SOME THOUGHTS ON BUILDING and PLANTING,

TO Sir JAMES LOWTHER, Bart. OF LOWTHER-HALL.

BY THE SAME.

WHEN stately structures Lowther grace,
 Worthy the owner and the place,
 Fashion will not the works direct,
 But Reason be the Architect. 

Ready each beauteous order stands
 To execute what she commands. 
The Doric grave, where weight requires;
 To give his manly strength aspires;
 The light Corinthian, richly gay,
 Does all embellishments display;
 Between them see, with matron air,
 The Ionic, delicately fair! 

These their abundant aid will lend
 To answer every structure's end. 
To Building can a mode belong
 But gay, or delicate, or strong? 
Why search we then for orders new,
 Rich in these all-comprising few,
 But that the standard rules of Greece
 Disdain to humour wild caprice? 
They Fancy's wanton freaks controul,
 In every part consult the whole,
 Teach Art to dress, and not disguise,
 Seek lasting fame, not short surprise,
 And all adornings to produce
 From real or from seeming use,
 The place's genius to revere,
 And, as he bids, the structure rear. 

Smiles he o'er fragrant Flora's bloom? 
Ne'er shock him with a grotto's gloom. 
Nor with smooth slender columns mock
 His roughness in the rugged rock. 
Nor by trim steps hand gently down,
 (Like dainty dames in formal town)
 The nimble Naiades, who bound
 O'er native rocks with sprightly sound. 
Nor roving Dryades confine
 Precisely to a single line,
 Strait, circular, or serpentine. 

All forms arise at nature's call,
 And use can beauty give to all. 
None e'er disgust the judging mind,
 When vary'd well, or well combin'd. 

This Lowther's noble planter knew,
 And kept it in his constant view. 
So sweetly wild his woods are strown,
 Nature mistakes them for her own,
 Yet all to proper soil and site
 So suited, doubly they delight. 
While tender plants in vales repose,
 Where the mild zephyr only blows,
 Embattled firs bleak hills adorn,
 Under whose safeguard smiles the corn. 
Who builds or plants, this rule should know,
 From truth and use all beauties flow.