HA M M M MON D.

F Mr. HAMMOND, though he be well remembered as a man esteemed and careffed by the elegant and great, I was at firft able to obtain no other memorials than fuch as are fupplied by a book called Cibber's Lives of the Poets; of which I take this opportunity to testify that it was not written, nor, I believe, ever feen, by either of the Cibbers; but was the work of Robert Shiels, a native of Scotland, a man of very acute understanding, though with little fcholaftick education, who, not long after the publication of his work, died in London of a confumption. His life was virtuous, and his end was Cibber, then a prifoner for debt, told, his name for ten guineas. Shiels is now in my poffeffion.

pious. Theophilus imparted, as I was The manufcript of

I have fince found that Mr. Shiels, though he was no negligent enquirer, has been misled by false accounts; for he relates that James Hammond, the author of the following Elegies, was the fon of a Turkey merchant, and had fome office at the prince of Wales's

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court,

court, till love of a lady, whofe name was Dafhwood, for a time difordered his understanding. He was unextinguishably amorous, and his mistress inexorably

cruel.

Of this narrative, part is true, and part falfe. He was the fecond fon of Anthony Hammond, a man of note among the wits, poets, and parliamentary orators, in the beginning of this century, who was allied to Sir Robert Walpole by marrying his fifter. He was born about 1710, and educated at Westminster-school; but it does not appear that he was of any university. He was equerry to the prince of Wales, and feems to have come very early into publick notice, and to have been distinguished by those whose friendship prejudiced mankind at that time in favour of the man on whom they were bestowed; for he was the companion of Cobham, Lyttelton, and Chesterfield. He is faid to have divided his life between pleasure and books; in his retirement forgetting the town, and in his gaiety lofing the ftudent. Of his literary hours all the effects are here exhibited, of which the Elegies Elegies were written very early, and the Prologue not long before his

death.

In 1741, he was chofen into parliament for Truro in Cornwall, probably one of thofe who were elected by the Prince's influence; and died next year in June at Stowe, the famous feat of the lord Cobham. His miftrefs long outlived him, and in 1779 died unmarried. The character which her lover bequeathed her was, indeed, not likely to attract courtship.

The Elegies were publifhed after his death; and while the writer's name was remembered with fondnefs, they were read with a refolution to admire them.

The recommendatory preface of the editor, who was then believed, and is now affirmed by Dr. Maty, to be the earl of Chefterfield, raised ftrong prejudices in their favour.

But of the prefacer, whoever he was, it may be reafonably fufpected that he never read the poems; for he profeffes to value them for a very high fpecies of excellence, and recommends them as the genuine effufions of the mind, which expreffes a real paffion in the language of nature. But the truth is, thefe elegies have neither paffion, nature, nor manners. Where there is fiction, there is no paffion; he that defcribes himself as a fhepherd, and his Neæra or Delia as a fhepherdess, and talks of goats and lambs, feels no paffion. He that courts his miftrefs with Roman imagery deferves to lose her; for fhe may with good reafon fufpect his fincerity. Hammond has few fentiments drawn from nature, and few images from modern life. He produces nothing but frigid pedantry. It would be hard to find in all his productions three ftanzas that deferve to be remembered.

Like other lovers, he threatens the lady with dying; and what then fhall follow?

Wilt thou in tears thy lover's corfe attend;
With eyes averted light the folemn pyre,
Till all around the doleful flames afcend,
Then, flowly finking, by degrees expire?
To footh the hovering foul be thine the care,
With plaintive cries to lead the mournful band.
In fable weeds the golden vafe to bear,

And cull my afhes with thy trembling hand:

Panchaia's odours be their coftly feast,

And all the pride of Afia's fragrant year,
Give them the treafures of the fartheft Eaft,

And, what is ftill more precious, give thy tear.

Surely

Surely no blame can fall upon the nymph who rejected a swain of fo little meaning.

His verses are not rugged, but they have no fweetnefs; they never glide in a ftream of melody. Why Hammond or other writers have thought the quatrain of ten fyllables elegiac, it is difficult to tell. The character of the Elegy is gentlenefs and tenuity; but this ftanza has been pronounced by Dryden, whofe knowlege of English metre was not inconsiderable, to be the moft magnificent of all the measures which our language affords.

SOMER

SOMERVILE.

F Mr. SOMERVILE's life I am not able to fay any thing that can fatisfy curiosity.

He was a gentleman whofe eftate was in Warwickfhire; his houfe, where he was born in 1692, is called Edfton, a feat inherited from a long line of ancestors; for he was faid to be of the first family in his county. He tells of himself, that he was born near the Avon's .banks. He was bred at Winchefter-fchool, and was elected fellow of New College. It does not appear that in the places of his education, he exhibited any uncommon proofs of genius or literature. His powers were firft difplayed in the country, where he was dif tinguished as a poet, a gentleman, and a fkilful and ufeful Juftice of the Peace.

Of the clofe of his life, thofe whom his poems have delighted will read with pain the following account, .copied from the Letters of his friend Shenftone, by whom he was too much refembled.

"Our old friend Somervile is dead! I did not imagine I could have been fo forry as I find myself VOL. III.

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