The poet has given us in one of his letters a long and lively description of his subterranean embellishments.  But his verse will live longer than his prose.  He has immortalized this grotto, so radiant with spars and ores and shells, in the following poetical inscription:—­

    Thou, who shalt stop, where Thames’ translucent wave
    Shines a broad mirror through the shadowy cave,
    Where lingering drops from mineral roofs distil,
    And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill,
    Unpolished gems no ray on pride bestow,
    And latent metals innocently glow,
    Approach!  Great Nature studiously behold,
    And eye the mine without a wish for gold
    Approach—­but awful!  Lo, the Egerian grot,
    Where, nobly pensive, ST JOHN sat and thought,
    Where British sighs from dying WYNDHAM stole,
    And the bright flame was shot thro’ MARCHMONT’S soul;
    Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor
    Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

Horace Walpole, speaking of the poet’s garden, tells us that “the passing through the gloom from the grotto to the opening day, the retiring and again assembling shades, the dusky groves, the larger lawn, and the solemnity at the cypresses that led up to his mother’s tomb, were managed with exquisite judgment.”

            Cliveden’s proud alcove,
    The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love,

alluded to by Pope in his sketch of the character of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, though laid out by Kent, was probably improved by the poet’s suggestions.  Walpole seems to think that the beautiful grounds at Rousham, laid out for General Dormer, were planned on the model of the garden at Twickenham, at least the opening and retiring “shades of Venus’s Vale.”  And these grounds at Rousham were pronounced “the most engaging of all Kent’s works.”  It is said that the design of the garden at Carlton House, was borrowed from that of Pope.

Wordsworth was correct in his observation that “Landscape gardening is a liberal art akin to the arts of poetry and painting.”  Walpole describes it as “an art that realizes painting and improves nature.”  “Mahomet,” he adds, “imagined an Elysium, but Kent created many.”

Pope’s mansion was not a very spacious one, but it was large enough for a private gentleman of inexpensive habits.  After the poet’s death it was purchased by Sir William Stanhope who enlarged both the house and garden.[012] A bust of Pope, in white marble, has been placed over an arched way with the following inscription from the pen of Lord Nugent: 

    The humble roof, the garden’s scanty line,
    Ill suit the genius of the bard divine;
    But fancy now displays a fairer scope
    And Stanhope’s plans unfold the soul of Pope.