the entertainment that they receive, and therethefe lines; fore inserted in his poem But what the flowering pride of gardens rare, If gates, which to access should still give way, And each new walk must a new tax demand? But before the publication of his performance he recollected, that the Queen allowed her garden and cave at Richmond to be fhewn for money, and that she so openly countenanced the practice, that she had beftowed the privilege of fhewing them as a place of profit on a man, whose merit she valued herself upon rewarding, though the gave him only the liberty of disgracing his country. He therefore thought, with more prudence than was often exerted by him, that the publication of these lines might be officiously represented as an infult upon the Queen, to whom whom he owed his life and his fubfiftence; and that the propriety of his obfervation would be no fecurity against the cenfures which the unfeasonableness of it might draw upon him; he therefore fuppreffed the paffage in the first edition, but after the Queen's death thought the fame caution no longer neceffary, and restored it to the proper place. The poem was therefore published without any political faults, and inscribed to the Prince; but Mr. Savage, having no friend upon whom he could prevail to present it to him, had no other method of attracting his observation than the publication of frequent advertisements, and therefore received no reward from his patron, however generous on other occafions. This disappointment he never mentioned without indignation, being by fome means or other confident that the Prince was not ignorant of his addrefs to him; and infinuated, that, if any advances in popularity could have been made by diftinguishing him, he had not written without notice, or without reward. He was once inclined to have presented his poem in perfon, and fent to the printer for a copy with that defign; but either his opinion changed, or his resolution deserted him, and he continued to refent neglect without attempting to force himself into regard. Nor was the publick much more favourable than his patron, for only feventy-two were fold, though the performance was much commended by fome whofe judgement in that kind of writing is generally allowed. But Savage easily reconciled himself to mankind without imputing any defect to his work, by obferving that his poem was unluckily published two days after the prorogation of the parliament, and by consequence at a time when all thofe who could be expected to regard it were in the hurry of paring for their departure, or engaged in taking leave of others upon their difmiffion from public affairs. pre It It must be however allowed, in juftification of the public, that this performance is not the most excellent of Mr. Savage's works; and that, though it cannot be denied to con tain many ftriking fentiments, majeftic lines, and juft obfervations, it is in general not fufficiently polished in the language, or enlivened in the imagery, or digefted in the plan. Thus his poem contributed nothing to the alleviation of his poverty, which was fuch as very few could have fupported with equal patience; but to which it muft likewife be confeffed, that few would have been exposed who received punctually fifty pounds a year; a falary which, though by no means equal to the demands of vanity and luxury, is yet found fufficient to fupport families above want, and was undoubtedly more than the neceffities of life require. But no fooner had he received his penfion, than he withdrew to his darling privacy, from which he returned in a fhort time to his former diftrefs, and for fome part of the year generally lived by chance, eating only when he was invited to the tables of his acquaint ances, ances, from which the meanness of his drefs often excluded him, when the politeness and variety of his converfation would have been thought a fufficient recompence for his entertainment. He lodged as much by accident as he dined, and paffed the night fometimes in mean houses, which are set open at night to any cafual wanderers, fometimes in cellars among the riot and filth of the meanest and most profligate of the rabble; and sometimes, when he had not money to fupport even the expences of these receptacles, walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the fummer upon a bulk, or in the winter, with his affociates in poverty, among the ashes of a glafs-house. In this manner were passed those days and thofe nights which nature had enabled him to have employed in elevated fpeculations, useful ftudies, or pleasing conversation. On a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glafs-house among thieves and beggars, was to be found the Author of The Wanderer, the man of exalted fentiments, extenfive views, and curi ous |