"I cannot conceive," said Spence, the author of Polymetis, to Pope, "how
Dinocrates could ever have carried his proposal of forming Mount Athos
into a statue of Alexander the Great, into execution."--"For my part,"
replied Pope, "I have long since had an idea how that might be done; and
if any body would make me a present of a Welch mountain, and pay the
workmen, I would undertake to see it executed. I have quite formed it
sometimes in my imagination: the figure must be on a reclining posture,
because of the hollowing that would be necessary, and for the city's
being in one hand. It should be a rude unequal hill, and might be helped
with groves of trees for the eye brows, and a wood for the hair. The
natural green turf should be left wherever it would be necessary to
represent the ground he reclines on. It should be so contrived, that the
true point of view should be at a considerable distance. When you were
near it, it should still have the appearance of a rough mountain, but at
the proper distance such a rising should be the leg, and such another an
arm. It would be best if there were a river, or rather a lake, at the
bottom of it, for the rivulet that came through his other hand, to
tumble down the hill, and discharge itself into it."
Diodorus Siculus, says that Semiramis had the mountain Bajitanus, in
Media, cut into a statue of herself, seventeen stadii high, (about two
miles) surrounded by one hundred others, probably representing the
various members of her court. China, among other wonders, is said to
have many mountains cut into the figures of men, animals, and birds. It
is probable, however, that all these stories have originated in the
imagination, from the real or fanciful resemblance of mountains, to
various objects, which are found in every country, as "The Old Man of
the Mountain," Mt. Washington, N. H., "St. Anthony's Nose," in the
Highlands, "Camel's Rump," Green Mountains, "Giant of the Valley," on
lake Champlain, &c. It is easy to imagine a mountain as a cloud, "almost
in shape of a camel," "backed like a weasel," or "very like a whale."