Book: Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, 1795
Chapter: Chapter 2: Concerning buildings
To my profession belongs chiefly the external part of architecture,* or a knowledge of the effect of buildings on the surrounding scenery. *[I am happy to defend my predecessor, as well as myself, from the imputation of blending architecture with gardening, by the following extract of a letter from the celebrated author of the ENGLISH GARDEN:- "I have lately had some correspondence with Mr. Penn, concerning the intended monument you mention (to Gray, the poet, who is buried in the churchyard adjoining to Stoke Park,) and finding that he means to consult you on the subject, I have presumed to tell him that he will do well, if he gives you the absolute choice of the spot, as well as the size of the building which he means to erect to my excellent friend's memory: for, although I hold the architectural taste of Mr. Wyat in supreme estimation, I also am uniformly of opinion, that where a place is to be formed, he who disposes the ground, and arranges the plantations, ought to fix the situation, at least, if not to determine the shape and size of the ornamental buildings. Brown, I know, was ridiculed for turning architect, but I always thought he did it from a kind of necessity, having found the great difficulty which must frequently have occurred to him in forming a picturesque whole, where the previous building had been ill placed, or of improper dimensions. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, W. MASON. ASTON, April 24, 1792."
["Gray's tomb is at the end of the chancel of Stoke Pogeis church. Not far from the churchyard is the cenotaph erected by Mr. Penn, to the memory of Gray, from a design, I believe, by the late Mr. Wyat."- Mitford's Life of Gray. First Edition. p. 79.-J. C. L.]
[Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 - July 30, 1771), was an English poet and classical scholar, best known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, written 1750, - TT]