British poet Alexander Pope made a mythical, mineral-filled grotto — and it's getting restored

Story Transcript

Underneath a school and an unassuming arts building in Twickenham, England, there is an 18th-century grotto still intact — but rather unkempt — from when it used to be part of famed poet and satirist Alexander Pope's villa.

Now, the Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust is bringing the hidden network of caves and tunnels back to its former glory. 

"When we looked at the south chamber and started to restore it, we realized that there were many different colours and types of stone," trustee Angela Kidner told As It Happens host Carol Off. "You can get lost just looking at [them], and children always do. With their torches, they spend hours just gazing."

Pope described the grotto in his poetry as a sparkling path between his villa and garden. His guests also wrote about their visits to the waterfront property, as they travelled the River Thames and then walked through his man-made caves, full of rare minerals, until they reached his gently-sloped garden.

Homage to the nympth-filled grottos of literature 

Geologists working with the Trust found large pieces of amethyst and alabaster inside the grotto's walls. According to Kidner, there are also some hexagonal basalt columns from the Giant's Causeway, formed from an ancient volcanic fissure eruption near Northern Ireland.

The grotto was Pope's tribute to the mythical grottoes of classical literature, such as the nymph's cave in Homer's Odyssey. Pope even said his grotto would be perfect, if only it had nymphs.

Pope was born into a Catholic family in 1688 during England's Glorious Revolution, when Protestants banned Catholics from holding office, practicing their religion, attending public schools and even living in London.

But he became an accomplished writer early in his career with his translations of Homer's The Iliad and the Odyssey, and earned enough money to buy himself the Twickenham plot, just outside London.

"What he did was that he made the classics accessible to his generation, in poetic language that they could understand," Kidner said. "And it's our job now to try to make Pope accessible to our generation, because he's not much taught in schools [anymore]."

The poet attracted many literary pilgrims, despite living outside of London. When people visited Pope's villa, along with the glowing grotto, they saw his talent for gardening. 

"Many of them filched little pieces of his trees, took away little stones from his grotto," Kidner said.

He created meandering paths and groves of trees in his garden, exploring the perspective of nature. He also had a vegetable garden. His technique contrasted against the formal landscape at London's Hampton Court and the French style of gardening that were more popular at that time.

Tourists continued to visit the property after Pope died and new owners moved in. The grotto's final owner, Lady Howe decided to demolish the villa in 1808 because she was "so disgusted" by the visitors who kept turning up on her doorstep.

"She kept the grotto, though. Handy access to her garden," the trustee said. "And that's why it's remained, I think.... So even though a new building has been built on top of it, the grotto is still there."

The grotto now leads from the cellar of one school to the front yard of another. There is a central corridor between the schools and beneath a road that runs about 100 yards long. On each side of the corridor are chambers. The south chamber has already been restored, and now work will begin this month on the second one.

The restoration project is expected to cost £ 400,000 ($680,535.72 Cdn.) The Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust has so far funded the effort through heritage grants and the support of conservationists and fans of Pope's writing.

"He was and still is the second most-quoted poet in the English language," Kidner said. "We say everyday phrases that were his. 'To err is human. To forgive, divine.' 'Fools rush in where angels dare to tread' ... and 'A little learning is a dangerous thing.'"

The Trust decided to find a way to have people today visit Pope's villa as if they were one of his old guests. Part of the restoration project includes a film, Virtual Arcadia, based off of his original drawings of visitors arriving by boat to the villa and touring his garden.

"People are fascinated by the context of the grotto," Kidner said. "To create this great interest that has emerged in this whole area and the character of Alexander Pope himself, that has been a revelation and that's something that we're really enjoying doing."

Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview with Angela Kidner produced by Kate Cornick.