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Shortly after Thomson left Edinburgh, he lost living at my own charges, and you know how exhis mother, whom he loved with all a son's ten-pensive that is; this, together with the furnishing derness, and to whose talents and virtues he was of myself with clothes, linen, one thing and anoeminently indebted for the cultivation of his own. ther, to fit me for any business of this nature here, In the poem which he wrote to her memory, he necessarily obliged me to contract some debts. Bethus feelingly adverts to the moment when he ing a stranger here, it is a wonder how I got any took his last leave of her:

"When on the margin of the briny flood,
Chill'd with a sad presaging damp I stood,
Took the last look, ne'er to behold her more,
And mixed our murmurs with the wavy roar,
Heard the last words fall from her pious tongue,
Then, wild into the bulging vessel flung,
Which soon, too soon, convey'd me from her sight,
Dearer than life, and liberty, and light!"

credit; but I can not expect it will be long sustained unless I immediately clear it. Even now, I believe, it is at a crisis. My friends have no money to send me till the land is sold, and my creditors will not wait till then: you know what the consequences would be. Now the assistance I would beg of you, and which I know, if in your power, you will not refuse me, is a letter of credit on some merchant, banker, or such like person in A very interesting letter from Thomson to his London, for the matter of twelve pounds, till I get friend Dr. Cranston, written about this time, money upon the selling of the land, which I am at proves that he was nearly destitute of money; and last certain of. If you could either give it me it is extremely deserving of attention from the yourself, or procure it, though you do not owe it to statement that the idea of writing The Seasons my merit, yet you owe it to your own nature, originated from reading a poem on Winter, by which I know so well as to say no more on the Mr. Rickleton, which sets at rest the dispute whe-subject; only allow me to add that when I first ther that poem was composed before or after his fell upon such a project, the only thing I have for arrival in London.* It is without a date, but must have been written in September 1726; and, as the post mark was Barnet,t it seems he then resided in that village.

"DEAR SIR,

it in my present circumstances, knowing the selfish, inhumane temper of the generality of the world, you were the first person that offered to my thoughts as one to whom I had the confidence to make such an address.

"Now I imagine you seized with a fine, ro"I would chide you for the slackness of your mantic, kind of a melancholy on the fading of the correspondence; but, having blamed you wrong-year; now I figure you wandering, philosophical fully last time, I shall say nothing until I hear and pensive, amidst the brown, withered groves, from you, which I hope will be soon. while the leaves rustle under your feet, the sun

"There is a little business I would communicate gives a farewell parting gleam, and the birds to you before I come to the more entertaining part of our correspondence. I am going, hard task!

Stir the faint note, and but attempt to sing.

to complain, and beg your assistance. When I" Then again, when the heavens wear a more came up here I brought very little money along gloomy aspect, the winds whistle, and the waters with me, expecting some more upon the selling of Widehope, which was to have been sold that day my mother was buried. Now it is unsold yet; but will be disposed of as soon as it can be conveniently done, though indeed it is perplexed with some difficulties. I was a long time here

spout, I see you in the well known Cleugh, beneath the solemn arch of tall, thick, embowering trees, listening to the amusing lull of the many steep, moss-grown cascades; while deep, divine contemplation, the genius of the place, prompts each swelling awful thought. I am sure you would not resign your part in that scene at an easy rate. • A writer in the Literary Gazette asserts that "Winter" None ever enjoyed it to the height you do, and was written previous to this period, during the vacations, you are worthy of it. There I walk in spirit, and when Thomson retired from Edinburgh to Roxburghshire, disport in its beloved gloom. This country I am where it is a current tale that he composed the awful picture in is not very entertaining; no variety but that of the man perishing in the snow, while on a visit to a friend of woods, and them we have in abundance; but among the wild hills about Yetholm, eight or nine miles from Kelso and Ednam, the place of his birth. Foulkner, however, where is the living stream? the airy mountain? in his Historical and Topographical Account of Fulham, p. and the hanging rock? with twenty other things 359, says: "In a room in the Dove Coffee-house, situated that elegantly please the lover of nature. Nature facing the water-side, between the Upper and Lower Mall at delights me in every form, I am just now painting Hammersmith, Thompson wrote his Winter. He was in the her in her most lugubrious dress for my own habit of frequenting this house during the winter season, when the Thames was frozen, and the surrounding country covered amusement, describing Winter as it presents itself. with snow. This fact is well authenticated, and many per- After my first proposal of the subject, sons visit the house to the present day."

