William Shenstone, 18th-century poet and landscape architect, was also an important arbiter of English literary taste. His ideals of poetry were simplicity, pastoral elegance, and an accent on the innocent pleasures of country life. Shenstone's Miscellany was carefully chosen to illustrate his theories of poetry. It contains the verse of Horace Walpole, Jonathan Swift, and many members of Shenstone's circle.