where it will be seen, to leave intervals where the eye will be
pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to
be hidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not inquire:
perhaps a sullen and surly spectator may think such performances
rather the sport than the business of human reason. But it must be
at least confessed that to embellish the form of Nature is an
innocent amusement, and some praise must be allowed, by the most
supercilious observer, to him who does best what such multitudes are
contending to do well.

This praise was the praise of Shenstone; but, like all other modes
of felicity, it was not enjoyed without its abatements. Lyttelton
was his neighbour and his rival, whose empire, spacious and opulent,
looked with disdain on the PETTY STATE that APPEARED BEHIND IT. For
a while the inhabitants of Hagley affected to tell their
acquaintance of the little fellow that was trying to make himself
admired; but when by degrees the Leasowes forced themselves into
notice, they took care to defeat the curiosity which they could not
suppress by conducting their visitants perversely to inconvenient
points of view, and introducing them at the wrong end of a walk to
detect a deception; injuries of which Shenstone would heavily
complain. Where there is emulation there will be vanity; and where
there is vanity there will be folly.

The pleasure of Shenstone was all in his eye; he valued what he
valued merely for its looks. Nothing raised his indignation more
than to ask if there were any fishes in his water. His house was
mean, and he did not improve it; his care was of his grounds. When
he came home from his walks, he might find his floors flooded by a
shower through the broken roof; but could spare no money for its