SHENSTONE, Wita.tast, an English poet of sonic celebrity, and the eldest son of a country gentleman. who farmed his own estate, called the Leasowes, was born at Hales Owen in Shropshire, in November 1719. He received the first elements of instruction from the village " schoolmistress," whom he has made the subject of a poem under that title; and such was his ardour for reading when he was a child, that a new book was always brought to him by any mem ber of the family that went to market. When that happened to be neglected, his mother was obliged to pacify him for the night, by wrapping up a piece of wood of the same form. At the grammar school of Hales Owen, he acquired the elements of a classical education; but he was afterwards placed under the charge of Mr. Crumpton at Solihues, who greatly im proved his taste, and extended his classical acquire ments. In 1732, he entered Pembroke College, Ox ford, where his poetical genius first showed itself in some composition of considerable merit. With the view of taking a degree, he continued his name there for ten years; but having, in consequence of the death of his father in 1724, come into early possession of his estate, he did not professionally wear the civilian's gown which he had merely put on.
Content with his small patrimony, his talents were never called into vigorous action, and he was there fore led to devote himself to the enjoyment of domes tic life, and to the pleasures of cultivating his mind, and of embellishing his grounds.
In 1737, he published anonymously a small volume of miscellaneous juvenile poems, but it did not excite much notice. His next work was the Judgment of Hercules, dedicated to Lord Lyttelton, which was published by Dodsley in 1740. This was followed, in 1742, by " The Schoolmistress," already alluded to, which is thought the best of all his productions.
From his friend, Mr. Graves of Mickleton, in Glo cestershire, Shenstone is said to have derived his pas sion for rural embellishments, which he carried on without any regard to his pecuniary means. The
Leasowes, which he thus extravagantly adorned, ob tained great celebrity; and as it became a place of in terest and public resort, he was involved in expenses, which held him under the constant pressure of pover ty. His hospitality, or more properly speaking, his bounty, created wants which he could not supply; and tormented with the desire of doing more, and appear ing better than he really could, he became the wretch ed tenant of the paradise which his own taste had cre ated. The following account of Shenstone is from the pen of Gray,—" Poor man! he was always writing for money, for fame, and for other distinctions; and his whole philosophy consisted in living, against his will, in retirement, and in a place which his taste had adorned, but which he enjoyed only when people of note came to see and commend it. His anxiety of mind, which sprung out of his pecuniary necessities, seems to have thrown him into ill health; and though application was most properly made to Lord Bute to procure him a pension from the privy purse, yet, be fore this was granted, he was carried off by a putrid fever, in February 11, 1763, and was buried by the side of his brother in the church-yard of Hales Owen.
The "Works" of Shenstone "in Verse and Prose," were published in 1764, in 2 vols. Svo., and a third volume, consisting of letters, appeared in 1769. Shenstone was a poet possessed of taste and a culti vated mind, but his works exhibit none of the nuns diving which characterize the productions of true po etical genius. Ilis prose writings contain acute re marks and just observations, and have the same gene ral character as his poetical labours.