In the grounds of Alexander Pope's status-symbol Palladian villa at Twickenham, which he designed himself, were all the latest whims and fancies: a vineyard, orangery, hothouses for pineapples, hives for bees, rare varieties of French pear, and a large kitchen garden. Beyond the domestic garden lay extensive landscaping: straight avenues, winding interlaced paths, dense woods, many different trees, a grove of cypresses leading to an obelisk, an amphitheatre, quincunxes, groves, arcades, a wilderness, a bowling green, a shell temple, three mounts, a panorama and a camera obscura built within a grotto.
A restless striving quarrel between ingenuity, variety and naturalism, all crammed into a bare five acres of ground - and as good a metaphor for the eighteenth century as you might care to find.
1 comment:
Quincunxes - now there's a word you don't often hear in polite conversation, unless you're amongst French Arborealists perhaps
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