Note 637 — Chapter VI · LANDSCAPE PAINTING
Reading edition
Wolcot (“Peter Pindar”) in his verse comments on the exhibitions of 1782, 1783, 1785, 1786, says in an apostrophe to De Loutherbourg:
And Loutherbourg, when Heaven so wills To make brass skies and golden hills, With marble bullocks in glass pastures grazing, Thy reputation too will rise And people, gaping with surprise, Cry “Master Loutherbourg is most amazing.” But thou must wait for that event; Perhaps the change is never meant; Till then with me thy pencil will not shine; Till then old red-nosed Wilson’s art Will hold its empire o’er my heart, By Britain left in poverty to pine. But honest Wilson, never mind, Immortal praises thou shalt find, And for a dinner have no cause to fear. Thou start’st at my prophetic rhymes; Don’t be impatient for those times, Wait till thou hast been dead a hundred year.