First edition: a further five editions appeared in the same year, with English and German translations soon following. This is a very attractive copy of the most celebrated and influential poem of Delille, in which he celebrated the virtues of the natural garden or jardin anglais, rather than the fashion for neoclassical symmetry. Jacques Montanier de Lille (1738-1813) was one of the great eighteenth-century French poets, and his works were much reprinted and translated: his influence on taste in gardening was significant, and he is also known for his translations into French of Virgil's Georgics and Milton's Paradise Lost, two great works with gardening themes.

First edition: a further five editions appeared in the same year, with English and German translations soon following. This is a very attractive copy of the most celebrated and influential poem of Delille, in which he celebrated the virtues of the natural garden or jardin anglais, rather than the fashion for neoclassical symmetry. Jacques Montanier de Lille (1738-1813) was one of the great eighteenth-century French poets, and his works were much reprinted and translated: his influence on taste in gardening was significant, and he is also known for his translations into French of Virgil's Georgics and Milton's Paradise Lost, two great works with gardening themes.

The work has significance for the two great explorers of the era, Bougainville and Cook. There is a famous cameo appearance by "Poutavéri", that is the Tahitian Autourou, who returned to France with Bougainville. In the poem, Poutavéri catches sight of a mulberry tree—the plant most commonly used in the manufacture of tapa cloth—and is overwhelmed with homesickness for Tahiti. The name itself is interesting as Poutavéri was actually Autourou's rendering of the name "Bougainville", a name he took in honour of his former captain and Parisian host.

The final voyage and death of Cook inspires a 21-line rhapsodic elegy (Hélas! de quoi lui fert que deux fois fon audace / Ait vu des cieux brûlans, fendu des mers de glace; / Que des peuples, des vents, des ondes révéré, / Seul sur les vastes mers son vaisseau fût sacré ; / Que pour lui seul la guerre oubliât ses ravages? / L'ami du monde, hélas! meurt en proie aux sauvages. / Vous qui pleurez sa mort, fiers enfans d'Albion; / Imitez, il est tems, fa noble ambition.)

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Toi sur-tout, brave Cook, qui, cher à tous les cœurs,

Unis par les regrets la France & l'Angleterre ;

Toi qui, dans ces climats où le bruit du tonnerre

Nous annonçoit jadis, Triptolème nouveau,

Apportois le coursier, la brebis, le taureau,

Le soc cultivateur, les arts de ta patrie,

Et des brigands d'Europe expions la furie.

Ta voile en arrivant leur annonçoit la paix ;

Et ta voile en partant leur laissoit des bienfaits.

Reçois donc ce tribut d'un enfant de la France.

Et que fait fon pays à ma reconnoissance ?

Ses vertus en ont fait notre concitoyen.

Imitons notre Roi, digne d'être le sien.

Hélas! de quoi lui fert que deux fois fon audace

Ait vu des cieux brûlans, fendu des mers de glace;

Que des peuples, des vents, des ondes révéré,

Seul sur les vastes mers son vaisseau fût sacré ;

Que pour lui seul la guerre oubliât ses ravages?

L'ami du monde, hélas! meurt en proie aux sauvages.

Vous qui pleurez sa mort, fiers enfans d'Albion;

Imitez, il est tems, fa noble ambition.

(You above all, brave Cook, dear to all hearts,

United by the regrets of France and England;

You who, in those climes where the sound of thunder

Once announced to us a new Triptolemus,

Brought the steed, the sheep, the bull,

The plowshare, the arts of your homeland,

And atoned for the fury of the brigands of Europe.

Your sail, upon arriving, heralded peace to them;

And your sail, upon departing, left them blessings.

Receive then this tribute from a son of France.

And what does his country do in my examining?

His virtues have made him our fellow citizen.

Let us imitate our King, worthy of being his.

Alas! What makes him twice so bold that his audacity

has seen burning skies, has cleaved seas of ice;

That peoples, winds, and waves revered him,

Alone on the vast seas was his ship sacred;

That for him alone war forgot its ravages?

The friend of the world, alas! dies prey to savages.

You who mourn his death, proud children of Albion;

Imitate, now is the time, his noble ambition.)