328 



Le Not re's masterpiece was the gardens at Versailles, which cost 

 two hundred millions of livrcs. lie laid out, besides, Trianon, Meu- 

 don, St. Cloud, Chantilly, &c. In 1678 he went to Italy, England, 

 and other countries, which one and all adopted his style. King Charles 

 II. sent for Mm, to improve the taste of the English, when he laid out 

 St. James's Park and Greenwich; "certainly (as Walpole says), no 

 great monuments of his invention." 



Note XIII. Page 71. 



It is to be regretted, that Sir Uvedale Price, in his very valuable 

 " Essays on the Picturesque" (probably the most powerful example of 

 controversial writing, and acute criticism in the language}, should have 

 somewhat lessened their effect, by personal sarcasm, and the bitterness 

 of controversy. As to Brown, he has not (according to the vulgar 

 phrase) " left him the likeness of a dog ;" and his conceit, his igno- 

 rance, his arrogance, his vanity (of all which BroAvn had his full share), 

 are blazoned forth in the most glaring colours. It is true, that to pull 

 him down, while in the zenith of his fame and popularity, and after- 

 wards to keep him down, surrounded as he was with followers and 

 flatterers, required a vigorous and powerful ann like Sir TJvedale's; and 

 no one, I think, will grudge the latter his complete triumph, or the 

 castigation inflicted on his opponent, considering the lasting benefit 

 which his own labours have conferred on an elegant art, and in eleva- 

 tin<T the fame and character of the country. Still I cannot help think- 

 ing, that poor Kent, though a man of rather limited genius, should 

 have escaped more easily than he has done, from the great critic's 

 hand ; since it is to him that we as clearly owe the art of landscape 

 gardening, as we owe the saving of it from disgrace, and the placing it 

 on just principles, to Sir Uvedale Price. May we not, then, ask, look- 

 ing to the fine genius of the latter, 



"Tantrcno nniiiiis cmlestibus irff>7" 



Note XIV. Page 72. 



This was James Earl of Abercorn, uncle to the first marquis who 

 succeeded him in 1789. The earl was esteemed one of the best-bred 

 men of his time, though his manners were distinguished by pomp and 

 preciseness. It was said of him, that he made the tour of Europe in a 

 posture so erect, as never once to touch the back of his carriage ! The 