1 Query, Barnes, on the banks of the Thames?

I sing of Winter, and his gelid reign,
Nor let a rhyming insect of the Spring

Deem it a barren theme. To me 'tis full

Of manly charms; to me, who court the shade,
Whom the gay seasons suit not, and who shun
The glare of Summer. Welcome, kindred glooms!
Drear, awful, wintry horrors, welcome all! &c.

"After this introduction, I say, which insists for a few lines further, I prosecute the purport of the following ones:

Nor can I, O, departing Summer! choose
But consecrate one pitying line to you;

Sing your last temper'd days, and sunny calms,
That cheer the spirits and serene the soul.

to see him from amongst the rubbish of his controversial divinity and politics, furbishing up his ancient rustic gallantry.

Yours sincerely, J. T. "Remember me to all friends, Mr. Rickle, Miss John, Brother John, &c.”

Thomson's earliest patron in London was Mr. Forbes, afterwards Lord President of the Session; who is thus immortalized in the Seasons,

"Thee, Forbes, too, whom every worth attends,
As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind,
Thee, truly generous, and in silence great,
Thy country feels through her reviving arts,
Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform❜d;
And seldom has she known a friend like thee."

"Then terrible floods, and high winds, that usually happen about this time of the year, and have already happened here, I wish you have not felt them too dreadfully; the first produced the inclosed lines; the last are not completed. Mr. Having seen his poetry in Scotland, he received Rickleton's Poem on Winter, which I still have, him with kindness, recommended him to his first put the design into my head. In it are some friends, and particularly to Mr. Aikman, a genmasterly strokes that awakened me: being only a tleman moving in high society, whose taste for depresent amusement, it is ten to one but I drop it scriptive poetry was generated by his pursuits as a whenever another fancy comes across. painter. The friendship of Aikman was highly "I believe it had been much more for your en-appreciated by Thomson; and on his death, in tertainment if in this letter I had cited other peo- June 1731, he wrote some verses which are indicaple instead of myself, but I must defer that until tive of that fervid attachment for which he was reanother times If you have not seen it already, I markable. have just now in my hands an original of Sir Among other persons to whom he was indebted Alexander Brand's, the crazed Scots knight with for countenance and attention were Mr. Mallet, the woeful countenance, you would relish. I be- his school fellow, then private tutor to the Duke lieve it might make Miss John catch hold of his of Montrose and his Grace's brother Lord George knees, which I take in him to be a degree of mirth Graham. By Mallet he is supposed to have been only inferior to falling back again with an elastic introduced to, and made acquainted with, the spring. It is very printed in the Evening characters of many brother poets and other wits Post, so perhaps you have seen these panegyrics of the day; and he was assisted by him in negoof our declining bard; one on the princess's birth- tiating the publication of his first work. He day, the other on his majesty's, in

cantos: resided, at this time, in Lancaster Court in the

they are written in the spirit of a complicated craziness.

Strand.

The poem of Winter, which, reversing the "I was in London lately a night, and in the old natural order, proved the harbinger of "The playhouse saw a comedy acted, called 'Love makes Seasons," appeared in folio in March, 1726-7; a Man, or the Fop's Fortune,' where I beheld but it remained unsold till Mr. Whateley, a genMiller and Cibber shine to my infinite entertain- tleman of acknowledged taste, and the author of ment. In and about London this month of Sep-" Observations on Modern Gardening," discerned tember near a hundred people have died by accident and suicide. There was one blacksmith, tired of the hammer, who hanged himself, and left written behind him this concise epitaph,

I, Joe Pope,

Lived without hope,
And died by a rope.

its beauties, and made them the subject of conversation in the circles in which he visited. Though materially improved in subsequent editions, its merits were sufficiently striking to establish the author's fame; but it is stated that he received no more than three guineas for his labours. It was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton, then Speaker or else some epigrammatic muse has belied him. of the House of Commons, and afterwards Earl "Mr. Muir has ample fund for politics in the of Wilmington, but his motive for selecting him present posture of affairs, as you will find by the as a patron is unknown; and it would seem, from public news. I should be glad to know that great Aaron Hill's lines, which he affixed to the second minister's frame just now. Keep it to yourself. edition of " Winter," that he was doubtful to what You may whisper it, too, in Miss John's ear: far great person he should address it. In the preface otherwise is his late mysterious brother Mr. Tait to that edition, which appeared in the same year, employed, started a superannuated fortune, and he entered into a long defence of poetry, complainjust now upon the full scent. It is comical enough led of the debasing subjects to which it was chiefly

