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G

WE ST.

ILBERT WEST is one of

the writers of whom I regret my inability to give a fufficient account; the intelligence which my enquiries have obtained is general and fcanty.

He was the fon of the reverend Dr. Weft; perhaps him who published Pindar at Oxford about the beginning of this century. His mother was fifter to Sir Richard Temple, afterwards lord Cobham. His father, purpofing to educate him for the Church, fent him firft to Eaton, and afterwards to Oxford; but he was feduced to a more airy mode

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of life, by a commiffion in a troop of horfe procured him by his uncle.

He continued fome time in the army; though it is reasonable to fuppofe that he never funk into a mere foldier, nor ever loft the love or much neglected the purfuit of learning; and afterwards, finding himself more inclined to civil employment, he laid down his commiffion, and engaged in bufinefs under the lord Townshend, then fecretary of state, with whom he attended the king to Hanover.

His adherence to lord Townshend ended in nothing but a nomination (May 1729) to be clerk-extraordinary of the Privy Council, which produced no immediate profit; for it only placed him in a state of expectation and right of fucceffion,

and

and it was very long before a vacancy admitted him to profit.

his

Soon afterwards he married, and fettled himfelf in a very pleafant house at Wickham in Kent, where he devoted himfelf to learning, and to piety. Of his learning this Collection exhibits evidence, which would have been yet fuller if the differtations which accompany verfion of Pindar had not been improperly omitted. Of his piety the influence has, I hope, been extended far by his Obfervations on the Refurrection, published in 1747, for which the University of Oxford created him a Doctor of Laws by diploma (March 30, 1748); and perhaps it may not be without effect to tell, that he read prayers every evening to his family. Crafhaw is now not the

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only maker of verfes to whom may be

given the two venerable names of Poet and Saint.

He was very often vifited by Lyttelton and Pitt, who, when they were weary of faction and debates, ufed at Wickham to find books and quiet, a decent table, and literary converfation. There is at Wickham a walk made by Pitt; and, what is of far more importance, at Wickham Lyttelton received that conviction which produced his Dif fertation on St, Paul.

Mr. Weft's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but without fuccefs, to obtain an augmentation. It is reported, that the education of the young prince was offered to him, but that he required a more extenfive power

of

of fuperintendence than it was thought proper to allow him.

In time, however, his revenue was improved; he lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the Privy Council (1752), and Mr. Pitt at laft had it in his power to make him treasurer of Chelsea Hofpital.

He was now fufficiently rich; but wealth came too late to be long enjoyed: nor could it fecure him from the calamities of life; he loft (1755) his only fon; and the year after (March 26), a froke of the palfy brought to the grave one of the few poets to whom the grave needed not to be terrible.

His poems are in this Collection neither felected nor arranged as I fhould

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