and picturesque of all elevations, he proscribes as Gothic and barba

To
M A S O N ?CA 21 J A N U A R Y 1783
283
and picturesque of all elevations, he proscribes as Gothic and barbarous, and thinks he has exploded them for ever by this Brobdignaggian
puerility: Ils assassinent les nuages.6
His receipt for making rocks in your garden is not less admirable:
'Take a mountain, break it into pieces with a hammer, n u m b e r the
fragments and observe their antecedent positions: place them in their
original order, cover the junctures with mould: plant ivy and grass
and weeds, which will hide the fractures,'7 and so you m a y have a
cart-load of Snowdon or P e n m e n m a u r in the middle of your bowlinggreen, and no soul will suspect that it did not grow there.
Like the A b b e de Lisle he is fond too of erecting cenotaphs to heroes
and patriots,8 which with the French rage [of] imitating whatever is
the vogue of the hour would convert their enclosures into churchyards, and Vestris would have a statue as well as Turenne 9 —but w e
have no right to laugh at France; Vestris was a greater idol here than at
Paris; Garrick's funeral was ten times more attended than Lord
Chatham's, and M r s Siddons has obliterated General Elliot:10
I nunc et nugas tecum meditare canoras!11
That is, you may play on your celestinette, mend our gardens or the
constitution, and thefirstsinger or dancer will efface all your vigils in
a m o m e n t , as m u c h as if you had endowed an hospital, for this is the
land where all things are forgotten!
I have been two days labouring through this letter, and yet m y
6. Girardin remarks that 'les formes bisarres et pointues' of Gothic towers 'semblent vouloir poignarder les nuages, dont
ils attirent en effet la foudre' (op. cit. 110).
7. 'Pour rapporter un rocher, choisissezen un dans la campagne de forme convenable a votre objet, faites le casser en
plusieurs morceaux susceptibles d'etre
transporters; ayez soin auparavant de les
faire exactement numeroter, ensuite vous
rassemblerez les differents morceaux suivant l'ordre des numeros. Vous ferez
couler du platre noir entre les joints, et
pendant que le mortier est encore frais,
vous jetterez sur toutes les parties des
joints apparents du sable de la place
m e m e ou a etc pris le rocher; et vous recouvrirez ensuite avec des gazons de
bruyere les plus grandes deflectuosites qui
se trouveront dans le rapport des morceaux' (ibid. 57).
8. Ibid. 69-70. See Abbe Jacques Delille,
Les Jardins, pp. 69-71, for his comments on
cenotaphs.
9. Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne (161175), Vicomte de Turenne; general.
10. George Augustus Eliott (1717-90),
K.B., 1783, cr. (1787) B n Heathfield of
Gibraltar; Maj.-Gen., 1759, Lt-Gen., 1765
(antedated to 1761), Gen., 1778; governor
of Londonderry and Culmore 1774-5, °f
Gibraltar 1776-90; successful defender of
Gibraltar during the siege of 1779-83.
11. 'Go now and muse over melodious
trifles,' an adaptation of Horace, Epistles
II. ii. 76.