the grassie bank For which no art but nature we must thank No Marble Pillars no proud Pavements there No Galleries or fretted Roofs appear The modest rooms to India nothing owe Nor Gold nor Ivory nor Arras know Thus liv'd our Ancestors when Saturn reign'd While the first Oracles in Okes remain'd A harmless course of life they did pursue And nought beyond their hills their Rivers knew Rome had not yet the Universe ingrost Her Seven Hills few Triumphs then could boast Small herds then graz'd in the Laurenitne Mead Nor many more th' Arician Valleys feed Of Rural Ornaments of Woods much more I could relate then what I have before But what 's unfinish'd my next care requires And my tir'd Bark the neighb'ring Port desires RAPINUS OF GARDENS Book III. WATER OF pleasant Flouds and Streams my Muse now sings Of Chrystal Lakes Grotts and transparent Springs By these a Garden is more charming made They chiefly beautifie the Rural Shade To me ye River-gods your influence give If Deities in Springs in Rivers live Into the secret caverns of the earth Where these perennial waters have their birth I now descend as well to know the source As to explore which way they take their course To learn where all this liquid Treasure lies And whence the Channels still have fresh supplies Wherefore let those who would instructed be In Aquaeducts their Precepts take from me Into th' unskilful Gard'ner I 'le infufe What may be ornamental what of use You then who would your Villa's grace augment And on its honour always are intent You who employ your time to cultivate Your Gardens and to make their glory great Among your groves and flow'rs let water flow Water the soul of groves and slow'rs too He that intends to do as I direct Must in the Vales the scatter'd flouds collect He into th'bowels of the earth must dive To find out Springs which may the fields revive All parch'd and dry for else within a while No grass will live upon the thirsty Soyl. Nor is it hard to do what you desire If on the neighb'ring Hills some Rock aspire For in such places waters always flow From whence you may refresh the Meads belows Thus the swift Loir the Rhine and the Garonne Parisian Sein the Sealdis and the Rhone The mighty Danube too and almost all The streams in nature from the mountains fall Whether some space be in the hollow Caves Made for a receptacle of the Waves Or that the vital air no sooner feels Th' included cold but it as soon distills Into small Brooks thus the warm Caverns sweat Such humid drops as when the season 's wet And winter has obscur'd the air again From marble pillars are observ'd to drain With dewy moisture lofty Cliffs abound All places weep perhaps into the ground And through the hills help'd by the Rain and Snows The water runs still sinking at it goes Till forc'd for want of room it then disdains More narrow bounds insulting o're the Plains Those before others should our credit gain Who would deduce all Fountains from the Main Whose boundless waves the Universe embrace And penetrate into each vacant space Each cranny of the earth as in our veins That active bloud which humane life sustains Is always mov'd so th' Ocean circulates And into ev'ry part it self dilates Hence though all rivers to the Ocean hast And in its depth are swallow'd up at last Yet these additions make it not run o're Or violate the limits of the shore Nor is the ground so close together knit But that its Pores and Caverns will admit The subtle waves which sinking by degrees Descend into its deep Concavities When uncontroll'd they gently take their course But if disturb'd they make their way by force Where frequent clefts the gaping earth divide The waters there in greater plenty slide Thus too fresh streams do from the sea proceed Which of their native Salt are wholly freed They through the sand and crook'd Maeanders stray And through uneven places force their way Strain'd by their soyls through which they are convai'd They lose that brackishness which once theyhad No taste no other colour water knows But what alone its mother Earth bestows For she alone distinguishes its end By causing it to heal or to offend Borbon and Pugia such Springs produce Which borrow from the ground a wholesome juyce By drinking them diseases reign no more To dying men they welcom health restore The Gods in nothing more their pow'r declare In nothing more we may discern their care What need of drugs what use of Medicine Pains cannot dare not conquer aids divine Art sure must starve Physicians must grow poor If nature the decays of nature cure Let your first labour be to find a Spring Which from the neighb'ring hillock you may bring Such places seldom fail of these supplies Therefore with digging you must exercise The earth be diligent on ev'ry side Then if success be to your hopes deny'd If heavy sand composed the glebe in vain You wish for what you never can obtain When in their field some have for Fountains sought Which thence they to their Gardens would have brought I saw their thirsty wishes unrepaid While the deaf Gods neglected those who pray'd Where the Medonian hills do lose their hight There lately dwell'd the greatest Favorite Fortune e're had the greatest France e're saw A hundred Plows his num'rous Oxen draw The Treasures of the Kingdom he commands The nerves of peace and war were in his hands To be dispos'd of as the King thought fit And as the rules of Government permit