[2] Show-houses is a very appropriate term for such of the mansions of our nobility and gentry as are open to public inspection.  Hagley is extremely rich in treasures of art.  A mere catalogue of them would occupy the whole of our sheet; but we must notice two curiously carved mahogany tables, which cost L200.; four exquisitely carved busts of Shakspeare, Milton, Spenser, and Dryden, by Scheimaker, and bequeathed to George, Lord Lyttleton, by Pope; the portrait of Pope and his dog, Bounce; a fine Madonna, by Rubens; several pictures by Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, Le Brun, &c. &c. the Gobelin tapestry of the drawing room; the ceiling painted by Cipriani; and the family pictures, among which is Judge Lyttleton, copied from the painted glass in the Middle Temple Hall.

Much as the visiter will admire the refined taste displayed within the mansion, his admiration will be heightened by the classic taste in which the grounds are disposed.  A short distance from the house, embosomed in trees, stands the church, built in the time of Henry III.; with a sublime Gothic arch, richly painted windows, and a ceiling fretted with the heraldic fires of the Lyttleton family, whose tombs are placed on all sides; among them, the resting-place of the gay poet is distinguished by the following plain inscription:—­

  This unadorned stone was placed here
  By the particular desire and express
  Directions of the Right Honourable
     George, Lord Lyttleton,
  Who died August 22, 1773, aged 64.

Leaving the church we ascend to the crest of a hill, on which stands the Prince of Wales’s Pillar.  From this point, the view is inexpressibly beautiful, in which may be seen an octagon seat sacred to the memory of Thomson, and erected on the brow of a verdant steep, his favourite spot.  In the foreground is a gently winding valley; on the rising hill beyond is a noble wood, whilst to the right the open country fades in the distance; on the left the Clent hills appear, and a dusky antique tower stands just below them at the extremity of the wood; whilst in the midst of it, we can discern the Doric temple sacred to Pope.  This exquisite gem of the picturesque is represented in our Engraving.

In the adjoining grove of oaks is the antique tower; in a beautiful amphitheatre of wood, an Ionic rotunda; and in an embowering grove a Palladian bridge, with a light airy portico.  Here on a fine lawn is the urn inscribed to Pope, mentioned by Shenstone: 

  Here Pope! ah, never must that towering mind
  To his loved haunts, or dearer friend return;
  What art, what friendship! oh! what fame resign’d;
  In yonder glade I trace his mournful urn.

At the end of the valley, in an obscure corner is a hermitage, composed of roots and moss, whence we look down on a piece of water in the hollow, thickly shaded with tall trees, (see the engraving,) over which is a fine view of distant landscape.  This spot is the extremity of the park, and the Clent hills rise in all their wild irregularity, immediately behind it.