NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



P. 16,1. 5. I can hardly think it necessary to make any ex-> 

 cuse for calling Lord Orford Mr.Walpole ; it is the 

 name by which he is best known in the : literary 

 world, and to which his writings have given a 

 celebrity much beyond what any hereditary honour 

 can bestow. It is more necessary, perhaps, to 

 make an apology for the liberty I must take of 

 canvassing with freedom many positions in his 

 very ingenious and entertaining Treatise on Mo- 

 dern Gardening. That treatise is written in a 

 very high strain of panegyric on the art of which 

 he gives so amusing a history: mine is a direct 

 and undisguised attack upon it. The greater his 

 authority, the more necessary it is to combat the 

 impression which that alone will make on most 

 minds. I do it, however, with great deference 

 and reluctance ; for I know how difficult it is to 

 steer between the tameness of over-caution, and 

 the appearance of acrimony, or of want of re- 



