Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/253

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
and its Green Border-Land.
239

Browning, and Longfellow. His "Schoolmistress" is probably his only production that will live; as it is to all his other poems what Gray's "Elegy" is to the remembrance and reputation of that writer. The distinction he attained as a landscape and garden artist, indicates how common and tasteless must have been the best ornamental grounds in England when he first brought his genius to bear upon them. The parks of Hagley and Enville contain monuments erected to his memory by Lords Lyttelton and Stamford, which may testify to their appreciation of his work in laying out their grounds, in grouping trees, shrubbery, and flowers, and beautiful walks, pools, and fountains. If the best productions of his genius in this branch of art would fall far short of what hundreds of modern gardeners have accomplished in England, he was their teacher, and they never would have reached their present status if he had not preceded them when and how he did. For half a century after his death his reputation as what may be called a landscape architect was worldwide. One of the most striking and honourable tributes of respect to his genius was paid him by Fisher Ames, perhaps the most eloquent lawyer that New England ever produced. In his celebrated speech about sixty years ago in defence of Blennerhassett, who was mixed up in Aaron Burrs's great conspiracy, he gave a most graphic