Studley
Ebenezer Elliot
Behold! the Medicean Venus! O
Is not this beauty? Yes, for it is truth.
See how she bends in her eternal youth!
E'en thus she charm'd ten thousand years ago;
Ere painting's magic bade the canvas glow,
Or soul inspired the marble; thus she stood
Before her own Adonis of the wood!
The master-piece of sculpture? Artist! No.
In all divine perfection as she stands,
So came she, perfect, from th' Almighty's hands,
The masterpiece of Nature. Everywhere
His spirit walks; but he who in strange lands
Seeks her fair form, turns homeward in despair,
Then seeks it in his soul, and finds it there.
Tent Hill at Studley Royal Water Gardens used to be the site of a Temple of Venus. Studley is a World Heritage Site - a beautiful place to visit, the eighteenth century water gardens contrasting with the romantic ruins of Fountains Abbey.
