b ^ 
Mason, William (cont.) 
An heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers,,.author of 
a late dissertation on oriental gardening, London, J, 
Almon, 1773, 19 p, (Boston Pub, Lib,; Harvard; Brit, 
Mus.) 
This poem was ostensibly a satire on Sir Wil¬ 
liam Chambers’ "Dissertation on Oriental Garden¬ 
ing," but its interest was largely political. 
Mason also wrote "An heroic postscript to the 
public, occasioned by their favourable reception 
of a late Heroic epistle to Sir W, Chambers," 
(London, Printed for J. Almon, 1774, 14 p.) 
This also had a large nvonbet of editions, but we 
have not listed them because "An heroic post¬ 
script" was satire entirely political in nature. 
) 
Lowndes, 1:407, having entered the Heroic e- 
pistle mder Chambers, says that "these well- 
known satires are confidently ascribed to Kfe- 
son, though he never acknowledged them himself, 
nor are they inserted in any edition of his 
works," Johnson, p,2l4, says: "Warton thought 
they were the joint offspring of Walpole and 
Mason, or as he expressed it ’They may have 
been written by Walpole, and buckram’d by Ma¬ 
son,’" The Brit, Mus, Cat. enters the Heroic 
epistle and the Heroic postscript under Cham¬ 
bers with some references from Mason, 
Cecil, 2d ed,, p,360, and Johnson, p, 213, 
give 1757 as the date of publication of the He¬ 
roic epistle. This seems queers fdr Qhambers’s 
"late dissertation on oriental gardening" ap¬ 
peared in 1772, Since 1773 was the date of the 
first actual copy we located, we have taken that 
as the date of the 1st ed, (JSB) 
--- 2d ed, London, Printed for J, Almon, 
16 p, (Harvard) 
——- 3d ed, London, Printed for J, Almon, 
16 p, (Harvard; Brit, Mus.) 
—— 4th ed, London, Printed for J, Almon, 
16 p, (Harvard; Brit, Mus.) 
—— 5th ed, London, Printed for J, Almon, 
16 p. (Harvard; Univ. Texas) 
----- 6th ed, London, Printed for J, Almon, 
16 p, (Boston Pub, Lib,; Harvard) 
1773. 
1773. 
1773. 
1773. 
1773. 
