Note 451 — Chapter II · INDICATIONS OF A NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD NATURE IN THE POETRY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

Ibid., 9. Of this stanza Gray said in a letter to Beattie, March, 1771: “But this, of all others, is my favorite stanza. It is true poetry; it is inspiration; only (to show it is mortal) there is one blemish; the word garniture suggesting an idea of dress, and, what is worse, of French dress.” Beattie said he had often wished “to alter this same word, but had not been able to hit upon a better.”—Dyce, “Memoir of Beattie,” p. xxxvii.

Gray’s praise of Beattie was faint compared to Beattie’s admiration of Gray. In 1765 he declared that he had “long and passionately admired” Gray’s writings. He thought Gray’s poems finer than those of his contemporaries in any nation. He thought his taste most exact, his judgment most sound, and his learning most extensive. See Dyce, “Memoir of Beattie,” pp. xvi, xviii.