applied, and contended, in rapturous language, | but at what period has not been ascertained, he that the works of nature are most calculated to was desirous of evincing his gratitude by inscribproduce poetical enthusiasm. According to the ing "Summer" to that nobleman. Lord Binning, fashion of the time, he prefixed to the second im- however, generously sacrificed the distinction to pression some commendatory verses by Hill, Mr. his desire of advancing the Poet's interests, and at Mallet, and a lady who styled herself Mira.* his lordship's suggestion, it was dedicated to the Johnson asserts that "Winter" was unnoticed well known Mr. Bubb Dodington, then a Lord by Sir Spencer Compton until Aaron Hill roused of the Treasury, in that humiliating strain of pahis attention by some verses addressed to Thom- negyric to which, happily, authors no longer subson, and published in one of the newspapers, mit. Whether the change has been produced by which censured the great for their neglect of in- the extinction of patrons, or from a worthier cause, genious men: but it is obvious, from the verses the effect is to rescue literature from the degradathemselves, that they were written before Thom- tion of paying sycophantic homage to titled dullson had fixed on a patron; and there is nothing ness or aristocratic impertinence; and it is left to to justify the opinion that he was indebted to Hill societies established for the promotion of science for Sir Spencer's subsequent notice of him. In a to debase themselves by a fawning deference to letter addressed to Hill he says: rank, which an individual would feel himself disgraced by imitating.

"I hinted to you in my last, that on Saturday morning I was with Sir Spencer Compton. A certain gentleman, without my desire, spoke to him concerning me; his answer was, that I had never come near him. Then the gentleman put the question, if he desired that I should wait on him? he returned, he did. On this, the gentleman gave me an introductory letter to him. He received me in what they commonly call a civil manner; asked me some common-place questions, and made me a present of twenty guineas. I am very ready to own, that the present was larger than my performance deserved; and shall ascribe it to his generosity, or any other cause, rather than the merit of the address."

In his eulogy on Newton, Thomson was assisted by his friend Gray, who, being well acquainted with the Newtonian Philosophy, furnished him with a sufficient idea of its principles to enable him to allude to the subject with correctness. "Britannia" owed its existence to the displeasure of the English merchants at the interruption of our trade by the Spaniards in America. Thomson was particularly alive to impressions of public liberty, and eagerly availed himself of a moment of political excitement to indulge his feelings.

In 1728, he published his "Spring," which he inscribed to. Frances, Countess of Hertford, wife of Algernon, then Earl of Hertford, afterwards "Winter"t was universally read and almost as Duke of Somerset. This lady, whose generous, universally admired, and its reputation produced intercession in favour of Savage preserved his life, to the author the acquaintance of several ladies of not only patronized poetry, but was herself a votary rank, among whom were the Countess of Hert- of the Muses,* and her letters create a very faford, Miss Drelincourt, daughter of the Dean of vourable impression both of her heart and her unArmagh, who became Viscountess Primrose, and derstanding. If the dedication may be relied on, Mrs. Stanley, but the most valuable effect of that Spring "grew up under her encouragement," and publication was the friendship of Dr. Thomas Thomson was one summer the guest of her ladyRundle, afterwards Bishop of Derry. That learn-ship at her 'country seat; but Johnson says he ed individual, finding the man to be as estimable took more pleasure in carousing with her lord as the poet, honoured him with his friendship, promulgated his fame by his encomiums, and by introducing him to Sir Charles, subsequently Lord Chancellor, Talbot, eventually rendered him an important service.

Stimulated by public applause, Thomson next year published his "Summer," the "Poem on the death of Sir Isaac Newton," and his "Britannia." It is said that having been private tutor to Lord Binning, the eldest son of the Earl of Haddington,

The Countess of Hertford, according to her own admis

sion, was the authoress of the pieces entitled "A Rural Meditation," "A Penitential Thought," "A Midnight Hymn," and "The Dying Christian's Hope," inserted in Watt's Miscellanies, and there assigned to Eusebia. See a letter from her ladyship to Dr. Watts, in February, 1736, printed in the Elegant Epistles, vol. v. p. 525. On the 15th of May, 1748, the Countess of Hertford, in a letter to Lady Luxemborough, noticed Thomson's Castle of Indolence in the following terms:-"I conclude you will read Mr. Thomson's Castle of Indolence: it is after the manner of Spenser; but I think he does not always keep so close to his style as the author of the ⚫ Dr. Johnson says Mira was the fictitious name of a lady School Mistress, whose name I never knew till you were so once too well known: Savage addressed verses to her on read-good as to inform me of it. I believe the Castle of Indolence will afford you much entertainment: there are many pretty

ing her poems, and Aaron Hill also wrote some lines on her.

