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WILLIAM SHENSTONE, was born in November 1714, 

 at his paternal seat, the Leasowes in Hales-Owen- After 

 passing v.ith applause through two Schools he proceeded in 

 1732 to Pembroke College, Oxford- He here published a 

 small volume of Poems in 1737. In 1742 he produced his 

 "Schoolmistress'' having two years previously published "The 

 Judgment of Hercules. In 1745 he took the Estate of the 

 Leasowes, much against his will, under his own management, 

 and during the remainder of his life made it his study to orna- 

 ment and improve the beauty of his ground. It is certain he 

 was the envy of wealthier and less tasteful neighbours. Their 

 envy, and the praise which fed his vanity, rendered him ever 

 desirous of excelling, and he squandered on the decorations of 

 his grounds, sums that should have obtained him necessaries 

 and comfort. Though his grounds were beautiful, his house 

 was mean and delapidated ; he was annoyed by creditors, or as 

 his biographer Dr. Johnson expresses it " his groves were 

 haunted by beings very different from fauns and fairies." He 

 died of a putrid fever, Feb. 1 1th. 1763. With his Poems we 

 have here no concern, but we shall have occasion to sj)eak of 

 the Leasowes hereafter, and must now record that in his works 

 collected after his death, and published in 3 vols. 8vo. in 1764, 

 are " Unconnected Thoughts on Landscape Gardening." 



There are three engraved portraits of him. 1. By Prancker, 

 prefixed to his " Works," 1764, 8vo. 2. By Hall in 1780, 

 after the original by T. Ross, painted in 1738. 8vo. 3, By T. 

 Cook in Bell's edition of the " Poets." 



JOHN ABERCROMBIE, was born at Edinburgh lu i *„., 

 near which City his father conducted a considerable IVLirket 

 Garden. From his infancy he was employed to assist in this 

 undertaking which was one particularly suited to his taste, and 

 to improve and simplify his Art through after life, engrossed 

 his attention — At fourteen he became an apprentice of bis 