He on th' advantage of the Hill had plac'd A noble House which underneath was grac'd By a large Plain o're which it might be seen From Paris and the Countrey too between No Gardens there no Woods were wanting found The spacious Prospect stretch'd it self around But by the grassie banks no water straid Nor with hoarse murmurs wanton rivers plaid The owner of the Seat a thousand ways To find out Springs beneath the earth essays He left no means no charges unapply'd All the efforts of art and labour try'd Still his desire of Fountains did incerease And no repulses made his wishes cease With empty hopes he feed his longing mind And sought for that which he could never find For though he left no place unsearch'd unmov'd Yet his attempts still unsuccessful prov'd So hard it is unless the Soyl consent To find a Spring which done your thanks present To the kind Gods the Rural Pow'r adore Do this as I have done for you before Water 't is true through Pipes may be convaid From hollow Pits so Fountains oft are made By Art when Nature aids not our designs The pensile Machine to a Tunnel joyns Which by the motion of a Siphon straight The element attracts though by its weight It be deprest and thus O Sein thy waves Beneath Pontneuf the tall Samarian Laves And pours them out above But let all those
Who want these helps to him address their vows Whose arm whose voice alone can water draw And make obdurate rocks to rivers thaw Now that success may equalize your pains Because the Earth the Searcher entertains With seeming hopes these cautions take from me Which may prevent too rash credulity Where small declining hillocks you perceive Or aâ— soyl where Flags and Rushes live Where the fat ground a slimy moisture yields If weeds and prickly sedge o'respread the fields There hidden Springs with confidence expect For sedgy places still to Springs direct The same Conyza which with Sea-weed grows And Moss condens'd upon the surface shows Batrachium and Sium too express Unerring marks of neighb'ring streams No less By reedy Calamint we may divine But you may make the scatter'd flouds combine And though in diffrent hills they were begun They must united to your Garden run If in the hanging brow of some near hill A copious vein be found then if you will You may of lead or earthen tiles make use And so the Springs into the Vales deduce For where the little vein you would compell By adventitious waters still to swell There hollow Vaults of Slate do best convay The Springs themselves and Rains which fall that way Th' adjacent Brooks which ran before to waste Will by degrees to these Inclosures haste Collected there they soon the Channels fill Which will at length to larger currents swell Next that the waves may unmolested slide And not through rough and darksom winding glide That you may sep'rate the gross sediment At distances with drains your course indent For where through even ways the stream runs strong That heavy slime which it had forc'd along Proceeds till the next trench its course controlls Then intercepted sinks into the holes Though under ground the vaulted channel goes Yet grates upon the top of Wells dispose Through which the water may its passage find Leaving the dirt and slimy mud behind No sordid mire can make it now less pure Since by these means'tis rendred more secure What if illustrious Medicea calls Arcolian Springs to the Parisian walls Though her endeavours Aquaeducts have made And murmuring streams on hollow bridges laid Yet such expences are too great sor me Nor with my narrow fortune can agree With endless walls the stately Pile appears Which a proud row of haughty arches bears Within the Vault suspended waters flow O're cloven hills and vales which lye below For with stone-walls the distances are joyn'd To their extent the current is confin'd Hence come those Springs which all the City bless The Royal bounty caus'd this happiness For publick work on publick souls depend To them no private fortune can pretend Such benefits from them alone are due Who with their treasures have profuseness too Though your estate be great let me advise That to no publick works you sacrifice That which your Fathers left for he 's to blame Who with his ruine buys an empty name In all such enterprizes ruine lurks Who have not sunk themselves in Water-works Be modest therefore fly from all extreams And in canales of tile convay your streams Or troughs of Alder prostrate on the ground For to this purpose they are useful found But blest is he who can without the aid Of lead or tile or troughs of Alder made All through his Garden neighb'ring Brooks dispose Such as near Paris noble Bearny shows Where copious Bivara the happy place With swelling waves do's pleasingly embrace And such is Liancourt so we admire At Borguiel in Anjou the rapid Loire Which through the wide Salmurian Vales and Meads It self with loud resounding murmurs spreads Abounding so with water Polycrene If nature would have suffer'd it had been Whose warbling noise the Poets now invites And the inspiring Muses more delights Nor be offended lovely Fountain though Through Sancaronian Forrests thou dost go Though th' unkind earth affords no smoother way And makes thee through uneven chamberstray Yet art thou welcom to Lamon If so With thy moist springs and streams which ever flow Thou wouldst refresh his gardens and agree To wash sweet Bavillaeum thou wouldst be More