Pope was naturally more allied with the Prince of Wales, who
occasionally visited him, and became intimate with the band of patriots
and enthusiasts who saw in the heir to the throne the coming "patriot
king." Bolingbroke, too, the great inspirer of the opposition, and
Pope's most revered friend, was for ten years at Dawley, within an easy
drive. London was easily accessible by road and by the river which
bounded his lawn. His waterman appears to have been one of the regular
members of his household. There he had every opportunity for the
indulgence of his favourite tastes. The villa was on one of the
loveliest reaches of the Thames, not yet polluted by the encroachments
of London. The house itself was destroyed in the beginning of this
century; and the garden (if we may trust Horace Walpole) had been
previously spoilt. This garden, says Walpole, was a little bit of ground
of five acres, enclosed by three lanes. "Pope had twisted and twirled
and rhymed and harmonized this, till it appeared two or three sweet
little lawns, opening and opening beyond one another, and the whole
surrounded with impenetrable woods." These, it appears, were hacked and
hewed into mere desolation by the next proprietor. Pope was, indeed, an
ardent lover of the rising art of landscape gardening; he was familiar
with Bridgeman and Kent, the great authorities of the time, and his
example and precepts helped to promote the development of a less formal
style. His theories are partly indicated in the description of Timon's
villa.
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