tect. The general opinion is,
that he is as sprightly in his writings as he is heavy in his buildings.
It is he who raised the famous Castle of Blenheim, a ponderous and
lasting monument of our unfortunate Battle of Hochstet. Were the
apartments but as spacious as the walls are thick, this castle would be
commodious enough. Some wag, in an epitaph he made on Sir John Vanbrugh,
has these lines:--

"Earth lie light on him, for he
Laid many a heavy load on thee."

Sir John having taken a tour into France before the glorious war that
broke out in 1701, was thrown into the Bastille, and detained there for
some time, without being ever able to discover the motive which had
prompted our ministry to indulge him with this mark of their distinction.
He wrote a comedy during his confinement; and a circumstance which
appears to me very extraordinary is, that we don't meet with so much as a
single satirical stroke against the country in which he had been so
injuriously treated.

The late Mr. Congreve raised the glory of comedy to a greater height than
any English writer before or since his time. He wrote only a few plays,
but they are all excellent in their kind. The laws of the drama are
strictly observed in them; they abound with characters all which are
shadowed with the utmost delicacy, and we don't meet with so much as one
low or coarse jest. The language is everywhere that of men of honour,
but their actions are those of knaves--a proof that he was perfectly well
acquainted with human nature, and frequented what we call polite company.
He was infirm and come to the verge of life when I knew him. Mr.
Congreve had one defect, which was his entertaining too mean an idea of
his first profession (that of a writer), though it was to this he owed
his fame and fortune. He spoke of his works as of trifles that were
beneath him; and hinted to me, in our first conversation, that I should
visit him upon no other footing than that of a gentleman who led a life
of plainness and simplicity. I answered, that had he been so unfortunate
as to be a mere gentleman, I should never have come to see him; and I was
very much disgusted at so unseasonable a piece of vanity.

Mr. Congreve's comedies are the most witty and regular, those of Sir John
Vanbrugh most gay and humorous, and those of Mr. Wycherley have the
greatest force and spirit. It may be proper to observe that these fine
geniuses never spoke disadvantageously of Moliere