Mr. Holland showed the book to a friend, who exclaimed, “Well done, Peter, I did not think he would have done Wright so much justice.”
The celebrated Dr. Darwin, who was on friendly terms with Wright, was often consulted by him, respecting his “imaginary complaints,” as the Doctor unjustly called them; and on one occasion told him, “he had but one thing more to recommend, and that was what he would not give, but he thought it would be to his advantage to be engaged in a vexatious lawsuit.” The Poet Doctor alludes to Wright in his “Botanic Garden,” Canto I., line 175, in the following lines—
“So Wright’s bold pencil from Vesuvius’ height,
Hurls his red lavas to the troubled night;
From Calpe starts the intolerable flash,
Skies burst in flames, and blazing oceans dash—
On birds in sweet repose his shades recede,
Winds the still vale, and slopes the velvet mead,
On the pale stream expiring zephyrs sink,
And moonlight sleeps upon its hoary brink.”