{"id":71570,"date":"2014-05-21T15:15:05","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T19:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=71570"},"modified":"2014-05-21T16:36:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T20:36:01","slug":"underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/21\/underground\/","title":{"rendered":"Underground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"twickenham3\"<\/a>

A sketch of Pope\u2019s grotto.<\/p><\/div>\n

Today marks the day of Alexander Pope\u2019s birth, in 1688. We remember Pope as a poet, essayist, satirist, translator, and one of the most quotable men in English. He\u2019s responsible for, among many other aphoristic gems: \u201cTo err is human, to forgive, divine.\u201d \u201cFools rush in where angels fear to tread.\u201d \u201cWhat Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.\u201d \u201cHope springs eternal in the human breast.\u201d \u201cA little learning is a dangerous thing.\u201d\u00a0And, yes, the phrase \u201cEternal sunshine of the spotless mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his time, he was also known for his amazing home, a Palladian villa at Twickenham surrounded by elaborate gardens and grottoes. Pope\u2019s wealthy family was ostracized for its Catholicism, and his numerous health problems\u2014he suffered from Pott\u2019s disease, which stunted his growth to only four foot six\u2014somewhat limited his social life. His home seems to have been a refuge, as well as a definitive indicator of his success.<\/p>\n

The house, a Classical mansion surrounded by vast grounds, was grand enough, but it was the Homeric grotto that really got Pope\u2019s heart racing. As he wrote at the time of its construction,<\/p>\n

\n

I have put the last hand to my works \u2026 happily finishing the subterraneous Way and Grotto: I then found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual Rill, that echoes thru\u2019 the Cavern day and night \u2026When you shut the Doors of this Grotto, it becomes on the instant, from a luminous Room, a Camera Obscura, on the walls of which all the objects of the River, Hills, Woods, and Boats, are forming a moving Picture \u2026 And when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different Scene: it is finished with Shells interspersed with Pieces of Looking-glass in angular Forms\u2026at which when a Lamp\u2026is hung in the Middle, a thousand pointed Rays glitter and are reflected over the place.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Later, he added, \u201cWere it to have nymphs as well\u2014it would be complete in everything.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"twickenham1\"<\/a>

Photo via thelondonphile<\/p><\/div>\n

After he visited a mine, Pope was inspired to decorate the grotto further with what the Twickenham museum describes as \u201cores, spars, mundic, stalactites, crystals, Bristol and Cornish diamonds, marbles, alabaster, snakestones and spongestone.\u201d There were also rumors that he stole and cajoled\u00a0some of these from neighboring sites, possibly defamatory in nature.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the grotto was widely considered ridiculous. Lady Mary Wortley Montague mocked it:<\/p>\n

\n

Here chose the goddess her belov\u2019d retreat,
Which Phoebus tries in vain to penetrate,
Adorn\u2019d within with shells of small expense,
(Emblems of tinsel Rhyme and triffleing sense)
Perpetual fogs enclose the sacred Cave;
The neighbouring sinks their fragrant odours gave.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"largelewis_1785\"<\/a>

A sketch of the grotto by Samuel Lewis, 1785<\/p><\/div>\n

Said Dr. Johnson, \u201cA grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of an Englishman, who has more frequent need to solicit rather than exclude the sun, but Pope\u2019s excavation was requisite as an entrance to his garden, and, as some men try to be proud of their defects, he extracted an ornament from an inconvenience, and vanity produced a grotto where necessity enforced a passage.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then, that\u2019s the risk you run when you spend all your time with noted wits, I suppose. And in fact, grottoes were all the crack\u2014indeed, Pope\u2019s was so terrific that it apparently inspired several others.<\/p>\n

The villa was demolished in the early nineteenth century, and nowadays the site is occupied by the modern buildings of the Radnor House School. Somewhat amazingly, the grottoes are still largely intact, if denuded of their mineral decorations, and are opened to the public a couple of times a year. Personally, I can\u2019t imagine anything better\u2014or, I guess, worse\u2014to have under a high school<\/em> than a vast, forbidden series of caves, underground passages, and totally hidden retreats. Anyway, if I were part of the\u00a0Pope\u2019s Grotto Preservation Trust<\/a>, I might have my concerns.<\/p>\n

Pope, however, might have approved. As he wrote near the end of his life, \u201cMost men in years, as they are generally discouragers of youth, are like old trees, which, being past bearing themselves, will suffer no young plants to flourish beneath them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the day of Alexander Pope\u2019s birth, in 1688. We remember Pope as a poet, essayist, satirist, translator, and one of the most quotable men in English. He\u2019s responsible for, among many other aphoristic gems: \u201cTo err is human, to forgive, divine.\u201d \u201cFools rush in where angels fear to tread.\u201d \u201cWhat Reason weaves, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[4478,1657,13996,2047,13997],"class_list":["post-71570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-alexander-pope","tag-architecture","tag-grottoes","tag-poets","tag-twickenham"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nExploring Alexander Pope\u2019s Grottoes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 21, 2014 \u2013 Today marks the day of Alexander Pope\u2019s birth, in 1688. 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