[27] In his _Letters_, Byron refers once to Churchill’s _Times_ (_Letters_, ii., 148). His _Churchill’s Grave_ (1816), a parody of Wordsworth’s style, contains a reference to Churchill as “him who blazed the comet of a season.” Otherwise Churchill’s actual influence on Byron was not great. [28] Byron praised Crabbe in _English Bards_ as “Nature’s sternest painter, but her best.” In a letter to Moore, February 2, 1818, he termed Crabbe and Rogers “the fathers of present Poesy,” and in his _Reply to Blackwood’s_ (1819) he said publicly: “We are all wrong except Crabbe, Rogers, and Campbell.” Crabbe, whom Horace Smith called “Pope in worsted stockings,” seemed, to Byron, to represent devotion to Pope. [29] Byron said of Gifford in 1824: “I have always considered him as my literary father, and myself as his ‘prodigal son’” (_Letters_, vi., 329). [30] The movement represented by this clique, _Gli Oziosi_, originated in Florence with a coterie of dilettanti, among whom were Robert Merry (1755–1799), Mrs. Piozzi (1741–1831), Bertie Greathead (1759–1826), and William Parsons (fl. 1785–1807). They published two small volumes, _The Arno Miscellany_ (1784) and _The Florence Miscellany_ (1785), both marred by affectation, obscurity, tawdry ornamentation, and frantic efforts at sublimity. The printing of Merry’s _Adieu and Recall to Love_ started a new series of sentimental verses, in the writing of which other scribblers took part: Hannah Cowley (1743–1809), Perdita Robinson (1752–1800), and Thomas Vaughan (fl. 1772–1820). Their combined contributions were gathered in Bell’s _British Album_ (1789). [31] Merry had written a _Wreath of Liberty_ (1790) in praise of revolutionary principles. [32] Scott said of Gifford: “He squashed at one blow a set of humbugs who might have humbugged the world long enough.” _New Morality_ has a reference to “the hand which brushed a swarm of fools away.” Byron inserted a similar passage in _English Bards_, 741–744. [33] _Letters_, iv., 485. [34] _English Bards_, 701. [35] Moore speaks sarcastically of this custom in the Preface to _Corruption and Intolerance_ (1808): “The practice which has been lately introduced into literature, of writing very long notes upon very indifferent verses, appears to me a very happy invention, as it supplies us with a mode of turning dull poetry to account.” [36] Byron said of the _Pursuits of Literature_: “It is notoriously, as far as the poetry goes, the worst written of its kind; the World has long been of but one opinion, viz., that it’s [sic] sole merit lies in the notes, which are indisputably excellent” (_Letters_, ii., 4). [37] Examples are the _Fables of Æsop_ (1692) of Roger L’Estrange (1616–1704); _Æsop at Court, or Select Fables_ (1702) by Thomas Yalden (1671–1736); _Æsop’s Fables_ (1722) by Samuel Croxall (1680–1752); _Fables_ (1744) by Edward Moore (1711–1757); and collections by Nathaniel Cotton (1707–1788) and William Wilkie (1721–1772).