"From ftage to stage, broad fteps of half-hid "With curling mofs and blady grafs o'ergrown, "Lead awful Down in a dungeon deep, [light "Where through thick walls, oblique, the broken "From narrow laop-holes quivers to the fight, "With swift and furious ftride, "Clofe-folded arms, and thort and sudden starts, "The fretful prince, in dumb and fullen pride, "Revolves efcape Here in red colours glowing bold A warlike figure ftrikes my eye! The dreadful fudden fight his foes behold Confounded fo, they lose the power to fly; "Backening they gaze at diftance on his face, "Admire his pofture, and confefs his grace; "His right hand graips his planted fpear, &c.". Alas! my mufe, thro' much good-will, you err: And we the mighty author greatly wrong; To gather beauties here and there, As but a fcatter'd few there were, While every word's a beauty in his fong! Thofe lines in this Poem marked thus out of the Poem called Gideon] TO MR. SAVAGE, SON OF THE LATE EARL RIVERS. are taken SINK not, my friend, beneath misfortune's weight, The coxcomb's ne'er difcover'd in the blaze! [fhine? Earl Rivers ---In that name how would'ft thou Thy verfe, how fweet thy fancy, how divine! Critics, and bards would, by their worth, be aw'd, And all would think it merit to applaud. But thou has nought to pleafe the vulgar eye, No title halt, nor what might titles buy. Thou wilt fmall praife, but much ill-nature find, Clear to thy errors, to thy beauties blind'; And if, though few, they any faults can fee," How meanly bitter will cold cenfure be! But, fince we ail, the wifeft of us, err, Sure, 'tis the greatest fault to be fevere. A few, however, yet expect to find, Among the mifty millions of mankind, Who proudly ftoop to aid an injur'd caufe, And o'er the fneer of coxcombs force applaufe, Who, with felt pleafute, fee fair virtue rife, And lift her upwards to the beckoning prize! Or mark her labouring in the modeft breaft, And honour her the more, the more depreft. Thee, Savage, thefe (the justly great) admire, Thee, quick'ning judgment's phlegm with fancy's Thee, flow to cenfure, earnest to commend, [fire! An able critic, but a willing friend. AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND IN TOWN *. HAVE my friends in the town, in the gay bufy town Forget fuch a man as John Dyer? No matter, no matter---content in the fhades--- Till hence rigid virtue alarms me. Till outrage arifes, or misery needs The fwift, the intrepid avenger; Till facred religion or liberty bleeds, Then mine be the deed, and the danger. Alas! what a folly, that wealth and domain We heap up in fin and in forrow! Immenfe is the toil, yet the labour how vain! Is not life to be over to-morrow? Then glide on my moments, the few that I have Smooth-thaded, and quiet, and even ; While gently the body defcends to the grave, And the spirit arifes to heaven. TO MR. DYER. BY CLIO f. I've done thy merit and my friendship wrong, Sing on, nor let your modeft fears retard, Whofe verfe and pencil join, to force reward: Your claim demands the bays, in double wreath, Your poems lighten, and your pictures breathe. I wish to praise you, but your beauties wrong: No theme looks green, in Clio's artless fong: But yours will an eternal verdure wear, For Dyer's fruitful foul will flourish there. My humbler lot was in low distance laid; I was, oh, hated thought! a woman made; For household cares, and empty trifles meant, The name does immortality prevent. Yet let me stretch, beyond my fex, my mind, And, rifing, leave the fluttering train behind; Nor art, nor learning, wifh'd affiftance lends, But nature, love, and mufic, are my friends. *Among the Poems of Savage, there is one to Dyer, in anfwer to his from the country. + Among the Poems of Savage, is an Fpiftle, occafioned by Mr. Dyer's Picture of this Lady. PRINTED BY MUNDELL AND SON, ROYAL BANK CLOSE. [To be placed after Page 582, before the Life of Shenflone.] THE LIFE OF SHENSTONE. WILLIAM SHENSTONE was the eldest son of Thomas Shenftone, Efq. of the Leafowes, in the pa rifh of Hales-Owen, Shropshire, where he was born, Nov. 18. 1714. His grandfather lived at Ylley in that parish, and occupied his own farm. He afterwards purchased the Leafowes. His eldest fon Jofeph had Ylley; and he fettled, whith his fon Thomas, at the Leafowes, which they jointly managed as a grazing farm. Thomas, though uneducated, feems to have been a very senfible man, and of liberal fentiments. He married Ann Penn, eldest of the three daughter of William Penn, Efq. of Harborough, in the neighbouring parish of Hagley, in Worcestershire. By the death of her brother, fhe became co-heiress of that eftate, the moicty of which made Shenstone's fortune about 300 l. a-year. He learned to read of an old dame, whom he has celebrated in The Schoolmifirefs; and foon received fuch delight from books, that he expected, when any perfon went to market, a new book fhould be brought him, which, when it came, was carried to bed, and laid by him. It is faid, that when his request had been neglected, his mother wrapped up a piece of wood of the fame form, and pacified him for the night. As he grew older, he went for a while to the grammar-school in Hales-Owen; and was placed afterwards with the Rev. Mr. Crumpton, an eminent schoolmaster at Solihull, near Birmingham, where he formed an acquaintance with Jago, "the poet of the birds," with whom he correfponded, on the moft friendly terms, during life. He received a good claffical education under Mr. Crumpton who inftructed most of the gentlemen's, and fome noblemen's fons in that neighbourhood, in the rudiments of claffical learning; and feems to have given his pupils a more early tafte for the English claffics than was commonly done in grammar-schools at that time. At ten years old, he was deprived of his father; and, in August 1726, of his grandfather; and His brother was bred an atorney at Bridgnorth, but never practifed; and died, unmarried, at the In 1732, he was entered a