earlier poem that shared alcoholic agriculture-subject of The Hop-Garden. The main point of criticism by Smart against Philip would be Philip's use of "Roman" farming methods instead of "up-to-date scientific methods". However, Juan Pellicer reviewed Mounsey's theory of The Hop-Garden as a satire and believed that Mounsey's chapter underestimated Philip's background. Furthermore, as Pellicer claims, there would be no need for a dispute to be made over farming methods, and Smart is instead writing a poem that complements Philip's instead of satirizes it. Philips, like Smart, had an intimate background with farming methods for their respective industries, and they both relied on scientific techniques that were shown to work in their respective communities. To view the poem as a satire would be incorrect, because "One should hesitate to consider agricultural methodology 'the nub' of Smart’s poem." Critical reception Samuel Johnson, friend of Smart, joked about the poem as proof that "one could say a great deal about cabbage."Keymer p. 178 However, not everyone was as playful, and one of Smart's later literary opponents, John Hill, was one of the first to review The Hop-Garden; Hill used his piece in the Monthly Review to attack the poem. It was this review, even after Smart's reply in The Hilliad, that guided the future negative reception of the poem that Chris Mounsey describes as a "litany of abuse". Among Smart's biographers, the quality of the work is very debatable: Arthur Sherbo claims that the work "is remarkable for the poorness of the blank verse and the stilted Latinate quality of its language" while Chris Mounsey responds, "Possibly because of its complexity, allied to the fact that it does not meet with the expectations of most readers of Smart, the poem has hitherto been ill interpreted." However, they both agree that the work provides valuable insight into Smart's earlier years and portrays nature and farming in a realistic manner. See also Bucolics John Philips Notes References Boswell, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. ed. G. B. Hill, 6 vols, Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1934-1950. Keymer, Thomas. "Johnson, Madness, and Smart." In Christopher Smart and the Enlightenment, edited by Clement Hawes, 177-194. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1999. 308 pp. Mounsey, Chris. Christopher Smart: Clown of God. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2001. 342 pp. Pellicer, Juan Christian. "Christopher Smart's The Hop-Garden: A Satirical Parody of John Philips's Cyder?" Notes and Queries 51, 249, 4 (Dec.