SOMERVILE.

OF Mr. SOMERVILE's life I am not

able to fay any thing that can fatisfy

euriofity.

He was a gentleman whofe eftate was in Warwickshire; his houfe is called Edston, a feat inherited from a long line of ancestors; for he was faid to be of the first family in his country. He tells of himself, that he

was born near the Avon's banks. He was bred at Winchefter-school, but I know not whether he was of any university. I have never heard of him but as of a poet, a country gentleman, and a skilful and useful Juftice of the Peace.

Of the close of his life, thofe whom his poems have delighted will read with pain the following

following account, copied from the Letters of his friend Shenftone, by whom he was too much resembled.

"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 last of these "confiderations wrings my very foul to "think on. For a man of high spirit, con"fcious of having (at least in one production) generally pleafed the world, to be 66 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 14, 1743.

It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at least must be allowed to have fet a good example to men of his own class, by devoting part of his time to elegant knowledge; and who has fhewn, by the subjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is prac

ticable

ticable to be at once a fkilful 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 least, that he writes very well for a gentleman. His ferious pieces are fometimes elevated, and his trifles are fometimes elegant. In his verses to Addison the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquifite delicacy of praise; it exhibits one of those happy strokes that are feldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful lines; but in the second Ode he fhews that he knew little of his hero, when he talks of his private virtues. His fubjects are fuch as require no great depth of thought or energy of expreffion. His Fables are generally ftale, and therefore excite no curiofity. Of his favourite, The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconfequential. there is too much coarsenefs, with too little care of language, and not fufficient rapidity of narration.

In his Tales

His great work is his Chafe, which he undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verfe, of which however his two firft lines give a bad specimen. 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 tranfition and variety could eafily effect; and has, with great propriety, enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries.

With ftill lefs judgement did he chuse blank verse 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. Disguise can gratify no longer than it deceives.

SAVAGE.