Mason claims both Bacon and Milton as progenitors, the former “because in developing the constituent properties of a princely garden, he had largely expatiated upon the unadorned natural wildness which we now deem the essence of the art;” the latter “because of his having made this natural wildness the leading idea in his description of Paradise.”[556] Another element of interest in Mason’s Preface is his reason for writing his poem in blank verse. He confessed that the didactic nature of the theme seemed to call for the heroic couplet, but since every charm in gardens springs from variety, since the gardens he praised represented Nature scorning control, he felt that he must get a verse form as unfettered as Nature herself.[557] During the slow publication of Mason’s “English Garden” there appeared in 1770 Thomas Whateley’s “Observations on Modern Gardening,” which summed up in admirable fashion the achievements of the landscape school. It is of especial importance as being “the very first treatise professedly on landscape art.”[558] Walpole’s “The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening,” was written in 1770, but was not printed till 1785 when it came from the Strawberry Hill press with a French translation on the opposite pages by the Duc de Nivernois. The essays by Walpole and Whateley cover about the same ground and advocate the principles of the same school, but Walpole’s fame and his brilliant style have combined to give his work pre-eminence, and his essay ranks in the garden literature of the eighteenth century as Sir William Temple’s essay does in the seventeenth century. William Kent’s successor in gardening was Lancelot Brown (1715–83) who was kitchen-gardener at Stow when Kent was there as designer. Brown’s original work does not begin till about the middle of the century when he became royal gardener and was employed at Blenheim. After that he was concerned in laying out or in altering “half the gardens in the country.” In 1767 Viscount Irwin thus eulogized him: Born to grace Nature and her works complete With all that’s beautiful, sublime and great, For him each Muse enwreathes the laurel crown, And consecrates to fame immortal Brown.[559] But immortal Brown, while enjoying to the full the favor of owners of great estates, had sturdy and loud-spoken critics. The ruthlessness with which he destroyed fine old grounds, and especially fine avenues of great trees, the unhomelike effect of his stretches of bare, undulating lawn, his serpentining walks and streams, aroused active hostility. Cowper in “The Task,” 1785, said, Improvement, too, the idol of the age, Is fed with many a victim. Lo, he comes! The omnipotent magician, Brown appears! Down falls the venerable pile, the abode Of our forefathers. * * * * *