Next to the fair ascent our steps we traced,
    Where shines afar the bold rotunda placed;
    The artful dome Ionic columns bear
    Light as the fabric swells in ambient air. 
    Beneath enshrined the Tuscan Venus stands
    And beauty’s queen the beauteous scene commands: 
    The fond beholder sees with glad surprize,
    Streams glisten, lawns appear, and forests rise—­
    Here through thick shades alternate buildings break,
    There through the borders steals the silver lake,
    A soft variety delights the soul,
    And harmony resulting crowns the whole.

Congreve in his Letter in verse addressed to Lord Cobham asks him to

    Tell how his pleasing Stowe employs his time.

It would seem that the proprietor of Stowe took particular interest in the disposition of the water on his grounds.  Congreve enquires

Or dost thou give the winds afar to blow Each vexing thought, and heart-devouring woe, And fix thy mind alone on rural scenes, To turn the level lawns to liquid plains?  To raise the creeping rills from humble beds And force the latent spring to lift their heads, On watery columns, capitals to rear, That mix their flowing curls with upper air?

* * * * *

    Or slowly walk along the mazy wood
    To meditate on all that’s wise and good.

The line:—­

    To turn the level lawn to liquid plains—­

Will remind the reader of Pope’s

    Lo!  Cobham comes and floats them with a lake—­

And it might be thought that Congreve had taken the hint from the bard of Twickenham if Congreve’s poem had not preceded that of Pope.  The one was published in 1729, the other in 1731.

Cowper is in the list of poets who have alluded to “Cobham’s groves” and Pope’s commemoration of them.

    And Cobham’s groves and Windsor’s green retreats
    When Pope describes them have a thousand sweets.

“Magnificence and splendour,” says Mr. Whately, the author of Observations on Modern Gardening, “are the characteristics of Stowe.  It is like one of those places celebrated in antiquity which were devoted to the purposes of religion, and filled with sacred groves, hallowed fountains, and temples dedicated to several deities; the resort of distant nations and the object of veneration to half the heathen world:  the pomp is, at Stowe, blended with beauty; and the place is equally distinguished by its amenity and grandeur.”  Horace Walpole speaks of its “visionary enchantment.”  “I have been strolling about in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, from garden to garden,” says Pope in one of his letters, “but still returning to Lord Cobham’s with fresh satisfaction."[021]

The grounds at Stowe, until the year 1714, were laid out in the old formal style.  Bridgeman then commenced the improvements and Kent subsequently completed them.