his apprehenfion of the small pox, which prevented him from mixing frequently with the world, and improving that acquaintance in London, of which his increasing reputation and love of knowledge made him now more defirous, he refolved at once to remove every fear of that distemper, by fubmitting to the operation of inoculation, which he accordingly did under the care of Baron Dimfdale, in the year 1766, with Mr. Jofeph Cockfield, a gentleman with whom he had lived for fome years in great intimacy, and to whom he addresfes his XIIth Ode. He writes to a friend, that, " they had not one day's confinement, though fufficient tokens to fecure them from future fear or danger." About this time I had the fatisfaction of introducing Mr. Scott to the acquaintance of my invaluable friend Dr. Johnson, and notwithstanding the great difference of their political principles, Scott had too much love for goodness and genius, not to be highly gratified in the opportunity of cultivating a friendship with that great exemplar of human virtues, and that great veteran of human learning; while the Doctor, with a mind fuperior to the diftinction of party, delighted with equal complacency in the amiable qualities of Scott, of whom he always fpoke with feeling regard. It has been already obferved, that Scott feems very early to have had a paffion for gardening: he had, for several years, particularly in the years 1765 and 1766, amused himself in laying out and embellishing with plantations a few acres of his own ground, and which, though at present nearly in the same state in which they were before he had seen any other improved fpot, are thought not unworthy the attention of strangers, who come accidentally into the neighbourhood. In these plantations is a grotto, grotto, of his own defign, confidered as one of the curiofities of the country. It appears, by a letter from his friend Turner, at Exeter, that he had applied to him to procure foffils and fhells for the completion of this work, in which he frequently exerted his own manual labour; and he has told me, that in making the excavation under the hill, for the fubterraneous paffage, he marched first, like a pioneer, with his pick-ax in his hand, to encourage his ruftic affist ants. Thefe pleasure grounds have given rise to an epiftle, intitled THE GARDEN*. To this epiftle is prefixed a very pleafing engraving of a front view of the grotto. The following lines, where he introduces his friend, fuppofing he may be retired to it for fhelter, give no unfavourable sketch of the place. • See Poetical Works, page 259. c 3 Where Where, 'midft thick oaks, the fubterraneous way Where glaffy pebbles pave the varied floors, And rough flint walls are deck'd with fhells and ores; And filvery pearls, fpread o'er the roofs on high, Glimmer like faint stars in a twilight sky; From noon's fierce glare, perhaps he pleas'd retires, Indulging mufings which the place infpires. Our author is reported to have been, at one time, a fportfman, but in confequence of a humane and rational opinion, that men had no right to destroy or torment any of the animal creation for mere diverfion, he, for many years before his death, totally relinquished the diverfions of shooting and fishing.. In the year 1766 he loft his mother, who died on the 14th of December, aged A Sonnet to her memory is faid to have been found among his manuscripts. eighty years. In 1767 he was married to Sarah Frogley, the daughter of his friend Charles Charles Frogley, of whom fuch deserved and honourable mention has been made. The bride was, previous to her nuptials, admitted a member of the fociety to which he belonged, and the nuptials were celebrated at the Quakers meetinghouse, at Chefhunt in Hertfordshire. The connection between Scott and Frogley being ftrengthened by this marriage, Scott fhewed many acts of kindness to the companion of his early studies, to whom he always continued firmly attached; of which attachment he has left a public teftimony in his XIth Ode, addreffed to a friend apprehenfive of declining friendship, which feems to have been written in order to diffipate fome little uneafinefs that might have arisen in the mind of Frogley, from a fear of being neglected by Scott. Too much in man's imperfect state, |