Drowned as we are, the country never was in such 

 beauty; the herbage and leafage are luxurious. The 

 Thames gives itself Rhone airs, and almost foams; it is 

 none of your home-brewed rivers that Mr. Brown makes 

 with a spade and a watering-pot. 



— Horace Walpole to the Countess of Uppeb OeBORY, 

 Strawberry Hill, Aug. 31, 1782. 



