immediately behind it.

We have not space to describe, or rather to abridge from Whately's
beautiful description, a tithe of the classic embellishments of Hagley.
Shenstone as well as Pope has here his votive urn. Ivied ruin, temple,
grotto, statue, fountain, and bridge; the proud portico and the humble
rustic seat, alternate amidst these ornamental charms, and never were
Nature and art more delightfully blended than in the beauties of Hagley.
Here Pope, Shenstone, and Thomson[3] passed many hours of calm
contemplation and poetic ease, amidst the hospitalities of the noble
owner of Hagley. To think of their kindred spirits haunting its groves,
and their imaginative contrivances of votive temples, urns, and tablets,
and to combine them with these enchanting scenes of Nature, is to
realize all that Poets have sung of Arcadia of old. Happy! happy life
for the man of letters; what a retreat must your bowers have afforded
from the common-place perplexities of every-day life: Alas! the picture
is almost too sunny for sober contemplation.

[3] Thomson's affectionate letter to his sister, (quoted by
Johnson, who received it from Boswell,) is dated "Hagley, in
Worcestershire, October the 4th, 1747."

* * * * *

_In part of the impression of our last Number, we stated the architect
of the front of_ Apsley House, _to be Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, instead of
Mr. Benjamin Wyatt, by whom the design was furnished, and under whose
superintendence this splendid improvement has been executed. Mr. B.
Wyatt is likewise the architect of the superb mansion built for the late
Duke of York._