He died at the Leafowes of a putrid fever, about five on Friday morning, February 11, 1763; and was buried by the fide of his brother in the churchyard of Hales-Owen.

He was never married, though he might have obtained the lady, whoever fhe was, to whom his Paftoral Ballad was addreffed. He is reprefented by his friend Dodfley as a man of tenderness and genegreat rofity, kind to all that were within his influence; but, if once offended, not easily appeafed; inattentive to œconomy, and carclefs of his expences; in his perfon larger than the middle fize, with fomething clumfy in his form; very negligent of his cloaths, and remarkable for wearing his grey hair in a particular manner; for he held that the fashion was no rule of drefs, and that every man was to fuit his appearance to his na

tural form.

His mind was not very comprehenfive, nor his curiolity active; he had no value for those parts of knowledge which he had not himself cultivated.

His life was unftained by any crime; the Elegy on Jee, which has been fuppofed to relate an unfortunate and criminal amour of his own, was known by his friends to have been fuggefted by the ftory of Miss Godfrey in Richardfon's Pamela.

What Gray thought of his character, from the perufal of his Letters, was this:

"I have read too an octavo volume of Shenstone's "Letters. Poor man! he was always wishing for

money, for fame, and other diftinctions; and his "whole philofophy confifted in living against his will "in retirement, and in a place which his taste had "adorned; but which he only enjoyed when people

"of

"of note came to fee and commend it: his correfpondence is about nothing elfe but this place and " his own writings, with two or three neighbouring clergymen, who wrote verfes too."

His poems confift of elegies, odes and ballads, humorous fallies and moral pieces.

His conception of an Elegy he has in his Preface very judiciously and difcriminately explained. It is, according to his account, the effufion of a contemplative mind, fometimes plantive, and always ferious, and therefore fuperior to the glitter of flight ornaments. His compofitions fuit not ill to this defcription. His topicks of praise are the domeftic virtues, and his thoughts are pure and fimple; but, wanting combination, they want variety. The peace of folitude, the innocence of inactivity, and the unenvied fecurity of an humble ftation, can fill but a few pages: That of which the effence is uniformity will be foon defcribed. His Elegies have therefore too much refemblance of each other.

The lines are fometimes, fuch as Elegy requires, fmooth and eafy; but to this praife his claim is not conftant his diction is often harth, improper, and affected; his words ill-coined, or ill-chofen, and his phrafe unskilfully inverted.

The Lyrick Poems are almost all of the light and airy kind, such as trip lightly and nimbly along, without the load of any weighty meaning. From these, however, Rural Elegance has fome right to be excepted. I once heard it praifed by a very learned lady; and though the lines are irregular, and the thoughts diffused with too much verbofity, yet it cannot be de

nied to contain both philofophical argument and poetical fpirit.

Of the reft I cannot think any excellent; the Skylark pleases me best, which has however more of the epigram than of the ode.

But the four parts of his Paftoral Ballad demand particular notice. I cannot but regret that it is pastoral; an intelligent reader, acquainted with the fcenes of real life, fickens at the mention of the crook, the pipe, the beep, and the kids, which it is not neceffary to bring forward to notice, for the poet's art is selection, and he ought to fhew the beauties without the grofsnefs of the country life. His ftanza feems to have been chofen in imitation of Rowe's Defpairing Shepberd.

In the first part are two paffages, to which if any mind denies its fympathy, it has no acquaintance with love or nature :

I priz'd every hour that went by,

Beyond all that had pleas'd me before;
But now they are paft, and I figh,

And I grieve that I priz'd them no more.

When forc'd the fair nymph to forego,
What anguish I felt in my heart!
Yet I thought-but it might not be fo,
'Twas with pain that she saw me depart.

She gaz'd, as I flowly withdrew,
My path I could hardly difcern;
So fweetly the bade me adieu,

I thought that the bade me return,

In the fecond this paffage has its prettiness, though

it be not equal to the former :

I have found out a gift for my fair;

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:
But let me that plunder forbear,

She will fay 'twas a barbarous deed:

For he ne'er could be true, the averr'd,
Who could rob a poor bird of its young;
And I lov'd her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

In the third he mentions the common-places of amorous poetry with fome addrefs:

'Tis his with mock paffion to glow!

'Tis his in fmooth tales to unfold,
How her face is as bright as the fnow,
And her bofom, be fure, is as cold:

How the nightingales labour the strain,
With the notes of his charmer to vie;
How they vary their accents in vain,
Repine at her triumphs, and die.

In the fourth I find nothing better than this natural strain of Hope:

Alas! from the day that we met,

What hope of an end to my woes?

When I cannot endure to forget

The glance that undid my repofe.

Yet Time may diminish the pain :

The flower, and the fhrub, and the tree,
Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,

In time may have comfort for me.

His Levities are by their title exempted from the severities of criticifm; yet it may be remarked in a few words, that his humour is fometimes grofs, and feldom fpritely.

Of

Of the Moral Poems the first is the Choice of Hercules, from Xenophon. The numbers are smooth, the diction elegant, and the thoughts juft; but fomething of vigour perhaps is ftill to be wifhed, which it might have had by brevity and compreffion. His Fate of Delicacy has an air of gaiety, but not a very pointed general moral. His blank verfes, those that can read them may probably find to be like the blank verfes of his neighbours. Love and Honour is derived from the old ballad, Did you not hear of a Spanish Lady-I wish it well enough to wifh it were in rhyme.

The School-mistress, of which I know not what claim it has to ftand among the Moral Works, is furely the most pleasing of Shenftone's performances. The adoption of a particular ftyle, in light and fhort compofitions, contributes much to the increase of pleasure we are entertained at once with two imitations, of nature in the fentiments, of the original author in the ftyle, and between them the mind is kept in perpetual employment.

The general recommendation of Shenftone is eafinefs and fimplicity; his general defect is want of comprehenfion and variety. Had his mind been better stored with knowledge, whether he could have been great, I know not; he could certainly have been agreeable.

YOUNG.