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is not certain; it is too certain that it never was enjoyed.

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 great tenderness and generofity, kind to all that were within his influence; but, if once offended, not eafily appeafed; inattentive to œconomy, and careless of his expences; in his perfon larger than the middle fize, with fomething clumsy 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 dress, and that every man was to fuit his appear ance to his natural form.

His mind was not very comprehenfive, nor his curiofity 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 Jeffy, which has been supposed to relate an unfortunate and cri、 minal amour of his own, was known by his friends to have been fuggested by the story of Mifs Godfrey in Richardfon's Pamela.

What

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 tafte had adorned; "but which he only enjoyed when "people of note came to fee and com"mend it his correfpondence is about

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nothing else 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 picces.

His

His conception of an Elegy he has in his Preface very judicioufly and difcriminately explained. It is, according to his account, the effufion of a contemplative mind, fometimes plaintive, and always ferious, and therefore fuperior to the glitter of flight ornaments. compofitions fuit not ill to this defcription. His topicks of praife are the domeftick 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 resemblance of each other.

The

The lines are fometimes, fuch as Elegy requires, fmooth and cafy; but to this praise his claim is not conftant: his diction is often harfh, improper, and affected; his words ill-coined, or illchofen, and his phrafe unfkilfully inwerted.

The Lyrick Poems are almost all of the light and airy kind, fuch as trip lightly and nimbly along, without the load of any weighty meaning. From thefe, however, Rural Elegance has fome right to be excepted. I once heard it praised by a very learned lady; and though the lines are irregular, and the thoughts diffufed with too much verbofity, yet it cannot be denied to contain both philofophical argument and poetical fpirit.

Of

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