To Stourhead Gardens (designed by Henry Hoare II and Capability Brown and where Alexander Pope liked to write) Empire-rich, enlightened man played merry hell with nature where the fish ponds lay, delighted devils with his plans to bury God’s slow hand in artificial clay; built Tempe vale, soft palaces to Pan, Elysian stream to trap small deity of sward and grot, a pantheon to man engrossed, indulged, in glib precocity. The Maker stirred and Satan crowed with glee, pricked on his minions, stoked the glutted fires, for souls in hubris forfeit sanctity when Babel to the heavenly aspires; Now mighty…