SOMERVIL E.

OF

F Mr. SOMERVILE's life I am not able to say any thing that can fatisfy curiofity.

He was a gentleman whofe eftate was in Warwickshire; his house, where he was born in 1692, is called Edfton, a feat inherited from a long line of ancestors; for he was faid to be of the first family in his county. He tells of himself, that he was born near the Avon's banks. He was bred at Winchester-school, and was elected fellow of New College. It does not appear that in the places of his education, he exhibited any uncommon proofs of genius or literature. His powers were first displayed in the country, where he was distinguished as a poet, a gentleman, and a skilful and useful Justice of the Peace.

Of

Of the close of his life, those whom his poems have delighted will read with pain the following account, copied from the Letters. of his friend Shenftone, by whom he was too much refembled.

"Our old friend Somervile is dead! I "did not imagine I could have been fo forry as I find myself on this occafion.—Subla

tum quærimus. I can now excufe all his "foibles; impute them to age, and to dif"trefs of circumftances: the laft of these "confiderations wrings my very foul to ❝ think on. For a man of high fpirit, con"scious of having (at least in one produc❝tion) generally pleafed the world, to be "plagued and threatened by wretches that

are low in every fenfe to be forced to "drink himself into pains of the body, in "order to get rid of the pains of the mind, " is a mifery."-He died July 19, 1742, and was buried at Wotton, near Henley on Arden.

His diftreffes need not be much pitied: his eftate is faid to be fifteen hundred a year, which by his death has devolved to lord Somervile

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mervile of Scotland. His mother indeed, who lived till ninety, had a jointure of fix hundred.

It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at leaft muft be allowed to have fet a good example to men of his own clafs, by devoting part of his time to elegant knowlege; and who has fhewn, by the subjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is practicable to be at once a skilful sportsman and a man of letters.

Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; and though perhaps he has not in any reached fuch excellence as to raife much envy, it may commonly be faid at leaft, that he writes very well for a gentleman. His ferious pieces are fometimes elevated, and his trifles are fometimes elegant. In his verfes to Addison the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquifite delicacy of praise; it exhibits one of those happy ftrokes that are feldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful lines; but in the fecond Ode he fhews that he knew little of his

hero,

hero, when he talks of his private virtues. His fubjects are commonly fuch as require no great depth of thought or energy of expref-. fion. His Fables are generally ftale, and therefore excite no curiofity. Of his favourite, The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconfequential. his Tales there is too much coarfenefs, with too little care of language, and not fufficient rapidity of narration.

In

His great work is his Chace, which he undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verfe, of which however his two first lines. give a bad fpecimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his fubject, which is the firft requifite to excellence; and though it is impoffible to intereft the common readers of verfe in the dangers or pleasures of the chafe, he has done all that transition and variety could eafily effect; and has, with great propriety, enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries.

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With ftill lefs judgement did he chufe blank verfe as the vehicle of Rural Sports. If blank verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled profe; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but abfurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long. One excellence of the Splendid Shilling is, that it is fhort. Difguife can gratify no longer than It deceives.

SAVAGE.