intereft he supported with great warmth at an election: this was two years afterwards followed by the School-mistress..

Mr. Dolman, to whofe care he was indebted for his eafe and leifure, died in 1745, and the care of his own fortune now. fell upon him. He tried to escape it a while, and lived at his house with his tenants, who were diftantly related; but finding that imperfect poffeffion inconvenient, he took the whole eftate into his own hands, more to the improvement of its beauty than the increafe of its produce.

Now began his delight in rural pleafures, and his ambition of rural elegance: he began from this time to point his profpects, to diverfify his furface, to

entangle his walks, and to wind his wa ters; which he did with fuch judgement and fuch fancy, as made his little domain the envy of the great, and the admiration of the fkilful; a place to be vifited by travellers, and copied by defigners. Whether to plant a walk in undulating curves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object to catch the view; to make water run where it will be heard, or to ftagnate where it will be feen; to leave intervals where the

eye will be pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to be hidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not enquire; perhaps a fullen and furly fpeculator may think fuch performances rather the fport than

the bufinefs of human reafon. But it must be at least confeffed, that to embellish the form of Nature is an innocent amusement; and fome praise must be allowed by the most fupercilious obferver to him, who does best what such multitudes are contending to do well.

This praife was the praise of Shenftone; but, like all other modes of feli-city, it was not enjoyed without its abatements. Lyttelton was his neighbour and his rival, whofe empire, spacious and opulent, looked with difdain. on the petty State that appeared behind it. For a while the inhabitants of Hagley affected to tell their acquaintance of the little fellow that was trying to make himself admired; but when by degrees

the Leafowes forced themfelves into no

tice, they took care to defeat the curiofity which they could not fupprefs, by conducting their vifitants perversely to inconvenient points of view, and introducing them at the wrong end of a walk to detect a deception; injuries of which Shenftone would heavily complain. Where there is emulation there will be vanity, and where there is vanity there will be folly.

The pleasure of Shenftone was all in his eye; he valued what he valued merely for its looks; nothing raised his indignation more than to afk if there were any fifhes in his water.

His house was mean, and he did not improve it; his care was of his grounds.

When he came home from his walks he might find his floors flooded by a fhower through the broken roof; but could spare no money for its reparation.

In time his expences brought clamours about him, that overpowered the lamb's bleat and the linnet's fong; and his groves were haunted by beings very different from fawns and fairies. He spent his eftate in adorning it, and his death was probably haftened by his anxieties. He was a lamp that spent its oil in blazing. It is faid, that if he had lived a little longer he would have been affifted by a penfion: fuch bounty could not have been ever more properly bestowed; but that it was ever afked

is