ll be pleased, and to
thicken the plantation where there is something to be hidden, demands any
great powers of mind, I will not enquire." The doctor reports that
Lyttelton was jealous of the fame which the Leasowes soon acquired, and
that when visitors to Hagley asked to see Shenstone's place, their host
would adroitly conduct them to inconvenient points of view--introducing
them, _e.g._, at the wrong end of a walk, so as to detect a deception in
perspective, "injuries of which Shenstone would heavily complain."[40]
Graves, however, denies that any rivalry was in question between the
great domain of Hagley and the poet's little estate. "The truth of the
case," he writes, "was that the Lyttelton family went so frequently with
their company to the Leasowes, that they were unwilling to break in upon
Mr. Shenstone's retirement on every occasion, and therefore often went to
the principal points of view, without waiting for anyone to conduct them
regularly through the whole walks. Of this Mr. Shenstone would sometimes
peevishly complain."

Shenstone describes in his "Thoughts on Gardening," several artifices
that he put in practice for increasing the apparent distance of objects,
or for lengthening the perspective of an avenue by widening it in the
foreground and planting it there with dark-foliaged trees, like yews and
firs, "then with trees more and more fady, till they end in the
almond-willow or silver osier." To have Lord Lyttelton bring in a party
at the small, or willow end of such a walk, and thereby spoil the whole
trick, must indeed have been provoking. Johnson asserts that Shenstone's
house was ruinous and that "nothing raised his indignation more than to
ask if there were any fishes in his water." "In time," continues the
doctor, "his expenses brought clamors about him that overpowered the
lamb's bleat and the linnet's song; and his groves were haunted by beings
very different from fawns and fairies;" to wit, bailiffs; but Graves
denies this.

The fame of the Leasowes attracted visitors from all parts of the
country--literary men like Spence, Home, and Dodsley; picturesque
tourists, who came out of curiosity; and titled persons, who came, or
sent their gardeners, to obtain hints for laying out their grounds.
Lyttelton brought William Pitt, who was so much interested that he
offered to contribute two hundred pounds toward improvements, an offer
that Shenstone, however, declined. Pitt had himself some skill