THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM SHENSTONE, WITH THE Life of the Author, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE LEASOWE S. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JONES & COMPANY, TEMPLE OF THE MUSES, (LATE LACKINGTON'S,) FINSBURY SQUARE. 1831. PREFACE. be a revengeful enemy; but I cannot, it is not in my nature, to be half a friend." He was in his temper quite unsuspicious; but if suspicion was once awakened in him, it was not laid asleep again without difficulty. A GREAT part of the Poetical Works of Mr. | served and imitated: "I never," said he, "will Shenstone, particularly his Elegies and Pastorals, are (as he himself expresses it) "The exact transcripts of the situation of his own mind," and abound in frequent allusions to his own place, the beautiful scene of his retirement from the world. Exclusively, therefore, of our natural curiosity to be acquainted with the history of an author whose Works we peruse with pleasure, some short account of Mr. Shenstone's personal character, and situation in life, may not only be agreeable, but absolutely necessary, to the reader, as it is impossible he should enter into the true spirit of his writings, if he is entirely ignorant of those circumstances of his life, which sometimes so greatly influenced his reflections. I could wish, however, that this task had been allotted to some person capable of performing it in that masterly manner which the subject so well deserves. To confess the truth, it was chiefly to prevent his remains from falling into the hands of any one still less qualified to do him justice, that I have unwillingly ventured to undertake the publication of them myself. He was no economist; the generosity of his temper prevented him from paying a proper regard to the use of money: he exceeded, therefore, the bounds of his paternal fortune, which before he died was considerably encumbered. But when one recollects the perfect paradise he raised around him, the hospitality with which he lived, his great indulgence to his servants, his charities to the indigent, and all done with an estate not more than three hundred pounds a-year, one should rather be led to wonder that he left any thing behind him, than to blame his want of economy. He left, however, more than sufficient to pay all his debts, and by his will appropriated his whole estate for that purpose. It was perhaps from some considerations on the narrowness of his fortune that he forbore to marry, for he was no enemy to wedlock, had a high opinMr. Shenstone was the eidest son of a plain un-ion of many among the fair sex, was fond of their educated gentleman in Shropshire, who farmed his society, and no stranger to the tenderest impresown estate. The father, sensible of his son's ex- sions. One, which he received in his youth, was traordinary capacity, resolved to give him a learned with difficulty surmounted. The lady was the education, and sent him a commoner to Pembroke subject of that sweet pastoral, in four parts, which College in Oxford, designing him for the church; has been so universally admired; and which, one out though he had the most awful notions of the would have thought, must have subdued the loftiest wisdom, power, and goodness, of God, he never heart, and softened the most obdurate. could be persuaded to enter into orders. In his private opinions he adhered to no particular sect, and hated all religious disputes. But whatever were his own sentiments, he always showed great tenderness to those who differed from him. Tenderness, indeed, in every sense of the word, was his peculiar characteristic; his friends, his domestics, his poor neighbours, all daily experienced his benevolent turn of mind. Indeed, this virtue in him was often carried to such excess, that it sometimes bordered upon weakness; yet, if he was convinced that any of those ranked amongst the number of his friends had treated him ungenerously, he was not easily reconciled. He used a maxim, however, on such occasions, which is worthy of being ob His person, as to height, was above the middle stature, but largely and rather inelegantly formed: his face seemed plain till you conversed with him, and then it grew very pleasing. In his dress he was negligent even to a fault; though, when young, at the university, he was accounted a beau. He wore his own hair, which was quite grey very early, in a particular manner; not from any affectation of singularity, but from a maxim he had laid down, that without too slavish a regard to fashion, every one should dress in a manner most suitable to his own person and figure. In short, his faults were only little blemishes, thrown in by Nature, as it were,on purpose to prevent him from rising too much above that level of imperfection allotted to humanity. |