Commoner at Fembroke College, Oxford, where he employed himself About the time when he went to Oxford, the death of his mother devolved his affairs to the care of the Rev. Thomas Dolman of Brome, in Staffordshire, who married Mary Penn, his mother's fifter, whofe attention he always mentioned with gratitude. He made but few acquaintance in the Univerfity. A degree of bafhfulness, from his confined education, joined with a confcioufnefs of his own real abilities, made him not inclined to make advances to strangers; and the fingularity of his appearance rather prejudiced fome people against him. According to the taste which then prevailed, every student, as soon as he was entered at the University, cut off his hair, without any regard to his complexion, and put on a wig of any colour that his fancy fuggefted. This fashion, no confideration could at that time have induced Shenstone to comply with. He thought, jufly enough, that every one fhould, in fome degree, confult his particular fhape and complexion in adjusting his dress; and that no fashion ought to fanctify what was ungraceful, abfurd, or really deformed. He wore his hair almost in the graceful manner, which has fince generally prevailed; but as his perfon was rather large for fo young a man, and his hair The College of which he was a member has long been eminent for English poetry and elegan literature, and was at that time diftinguifhed by the names of Dr. Adams, Dr. Johnson, Blackflott Mr. Hawkins, afterwards poetry-profeffor, Anthony Whiftler, Efq. of Whitchurch, Oxfordshirt, author of the "Shuttlecock," and feveral ingenious poems in " Dodfley's Collection," Mr. Rober. Binnel, author of fome learned notes in "Grainger's Tibullus," and Mr. Richard Graves, the prefent rector of Claverton in Somersetshire, author of "The Spiritual Quixote,” “Euphrofyte,” ↔ Columella,” “ Peter of Pontefract," and other ingenious performances. Mr. Whistler, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Binnel, were his moft intimate friends, together with Es fchoolfellow Jago, of Univerfity College; whom he could only vifit in private, as he wore a ferv tor's gown. They used to meet almost every evening at each other's chambers, where, according to Mr. Graves, " they read plays and poetry, Spectators or Tatlers, and other works of eafy digeftion, and fipped Florence wine." 66 His first poetical production worth mentioning, was a little mock heroic poem, called The Diamat, written when he was about nineteen, in imitation of Pope's “ Rape of the Lock," which was fol lowed by another poem, called The Snuff box, equally liable to the objection of being a fervile imita and therefore they have not been collected in his works. tion; As his fortune was a very fufficient foundation for a genteel profeffion, he intended to have taken his degrees, and to have proceeded on the study of phyfic; but being now of age, and coming into the poffeffion of his eftate at the Leafowes, and alfo to a moiety of the eftate at Harborough, which fell to him by the unexpected death of his uncle; as his houfe at the Leafowes was inhabited by a tenant, instead of boarding there, or in the neighbourhood, he rather prematurely began to keep houfe at Harborough, which he found furnished to his hands, and, in its primitive ftate, having been inhabited by the family of the Penns for many generations. It was fituated, according to his own defcription, (Elegy XV.) by the fide of a large pond, fhaded by venerable oaks and elms, and rendered more folemn by a colony of rooks, who feemed to have been co-eval with the worthy family that gave them protection. In this retirement, which feited the natural melancholy of his temper, being his own mafter, and feeling himself much at his cafe, he prolonged his ftay beyond what the bufinefs of the College regularly admitted. And having once negleded to return to the University at the proper feafon, he deferred it from time to time, till at length he felt a reluctance to returning at all; fo that although he kept his name in the College books ten years, and changed his Commoner's gown for that of a Civilian, after the fourth year, he had now no thoughts of proceeding to any degree, and feldom refided in College any more. In 1735, he was introduced to Mr. Graves of Mickleton in Gloucestershire, who had lately come with his fifter to refide in the country. In this vifit he seems to have felt the firft fymptoms of the tender paffion. The beauty and merit of Mifs Graves infenfibly captivated his affections, and produced that melancholy langour which took entire poffeffion of his heart for fome years, and vented itfelf in plaintive love-fongs and elegies of woe." At Mickleton alfo he feems to have conceived, from the improvements of Mr. Graves, the firk idea of laying out in the modern tafte, and embellishing his farm of the Leafowes, which made him generally known and admired in the world, though it contributed nothing to the advancement of his fortung. In 1737, he printed, without his name, a fmall volume of juvenile verfes, with the following title: Poems upon various Occafions, written for the Entertainment of the Author, and printed for the Amusement of a few Friends prejudiced in his favour. Contentus paucis le&toribus. Hor. Oxford, Leonard Litchfield, 1737. 12mo. As he got no money, he got but little fame by this publication, it being only circulated among his friends and acquaintance. In 1740, he made his first visit to Londen, where he became acquainted with Dodfley, who printed, the fame year, his Judgment of Hercules, which he addreffed to his neighbour Mr. Lyttleton, afterwards Lord Lyttleton, with whom he became acquainted in 1736, and whofe interest he warmly fupported in a contefted election for Worcestershire, in 1740. This was next year followed by the Schoolmifer.fs, in the style of Spenfer, which was written before the Judgment of Hercules, and is juftly efteemed the most pleafing of his performances. |