↑ To this edition Thomson added the letters "M. A." to paintings in it; but I think the wizard's song deserves a prehis name, but the distinction was omitted on every other ference: occasion.

'He needs no muse who dictates from the heart.""

than in assisting her studies, and therefore was never again invited: a charge which Lord Buchan eagerly repels, but upon as little authority as it was originally made.

Read Philips much, consider Milton more,
But from their dross extract the purer ore.
Let perspicuity o'er all preside,-

Soon shalt thou be the nation's joy and pride. Previous to the appearance of "Spring," Thom- Johnson admits that these revisions improved son issued proposals for publishing the "Four the poems in general: but he expresses his suspiSeasons" by subscription; and in the advertise- cion that they lost their race. A few examples of ment, he pledged himself that the separate publi- the benefit which they derived from reflection and cation of that poem should not prevent the work criticism prove that this remark displays more inbeing completed in the ensuing winter. genuity than taste; and as instances of the differThe tragedy of Sophonisba, which was written ence between early and subsequent editions of a and acted in 1729, was his next production; and Poet's lucubrations, they are sufficiently curious to such were the expectations which the author's deserve the space they will occupy.* fame excited, that the rehearsals were attended About this time, through the influence of Dr. by splendid audiences: though, if Johnson be cor- Rundle, who, on sending Mrs. Sandys a copy of rect, nobody was much affected, and the company The Seasons," obseryed, that it was "a volume rose as if from a moral lecture. Among those who on which reason bestows as many beauties as imahonoured the tragedy with particular regard was gination," Thomson was selected by Sir Charles the Queen, to whom, on that account, it was dedi- Talbot, then Solicitor General, to accompany his cated; and in the preface the author pleads in ex- eldest son, Mr. Charles Richard Talbot, on his tenuation of the errors of the piece, that it was a travels. With this accomplished young man he first attempt: he explains his reasons for choosing visited most of the capitals in Europe, in the year that subject, and thanks Mr. Wilks, and more es- 1731. Admitted to the best society wherever they pecially Mrs. Oldfield, for their powerful representations of Massinissa and Sophonisba, the latter having, he says, "excelled what even in the fondness of an author he could either wish or imagine."

The success of this tragedy on the stage was not great, though it went through four editions in the year 1730, and Johnson ascribes one cause of its failure to a foolish parody of the silly line, omitted in subsequent impressions,

"Oh, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"

"O Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O!" which was very generally repeated through the town. Pope, the same writer says, on the assertion of Savage, wrote the first part of the prologue, but, as he could not be persuaded to finish it, the remaining lines were added by, Mallet.

went, unembarrassed by pecuniary considerations, and encouraged by the rising influence and generosity of his patron, to hope for a permanent independence, if not for a situation calculated for the display of talent, this must have been the happiest period of the Poet's life, since nothing more can be desired than youth, fame, health, and competence in possession, with a bright perspective of future renown.

During his absence from England he appears to have kept up a correspondence with Mr. Bubb Dodington, to whom he dedicated his " Spring;" and his letters which tend to show that he was on terms of intimacy with that gentleman are entitled to attention. They justify a more favourable opinion of his epistolary powers than any others which have appeared, and are very interesting, from his account of the impression which foreign The "Seasons" were completed in 1730, when scenes made on his mind, and of his future inten"Autumn," which he addressed to the Right tions with respect to literature. Honourable Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons, was first printed. A very material difference exists, between "the Seasons" as they first appeared, and as they now stand. From time to time Thomson polished this work. with great assiduity and success, perhaps from the anticipation that by it he would be best known claiming on liberty, must give the generality of a to posterity. To this labour he was probably ex-to have a stroke at criticism; and Lord have mercy French audience. Voltaire, in his preface, designs cited by an epistle from Somerville, who asks,

"Why should thy Muse, born so divinely fair,
Want the reforming toilet's daily care!
Dress the gay maid, improve each native grace,
And call forth all the glories of her face:
The accomplish'd nymph in all her best attire,
Courts shall applaud, and prostrate crowds admire;
For kind and wise the parent, who reproves
The slightest blemish in the child he loves.

Paris, Dec. 27, N. S. 1730. "M. de Voltaire's Brutus has been acted here tinues to be acted. It is matter of amusement seven or eight times with applause, and still con to me to imagine what ideas an old republican, de

on the poor similes at the end of the acts in our English plays, for these seem to be very worthy objects of his French indignation. It is designed to be dedicated to Lord Bolingbroke.

