"know it. I was on the hill, and am glad I did "not fee him. The next thing would have "been, I fhould have had a bad ode, or fome "fuch thing, addreffed to me. Mafon, Sir, is "not in my way. He is a buck-ram man.

I will here add by the way one anecdote of Mafon, which is fomewhat connected with these poems, and, I believe, may be relied on as authentic. Several years after he had written his Elegy, he was coming into Oxford on horseback; and as he paffed over Magdalen Bridge, (it was then evening) he turned to his friend, and expreffed his fatisfaction, that, as it was getting dufk, they fhould enter the place unnoticed. His friend did not feem aware of the advantage. "What!" rejoined the Poet," do "not you remember my Ifis?"

66

At feveral times from March to July, 1750, Mr. Warton contributed to "The Student," a monthly mifcellany published in Oxford, " A Panegyric on Oxford Ale," " The Progrefs of "Discontent," Morning, an Ode,—the Au"thor confined to College," and a metrical verfion of the 39th Chapter of Job. Thefe contributions were made under different fignatures, but it does not appear for what reafon. "The Progrefs of Difcontent" had been written in 1746, his eighteenth year, and was founded on

a copy

of Latin verfes, which he had written as a weekly exercise. The verfes were feen and approved by Dr. Huddesford, Prefident of his College, and were paraphrafed in English verfe at his defire.

The following anecdote will fhew that his talents were known and efteemed by his affociates alfo in College. In the Common-room belonging to the Bachelors and GentlemanCommoners of Trinity College, it was formerly the practice to elect certain annual officers, and amongst others a Poet-laureate, whose duty it was to celebrate in a copy of English verses a lady, likewise annually elected, and distinguished by the title of Lady-Patronefs. On an appointed day the members of the room affembled, and the Poet-laureate recited his verses, crowned with a wreath of laurel. Warton was elected to this office for the years 1747, and 1748: his verses, which are still in being in the Common-room, are written in an elegant and flowing ftyle, and have that kind of merit, which doubtless enfured them applause, when they were written, but which would hardly justify their being obtruded on the public. Even the mention of fuch an incident might be deemed impertinent, were it not that most readers have a natural curiofity to be made ac

C 4

quainted with minute circumstances in the lives of eminent men.

He had of course before this time taken his degree of A. B. On the first of December 1750, he became A. M. In 1751 he fucceeded to a fellowship, and m" was thus placed in a "fituation eafy and independent, and particu

larly congenial with his habits of retirement "and ftudy." In this year alfo he published "Newmarket, a Satire," afterwards printed in Pearch, and the Oxford Sausage;” and an Ode for Mufic, performed at the Theatre in Oxford, July 2d, 1751; likewife reprinted in Pearch. It was in 1751 that he contributed to the Oxford collection of verfes on the death of Frederic, Prince of Wales, a copy of Latin hexameters in his own name, and his Elegy in that of John Whetham, fellow-commoner of Trinity College. In 1753 appeared at Edinburgh "The Union, or felect Scots and English "Poems." The pieces in this little publication were selected by Mr. Warton: and he contributed to it feveral pieces of his own, as "The

Triumph of Ifis," the " Ode on the Approach "of Summer," the "Paftoral in the manner of Spenfer," and the "Infcription on a beautiful "Grotto near the Water." The Ode and the

Biographical Dictionary.

Paftoral are faid to be written by a Gentleman. formerly of the University of Aberdeen, for what reafon it does not appear, as the poems are undoubtedly Warton's, and he was never out of England: the preface adds of the fame. perfon, "that his modefty would not permit "his name to be printed ;" and that, " from "these ingenious effays, the public would be "enabled to form fome judgment beforehand "of a poem, of a nobler and more important

nature, which he was then preparing." A profeffion, of which, if it meant any thing, I cannot explain the meaning. In the third edition of "The Union" there are feveral other of Mr. Warton's poems, and the Summer Ode is printed with many improvements. In this publication, as well as in " The Student," his contributions appeared under feveral fignatures. "The Triumph of Ifis" was the only one with his name. An innocent species of delufion; of which it may be neither easy nor useful to difcover the cause.

It was about the year 1754, as I learn from a memorandum in his own hand-writing, that Mr. Warton drew up from the Bodleian and Savilian Statutes a body of Statutes for the Radcliffe Library, by the defire of his Prefident, Dr. Huddesford, then Vice-Chancellor; which, when finished, he deposited in Dr. Huddesford's

hands. Dr. Radcliffe had a peculiar claim to the fervices of a Trinity man. He was the only perfon, not a member of that College, who contributed towards rebuilding the Chapel in 1691.

In the fame year he published his "Obferva"tions on the Faerie Queene of Spenfer," in one volume 8vo. which, after being corrected and enlarged, he republished in two volumes, in 1762. The first edition of the Obfervations was vehemently attacked, in 1756, in a fcurrilous and anonymous pamphlet, intitled "The "Obferver Obferved; or Remarks on a certain "curious Tract, intitled Obfervations on the "Faerie Queene of Spenfer, by Thomas Warton, "A. M. &c." The author of the pamphlet appears to have been fome friend and admirer of Mr. Huggins, the not very poetical translator of Ariofto; and he bestows accufations of pedantry, ignorance, and malignity on Warton' with no fparing hand. Warton treated the attack, I believe, with filence; and, I doubt not, with contempt.

Indeed whatever might be the opinion enter

n" In 1756, he published a pamphlet, intituled The Obferver Ob"ferved, 8vo. on the publication of Upton's Spenfer." Life of Warton, by Anderfon. The writer of this fentence had clearly never feen the pamphlet.