Ho! Gate, How Came ye Here?

by William Kent

Ho! Gate, how came ye here?
I came fro’ Chelsea the last yere
Inigo Jones there put me together
Then was I dropping by wind and weather
Sir Hannes Sloane
Let me alone
But Burlington brought me hither
This architecton-ical
Gate Inigo Jon-ical
Was late Hans Slon-ical
And now Burlington-ical
 

 

Note: On this day in 1748 the pioneer of the English Landscape garden, William Kent died.

William Kent wrote this cute little ditty about the origin of the Inigo Jones gateway and how it came to be moved to Chiswick.

The story goes that in 1621, the arch was created for Beaufort House. When his friend Hans Sloane was demolishing the house, Lord Burlington spied the arch and wanted it for himself.


As featured on
The Daily Gardener podcast:

Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.
William Kent
William Kent

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