"I have seen little of Paris, yet some streets and playhouses; though, had I seen all that is to be

. See the end of "The Seasons."

seen here, you know it too well to need a much tal honey, and tread the same ground where men better account than I can give. You must, how- have thought and acted so greatly. ever, give me leave to observe, that amid all the "But not to travel entirely like a poet, I resolve external and showy magnificence which the French affect, one misses that solid magnificence of trade and sincere plenty which not only appear to be, but are, substantially, in a kingdom where industry and liberty mutually support and inspirit each other. That kingdom I suppose I need not mention, as it is and ever will be sufficiently plain from the character. I shall return no worse Englishman than when I came away.

not to neglect the more prosaic advantages of it, for it is no less my ambition to be capable of serving my country in an active, than in a contemplative way. At my times of leisure abroad, I think of attempting another tragedy, and a story more addressed to common passions than 'Sophonisba.' The Sophonisba people now-a-days must have something like themselves, and a public spirited monster can never interest them. If any thing "Your observation I find every day juster and could make me capable of an epic performance, it juster, that one may profit more abroad by seeing would be your favourable opinion in thinking so. than by hearing, and yet there are scarce any But, as you justly observe, that must be the work travellers to be met with, who have given a land- of years, and one must be in an epic situation to scape of the countries through which they have execute it. My heart both trembles with diffi travelled that have seen, as you express it, with dence, and burns with ardour at the thought. The the Muses' eye; though, that is the first thing which strikes me, and what all readers and travellers in the first place demand. It seems to me, that such a poetical landscape of countries, mixed with moral observations on their countries and people, would not be an ill judged undertaking. But then, the description of the different face of nature, in different countries, must be particularly marked and characteristic, the portrait painting of nature."

Oct. 24, 1731.

story of Timoleon is good as to the subject matter, but an author owes, I think, the scene of an epic action to his own country; besides, Timoleon admits of no machinery except that of the heathen gods, which will not do at this time of day. I hope, hereafter, to have the direction of your taste in these affairs; and in the mean time will endea-. vour to expand those ideas and sentiments, and in some degree to gather up that knowledge which is necessary to such an undertaking.

Rome, Nov. 28. 1731.

"Should the scenes and climates through which I pass inspire me with any poetry, it will naturally "What you observe concerning the pursuit of have recourse to you. But to hint a return from poetry, so far engaged in it as I am, is certainly Young or Stubbs were a kind of poetical simony, just. Besides, let him quit it who can, and erit especially when you yourself possess such a portion mihi magnus Apollo, or something as great. A of the spirit." true genius, like light, must be beaming forth, a false one is an incurable disease. One would not, however, climb Parnassus, any more than your mortal hills, to fix for ever on the barren top No; it is some little dear retirement in the vale below that gives the right relish to the prospect, which, without that, is nothing but enchantment; and though pleasing for some time, at last leaves us in a desert. The great fat doctor of Bath told me that poets should be kept poor, the more to animate their genius. This is like the cruel custom of putting a bird's eye out, that it may sing the sweeter; but, surely, they sing sweetest amid the luxuriant woods, while the full spring blooms around them.

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"I will make no apology for neglecting to do myself the honour of writing to you since we left Paris. I may rather plead a merit in not troubling you with long scrawl of that travelling stuff, of which the world is full, even to loathing. That enthusiasm which I had upon me, with regard to travelling, goes off, I find, very fast. One may imagine fie things in reading ancient authors; but to travel is to dissipate that vision. A great many antique statues, where several of the fair ideas of Greece are fixed for ever in marble, and the paintings of the first masters, are, indeed, most enchanting objects. How little, however, of these "Travelling has long been my fondest wish, for suffices! How unessential to life! they are, surely, the very purpose you recommend. The storing not of that importance as to set the whole world, one's imagination with ideas all-beautiful, all-great, man, woman, and child, a-gadding. I should be and all-perfect nature; these are the true materia sorry to be Goth enough to think them highly orpoetica, the light and colours, with which fancy namental in life, when one can have them at home kindles up her whole creation, paints a sentiment, without paying for them at an extravagant price. and even embodies an abstracted thought. I long But for every one who can support it to make a to see the fields where Virgil gathered his immor- trade of running abroad only to stare at them, I

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Query, Dr. Cheyne ?

can not help thinking something worse than a public folly. Instead of travelling so furiously, it

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