fortunate thy Deity would seem The greatest then in Themis's esteem For where we find a lib'ral vein at hand And can with ease the neighb'ring waves command 'T is better far then Pipes of brittle lead Which often crack as oft the liquor shed Besides confinement is an injury A force on water which was ever free But if the place you live in be so dry That neither Springs nor Rivers they are nigh Then at some distance from your garden make Within the gaping earth a spacious Lake That like a Magazine may comprehend Th' assembled flouds which from the hills descend And all the bottom pave with chalky lome Since that can best the falling waves o'recome How to distribute Springs I now impart The means of spreading them and with what art Their motion must be gulded how restrain'd Your Gard'ner all these things must understand The docile streams will any shape put on A thousand diff'rent courses they will run All these instructions I to none refuse Who listen to the dictates of my Muse. If you would have your water useful be Where neighb'ring Vales beneath your Garden lye In Pipes of lead let it be closely penn'd Without restraint it never will ascend Others do rather brazen Conduits use That the stiff mettal might more strength infuse To make th' imprison'd Element retire And then with greater force again aspire But still take heed that the included air Within the Pipes move no intestine war That its fierce motion force them not to leak And to get loose the empty prison break Therefore through spiracles the air restore To those wide mansions it possest before Thus in Falernian Cellars when the Wine Which is the product of that gen'rous Vine Is pour'd into the Cask and hoop't about They leave a vent to let the air go out Were this undone the wine would quickly fly Through the weak ribs and all restraint defie When in your gardens entrance you provide The waters there united to divide First in the middle a large Fountain make Which from a narrow pipe its rise may take And to the air those waves by which 't is fed Remit agen About it raise a bed Of moss or grass or if you think this base With well-wrought Marble circle in the place Statues of various shapes may be dispos'd About the Tube sometimes it is inclos'd By dubious Scylla or with Sea-calves grac'd Or by a brazen Triton 't is embrac'd A Triton thus at Luxembourg presides And from the Dolphin which he proudly ricles Spouts out the streams This place though beautisied With Marble round though from Arcueill supply'd Yet to Saint Cloud must yield in this out-shin'd That there the Hostel d'Orleans we find The little Town the Groves before scarce known Enabled thus will now give place to none So great an owner any seat improves One whom
the King one whom the people loves This Garden as a Pattern may be shown To those who would adde beauty to their own All other Fountains this so far transcends That none in France besides with it contends None so much plenty yields none flows so high A Gulf i' th' middle of the Pond do'slye In which a swollen tunnel opens wide Through hissing chinks the waters freely slide And in their passage like a whirlwind move With rapid force into the air above As if a watry dart were upward thrown But when these haughty waves do once fall down Resounding loud they on each other beat And with a dewy show'r the Basin wet How Fountains first had being now I tell If any truth in ancient stories dwell Hard by the Phasian Bank with prosp'rous Gales Arm'd with his Club while great Alcides sails A band of Argian youth was with him sent And among them his dearest Hylas went Near old Ascanius in Bithynia stood A lofty Grove of Beech as by this Wood The swift Bank sayls the weary Minyae land And stretch their limbs on the inviting Sand. The nimble Favourite now goes in quest Of hidden Springs and wanders from the rest With travel tir'd he comes to one at last Straight from his shoulders on the grass he cast The weighty Pitcher which they hither bore And for refreshment sits upon the shore Ascanius had invited to a feast The neighb'ring Nymphs fair Isis thither prest With graceful Ephyra th' Inachian Dame And Lycaonian Melanina came The Rural and the River-Nymphs were here And none were absent whose abodes were near The Charms of Hylus Isis first surprize His features she admires his sparkling eyes On the green turf the weary youth repos'd Now all her artifices she disclos'd She uses all th' Artillery of Love All that could pity or affection move And though she saw but little cause so vain All Lovers are she hop'd he lov'd again While he by stooping to draw water strives Either the slipp'ry bank his foot deceives Or by the vessels weight too much opprest He tumbles in to succour the distrest Kind Isis soon approch'd the offer'd aid Not with acceptance but with scorn he paid Th' assisting waves he scatters in the wind And wrestles with that stream which would be kind Now all the other Nymphs their pray'rs unite And to the room with Pumice arch'd invite The sullen boy there promise he shall be As he deserv'd a liquid Deity Resusing still his arms now wearied lose Their strength and he a sacred Fountain grows To which the Nymph indulging her revenge For Love repuls'd to cruelty will change Designs still proud a lofty Genius gave That it by nature might a diff'rence have From other water always might aspire Always in vain to be more high desire A copious