55. Heely, Joseph.
Vol. I. LETTERS / ON THE / BEAUTIES / OF / HAGLEY, ENVIL,
/ AND THE / LEASOWES. / WITH CRITICAL REMARKS:
/ AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE / MODERN TASTE IN GARDENING.
/ By Joseph Heely, Esq. /
For nature here / Wantons
as in her prime, and plays at will / Her virgin fancies. / Milt /
IN TWO VOLUMES. / VOL. I. / LONDON: /
Printed for R.
BALDWIN,
Pater-noster-row. / MDCCLXXVII.
12mo. Title page ([1]); note ([iii]-iv); table of contents ([v]-vii);
text ([1]-231).
Vol. II. LETTERS / ON THE / BEAUTIES / . . . / VOL. II. /
. . .
12mo. Title page ([1]); table of contents ([iii]-v); text ([1]-215).
Very little is known about Joseph Heely (fl.1777) except the evidence
found in this book. After the first few of his letters of observations, the
rest are concerned with descriptions of Hagley, Envil, and the Leasowes.
He has a great deal to say about "the modern taste in gardening," which
is to say the new picturesque as opposed to the old formal garden design:
I think, among all the recreations the country affords, Gardening is one of the
most agreeable - that it is not only a commendable, and healthful employment,
but a pleasing and entertaining study - that it fills the mind with every flattering
sensation, charms the eye, and wherever introduced by the hand of taste,
makes the face of nature smile in elegance and perpetual verdure. [P. 5]
Since gardening has emerged from its former vicious, and puerile state,
the delightful scenery that has sprung from the pure principles of the modern
practice, is really admirable. The science has been brought into such perfection,
that in many places, the greatest difficulty is to discover where art has
been busy to arrive at it; so simple, yet so elegant; every scene so beautifully
characterised; so different, yet so configurative! [Pp. 11-12]
Architecture and gardening, may be called sister arts, though diametrically
opposite in their principles; the excellencies of the first are founded in a
mathematical exacteness, and regularity: in the latter, on an assemblage of
scenery without either: yet when both unite, each graces the other so powerfully,
and affords so striking a contrast, that, it is much to be lamented, they
are ever seen but in an inseparable connection. [Pp. 21-22]
But the time approached, when poor nature was to be intirely kicked
out of doors; and in her room, to be substituted, every ridiculous absurdity,
the caprice of low invention could suggest. - Le Notre, that celebrated but
cruel spoiler, . . . mangled the sighing earth, with all that fire of genius
which was then the prevailing mode, absurdly following, or perhaps beginning,
the miserable fashion, of mutilating the trees, and in short, inverting
the beauty of every thing he approached. [Pp. 32-33]
If this art [of designing gardens] is really to be learnt, nature only is the
proper school for it - it depends not on the rules that comprehend science of
any other kind; there are no abstruse problems to be worked by the compasses,
or any mathematical instrument; its rules depend on other powers - on good
sense, on an inventive genius, a flowery imagination, and a delicate fancy - it
is these only, that can produce perfection - that can teach you to slide from
one beauty to another, to characterise, combine, and give every scene a pleasing
effect, from whatever point it is viewed. [P. 37]
The principles which every expert designer will work upon, have the
force of exhibiting to the eye, the most finished pictures. [P. 48]
Sowerby (4228) quotes Jefferson's notes written after he had
visited Hagley and the Leasowes in 1786. He says
Hagley. Now Ld. Wescot. 1000 as. No distinction between park & garden.
Both blended, but more of the character of garden. Between 2. & 300.
deer in it, some few of them red deer. . . .
Leasowes. In Shropshire. Now the property of Mr. Horne by purchase.
150 as. within the walk. The waters small. This is not even an ornamental
farm. It is only a grazing farm with a path round it. Here and there a seat of
board, rarely any thing better. Architecture has contributed nothing. The
obelisk is of brick. Shenstone [the previous owner] had but 300 £ a year, &
ruined himself by what he did to this farm.
One might also note that the ideas expressed in Heely are similar
to those principles used by Jefferson when he designed his own garden
at Monticello.
Jefferson's own set of Heely, which Kimball (p. 95) says was purchased
between 1785 and 1789, was sold to Congress. He ordered it for
the University in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture.
Music." of the want list, but it was not received during his lifetime. The
set now owned by the library was acquired during the twentieth century.
U. Va.
*DA660.H45.1777
M
Sowerby 4228
