![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Has anyone else been watching this series of literary rambles on Sky Arts? Intelligent conversation about books with added pretty scenery: what’s not to like?
In the first series, the pair followed Boswell and Dr Johnson on their journey north and in the second, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The third series (just finished) is about the unlikely friendship between Alexander Pope, the disabled, Catholic poet and Jonathan Swift, the Irish Protestant. Both were radicals in their way, Tories at a time of Whig dominance of British politics. Pope first made his name with his satires, like The Rape of the Lock but what brought him wealth was his translation of the Iliad, which took him several years. Swift said he would have preferred it if Pope had spent the time on his own poetry and that someone else had then translated that. Pope spent his money on building his dream house at Twickenham, laying out a garden and making a grotto. Frank and Denise seemed to spend a lot of time on the Thames, gazing at the spot where Pope’s villa once stood. All that remains of it is the grotto, which they visited. I love grottos and have often been to the one at Stourhead, which includes an inscription by Pope. Our travellers had little to say about the garden, which became famous. Here’s Pope’s advice to gardeners:
Let not each beauty ev’rywhere be spied,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.
Still sound advice today.
When Swift realised that there was no hope of a good job for him in England, he returned unwillingly to Ireland, describing it as ‘the land I hate’. He was Dean of St Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin from 1713 to 1745. We saw the cathedral, of course and the monument to him which I have also paid homage to. Strange that the man who ‘hated’ Ireland became such a fierce defender of Irish liberties against English encroachments. He and Pope met only once more but maintained a witty and affectionate correspondence.
I like these programmes for the chat, the readings and the obvious enthusiasm - love, even, which the presenters have for their subjects.
In the first series, the pair followed Boswell and Dr Johnson on their journey north and in the second, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The third series (just finished) is about the unlikely friendship between Alexander Pope, the disabled, Catholic poet and Jonathan Swift, the Irish Protestant. Both were radicals in their way, Tories at a time of Whig dominance of British politics. Pope first made his name with his satires, like The Rape of the Lock but what brought him wealth was his translation of the Iliad, which took him several years. Swift said he would have preferred it if Pope had spent the time on his own poetry and that someone else had then translated that. Pope spent his money on building his dream house at Twickenham, laying out a garden and making a grotto. Frank and Denise seemed to spend a lot of time on the Thames, gazing at the spot where Pope’s villa once stood. All that remains of it is the grotto, which they visited. I love grottos and have often been to the one at Stourhead, which includes an inscription by Pope. Our travellers had little to say about the garden, which became famous. Here’s Pope’s advice to gardeners:
Let not each beauty ev’rywhere be spied,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.
Still sound advice today.
When Swift realised that there was no hope of a good job for him in England, he returned unwillingly to Ireland, describing it as ‘the land I hate’. He was Dean of St Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin from 1713 to 1745. We saw the cathedral, of course and the monument to him which I have also paid homage to. Strange that the man who ‘hated’ Ireland became such a fierce defender of Irish liberties against English encroachments. He and Pope met only once more but maintained a witty and affectionate correspondence.
I like these programmes for the chat, the readings and the obvious enthusiasm - love, even, which the presenters have for their subjects.
