te beverage of Dr. Johnson. When Hanway
pronounced his anathema against it, Johnson rose in defence of it,
declaring himself "in that article a hardened sinner, having for years
diluted my meals with the infusion of that fascinating plant; my
tea-kettle has had no time to cool; with tea I have solaced the midnight
hour, and with tea welcomed the morning." Mr. Pennant was a great lover
of tea; a hardy honest Welch parson, on hearing that he usually retired
in the afternoon to his summer-house to enjoy that beverage, was moved
with indignation, that any thing weaker than ale or wine should be drunk
there; and calling to mind the good hunting times of old, passionately
exclaimed, "his father would have scorned it."

[88] Sir Uvedale thus expresses his own sensations when viewing some of
these plantations:--"The inside fully answers to the dreary appearance
of the outside; of all dismal scenes it seems to me the most likely for
a man to hang himself in; he would, however, find some difficulty in the
execution, for amidst the endless multitude of stems, there is rarely a
single side branch to which a rope could be fastened. The whole wood is
a collection of tall naked poles.... Even its gloom is without
solemnity; it is only dull and dismal; and what light there is, like
that of hell,

_Serves only to discover scenes of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades._"

[89] This observation confirms what Sir U. Price so pointedly enforces
throughout the whole of his causticly sportive letter to Mr. Repton:
"that the best landscape painters would be the best landscape gardeners,
were they to turn their minds to the practical part; consequently, a
study of their works, the most useful study to an improver."--And that
"Van Huysum would be a much better judge of the merits and defects of
the most dressed scene--of a mere flower garden,--than a gardener."

[90] Mr. Browne was not an author; yet the title of the present volume
is "On the Portraits of English _Authors_ on Gardening." Neither was old
Bridgman nor Kent _authors_ on this subject; still I could not prevail
on myself to pass over such names in total silence.

[91] Mr. Clive resided at Moreton-Say, near Market-Drayton. He was a
prebend of Westminster. Integrity marked every action of his life. In
his village, scarcely a poor man existed. His kindness and benevolence
to the poor, could only be equalled by his friendly hospitality and kind
feeling to the more afflu