fall its ruine hastens on And by its own ambition 't is undone Mean while Alcides all along the Coast Vainly enquires for him whom he had lost Th' Ascanian Shores the hills his name resound The Rocks and Woods of Hylas eccho round Hylas whose change alone was the first cause That water rises against natures laws Thus he who the embrace of Isis flies Was punish'd by that Nymph he did despise Hence spouting streams in verdant Groves we see And noble Gardens to a luxury By Art diversify'd for pow'rful Art To the ambitious water can impart Such diff rent shapes as great Ruel can boast Where glorious Richlieu with excessive cost And pains the waves into subjection brings And still survives in Monumental Springs All this he did while he not Lewis raign'd And Atlas-like the tott'ring State sustain'd Here variously dispos'd the Fountains run First head-long fall then rise where they begun Receive all forms and move on ev'ry side With horrid noise Chimaera gaping wide Out of her open mouth the water throws For from her mouth a rapid torrent flows From her wide throat as waves in circles spout A Serpent turning sprinkles all the rout A brazen Hunter watchfully attends And threatning death the crooked tunnel bends Instead of shot thence pearly drops proceed Drops not so fatal as if made of Lead This soon the laughter of the vulgar moves Whose acclamation the deceit approves But why should I repeat how many ways In the deep Caves Art with the water plays The place grows moist with artificial Rain And hissing Springs which here burst out amain Rebounding high streams ev'ry where sweat through And with great drops the hanging stones bedew They who the Grotts and Fountains over-see May as they please the streams diversifie Though the kind Naiades comply with those Who when they Grotts of Pebble do compose And Springs bring in still beautifie the Cells With Eastern stones or Erythraean shells Others of hollow Pumice may be made And well-plac'd shells may on the top be laid But all these arts which modern ages own Were to our happy ancestors unknown These sights must be expos'd to th' peoples view Whose greedy eyes such novelties pursue To serious things you must your self apply And water love in greater quantity Learn how to manage it when it falls down Either that like a River it may crown The deeper brims of some capacious Lake Or the resemblance of a Pond may make The tube if wide enough may more contain And at a distance render it again Plenty in Fountains always graceful shows And greatest beauty from abundance flows Nor is the spout of water to be pois'd One way or in one form to be compriz'd It must be varied if you pleasure seek Some from divided streams make showers break The Solar Rays and Light some represent Or from a twanging Bow swift arrows sent Others in waves from Precipices cast More pleasure take then rap't about as fast In little they Charybdie imitats Which so indangers the Sicilan Straight As in the bubling brass o're rustling fires Hot liquor boils the water so aspires Where it abounds the current there divide Into small brooks which o're the fields may glide And into ponds these brooks must fall at last Lest the best Element should run to wast Now learn how art restrains the wandring flood And at due distance makes it spread abroad Though to its nat'ral course the stream's inclin'd And being free is hard to be confin'd Yet you may soon compell it to that course Which you prescribe and make it run by force Through dubious errours for it will delight To take false channels having lost the right By frequent windings water thus is staid Till over all the field it is convaid So Amymona's fabled to have err'd As soon as Neptunes passion she had heard Th' unhappy Virgin fearing her disgrace Follows and flyes her self with equal pace Perhaps she had not yet the power to see That she was chang'd by th' am'rous Deity Chang'd to a stream which in her footsteps strays And through Dircaean fields its pace delays Rivers diffus'd a thousand ways may pass With hast'ning waves through the
divided grass Like sudden torrents which the rain gives head Through precipices some may swiftly spread And in the pebbles a soft noise excite Some on the surface with a tim'rous flight May steal if any thing its speed retard Then its shrill murmurs through the fields are heard Inrag'd it leaps up high and with weak strokes The pebbles which it overflows provokes Threatning the bank it beats against the shore And roots of trees which froth all sprinkles o're That slender brook from whence hoarse noises came Which as it had no substance had no name When other riv'lets from the Vales come in Th' ignoble current then will soon begin To gather strength for bridges may be fit And by degrees great Vessels will admit Sometimes by grassie banks the River goes Sometimes with joy it skips upon green moss Sometimes it murmurs in exalted Groves And with its threats the narrow path reproves Whken 't is dispers'd then let the Meads be drown'd Let slimy mud inrich the barren ground If it runs deep with dams its force restrain And from the Meadows noxious water drain Where from their fountains rivers do break loose And the moist Spring the Valleys overflows When on the Meads black showers do descend With mounds of earth the Groves from flouds defend As diff'rent figures best with streams agree So on the sides let there some diff'rence be Still