He speaks. The lake in front becomes a lawn; Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise: And streams, as if created for his use, Pursue the track of his directing wand, Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow, Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades-- E’en as he bids.[560] Late in the century Richard Payne Knight was so extreme in his attack on Brown’s unpicturesque smoothness and finish as to express a preference even for the formality of the old school. He thus describes the designers of the school of Brown: See yon fantastic band, With charts, pedometers, and rules in hand, Advance triumphant, and alike lay waste The forms of nature and the works of taste! T’ improve, adorn, and polish, they profess; But shave the goddess whom they come to dress; Level each broken bank and shaggy mound, And fashion all to one unvaried round; One even round, that ever gently flows, Nor forms abrupt, nor broken colours knows; But wrapt all o’er in everlasting green, Makes one dull, vapid, smooth, and tranquil scene. * * * * * Hence, hence! thou haggard fiend, however call’d, Thin, meagre genius of the bare and bald; Thy spade and mattock here at length lay down, And follow to the tomb thy fav’rite Brown; Thy fav’rite Brown, whose innovating hand First dealt thy curses o’er this fertile land; First taught the walks in formal spires to move, And from their haunts the secret Dryads drove: With clumps bespotted o’er the mountain’s side, And bade the stream ’twixt banks close shaven glide. * * * * * Oft when I’ve seen some lonely mansion stand Fresh from th’ improver’s devastating hand, ’Midst shaven lawns, that far around it creep In one eternal undulating sweep; * * * * * Tir’d with th’ extensive scene so dull and bare, To Heav’n devoutly I’ve addressed my pray’r,-- Again the moss-grown terraces to raise, And spread the labyrinth’s perplexing maze; Replace in even lines the ductile yew, And plant again the ancient avenue. Some features, then, at least, we should obtain, To mark this flat, insipid, waving plain.[561]