Lines" of the human designers, taking on the role of the ultimate artist who "paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs." Thus, looking down from the Temple of Apollo over the views and vistas of the Stourhead gardens, one sees Nature presiding over the human design of the garden, working with and through that design to showcase its beauty.