with variety the borders grace There either grass or fragrant flowers place Or with a wharf of stone the bank secure But troubled Fens let their own feeds obscure Or Weeds where croaking Frogs and Moor-hens lye Nothing but grass your banks must beautifie Where silver Springs afford transparent waves And glist'ring sand the even bottom paves On which green Elms their leaves in Autumn shee l Thus Rivers both our care and culture need While in their channels they run headlong down We must take heed that as they hast no stone Fall'n from the hanging brink may keep them back And through the Vales their course uneasie make Ye Springs and Fountains in the Woods resound And with your noise the silent Groves confound Frequent their windings all their avenues And into the dry roots new life infuse While pleasant streams invite your thoughts and eyes And with resistless charms your sense surprize Of humane life you then may meditate Obnoxious to the violence of fate Life unperceiv'd like Rivers steals away And though we court it yet it will not stay Then may you think of its incertainty Constant in nothing but inconstancy See what rude waves disturb the things below And through what stormy voyages we go So Hypanis you 'l say and Peneus so Simois and Volsoian Amasenus flow Naupactian Achelous Inachus With slow Melanthus swift Parthenius Thus ran along and so Dyraspes went Whose current Borysthenian streams augment Besides the Fountains which to art we owe That falls of water also can bestow Such as on rugged Iura we descry On Rocks and on the Alps which touch the Sky Where from steep precipices it descends And where America it self extends To the rude North expos'd to Eurus blast On Canadas bold shore the Ocean past There among Groves of Fit-trees ever green Streams falling headlong from the Cliffs are seen The cataracts resound along the shore Struck with the noise the Woods and Valleys rore These wonders which by nature here are shown Ruellian Naiads have by Art out-done Into the air a Rock with lofty head Aspires the hasty waters thence proceed Dash'd against rugged places they descend And broken thus themselves in foam they spend They sound as when some torrent uncontroll'd With mighty force is from a Mountain roll'd The earth with horrid noise affrighted grones Flints which lye underneath and moistned stones Are beat with waves th' untrodden paths resound And groves and woods do loudly eccho round But if on even ground your Garden stand If no unequal hill or cliff command Whence you the falling waters may revoke From the declining ridge of some kind rock Then in long ranges your Cascades digest The Nymph of Liancourt so hers ha's drest For by the Gardens side the Rivers pass From no steep cliff but down a bank of grass Nor should it less deserve of our esteem When from an even bed diffus'd the stream Runs down a polish'd rock and as it flows Like Linen in the air expanded shows The Textile floud a slender Current holds And in a wavy veil the place infolds But these Cascades and sports you need not there Where spacious Pools with wider brims appear And scarce within their banks and chambers held Run into brooks and visit all the field And to this end if my advice you take In the low places of your Garden make Besides the other Springs large trenches too To which from ev'ry part the streams may flow For little Brooks and Springs are not so good Nor please so much as a more noble floud But if square Pools and deeper Ponds you love Dig a broad channel all the earth remove To make it level to that watry bed Or the deep Marsh by which it must be fed Then with a wharf of stone secure the place With cement bound let this the shore embrace For the foundation you with stone must lay Though that it self ha's oft been forc'd away Always by force the Element restrain And let the shores the raging flouds contain The empty Lakes from Springs will be supply'd Brought from the field along the Gardens side An hundred Brooks from flowing never cease And with their plenty make the Pools increase Some I have seen who all their ponds have fill'd With those supplies which the deep torrents yield And in a Laver by its bank inclos'd The waves collected in the vales dispos'd Collected through the fields from fallen rains And Bavillaeum such a Pond maintains The Nymph o' th place ha's this of late prepar'd The owners fortune ha's the house repair'd From him the seat its greatest glory draws And he obtain'd his honour by the laws The slender stream through ancient ruines went Unless the Winter showers did augment Its force it wash'd a Villa quite decai'd And with it s sully'd waves through rubbish straid The Sancaronian Cattle on the brink And Bavillaean Cows were wont to drink Once with a leap I could have past it o're But its great master quickly did restore The beauty it had lost and as he rose So still with him the current bigger grows That which with rushes cover'd ran of late Though small was destin'd to a better Fate In a great Laver now the water swells And stor'd with Fish a spacious channel fills The graver Senators here often meet Here the Civilians and the Lawyers sit Here wearied with the Town and their affairs They please themselves and put off all their cares A Spout whose fall makes all the garden sound Discharges in the middle of the Pond Nor will the plenteous waters please you less When in the ground a circle they possess