SHE 



SHEMEN, in Gfo^raphy, a town of Curdiftan ; 44 

 miles N.W. of Kerkuk. 



SHEMIUM, a town of Perfia, in the province of Kho- 

 raflan ; 10 miles N.W. of Herat. 



SHENANDOAH, a county of Virginia, bounded N. 

 by Frederick, and S. by Rockingham. It contains 13,646 

 inhabitants, of whom 1038 are flaves. Its chief town is 

 Woodfl-ock. 



Shenandoah, or SheniinHo, a river of Virginia, which 

 rifes in Auguila county, and after running a N.E. courfe 

 of about 200 miles, joins the Patowmack in about N. lat. 

 38" 4', juft before the latter burfts through Blue Ridge. 

 This river is compofed of four branches, S. river, Middle 

 river, N. river, and Shenandoah, which, though the fmalleft 

 branch, gives name to the united ftreams. It is navigable 

 about 100 miles, and might be rendered fo through its 

 whole courfe, at a fmall expence. When this is done, it 

 ■will convey the produce of the richefl: part of the ftate to 

 Wafhington. 



Shenandoah Valley, a valley which extends from Win- 

 ehefter in Virginia, to Carlifle and the Sufquehannah m 

 Pennfylvania, chiefly inhabited by Germans and Dutch. 



SHENANGO, a town of Pennfylvania, in Crawford 

 county, containing 727 inhabitants. 



SHENAW, a town of Auftria ; 4 miles S. of Kirch 

 Schlag. 



SHENCOTTY, a town of Hindooftan ; 45 miles N.E. 

 of Travancore. 



SHENECTADY. See Schenectady. 

 SHENGANA, a town of Hindooftan, in the Carnatic ; 

 25 miles S.S.W. of Madura. 



SHENKAFELD, a town of Auftria ; 5 miles W, of 

 Freyftadt. 



SHEN-SEE. Sec Chensi. 



SHENSEN, in Rural Economy, a term applied, in fome 

 diftriAs, as Devonfliire, to dried cow and horfe-dung, which 

 is laid up and ufed as fuel for the winter feafon. 



SHENSHIL, in Geography, a town of Egypt, on the 

 right bank of the Nile ; 2 miles N. of Achmim. 



SHENSTONE, William, in Biography, a poet of 

 celebrity, was born at Hales Owen, in Shropfliire, in the 

 year 17 14. His father was an uneducated gentleman 

 farmer, who cultivated an eftate of his own called the 

 Leafowes, which the fon afterwards rendered celebrated. 

 WiUiam received the elements of inltruftion from a village 

 dame, whom he has finely defcribed in one of his poems. 

 After this he was fent to the grammar-fchool at Hales 

 Owen, whence he was removed to that of a clergyman at 

 Solihull, from whom he not only acquired folid learning in 

 claflical knowledge, but a cultivated tafte. In 1732 he was 

 entered of Pembroke college, Oxford, where he did not 

 make a large acquaintance, but he was one of a few who 

 met at each otlier's rooms to read and examine the beft works 

 in Engli(h literature. Here it was he difcovered his poetical 

 genius, and produced fome compofttions of confiderable 

 merit, and he had thoughts of taking his degrees, and pro- 

 ceeding to ftudy for a profeffion, but coming, by the death 

 of his father, into the full pofTeflion of his paternal pro- 

 perty, he gave himfelf up to literary eafe, and rural retire- 

 ment, abandoning at once all intentions of adtive purfuits ; 

 hence his biographer jultly remarks, " that nothing is more 

 unfavourable to the exertion of thofe energies which lead to 

 a ufeful and honourable ilation in fociety, than the early pof- 

 feflion of a fortune juft fufficient to gratify prefent wifties, 

 and preclude the neceffity of immediate entrance into any vi- 

 gorous courfe of adion." An acquaintance which Shenftone 

 formed with Mr, Graves of Mickleton, in Gloucefterftiire, 



SHE 



infpired him with an affeftion for that gentleman's fitter j 

 but the paflion of love, which, in fome minds, operates as a 

 ftimulus to enterprize, feems to him to have wafted its force 

 on plaintive elegies, and other eftufions of fentimental 

 poetry. To one fpecies of employment, indeed, he was 

 probably animated by his vifit to Mr. Graves, — that of 

 rural embellilhment, — which he afterwards beftowed on his 

 favourite place of the Leafowes, with a tafte that conduced 

 more to his celebrity than his comfort. 



In 1737 he printed, but without his name, a fmall volume 

 of juvenile poems, which obtained fcarcely any notice. In 

 1740 he came to London, and was introduced to Dodfley, 

 who printed his poem of " The Judgment of Hercules," 

 dedicated to lord Littleton. This was followed by " The 

 School-mi ftrefs," of which the heroine was the village 

 dame already referred to. This is thought, by fome very 

 refpeclable critics, to ftand at the head of Shenftone's com- 

 pofitions. 



Shenftone, from this time, devoted himfelf to improving 

 the piAurefque beauties of the Leafowes, and fometime* 

 exercifing his pen in effufions of verfe and prole. The ce- 

 lebrity of this place led him into expences which his fortune 

 was unequal to, and he was perpetually under the prefture 

 of poverty ; which, with the deficiency of regular employ- 

 ment, and the perpetual defire of doing more, and appear- 

 ing better off, than his means admitted, preyed on his 

 fpirits, and rendered him the milcrable inhabitant of the 

 Eden which his tafte and genius had created. Grey has de- 

 fcribed him in the following fentence, which may in fome 

 refpefts be rather a caricature likenefs. " Poor man ! he 

 was always wiftung for money, for fame, and for other dif- 

 tinftions; and his whole philofophy confifted in living againft 

 his will in retirement, and in a place which his tafte had 

 adorned, but which he only enjoyed when people of note 

 came to fee and commend it." It has been thought a mat- 

 ter of furprize, confidering his connexions, that nothing was 

 done to place him in eafier circumftances. Apphcation was 

 faid to have been made to lord Bute ts procure him a pen- 

 fion from the privy purfe, but before the wifties of his 

 friends could be realized he died. This event took place 

 in February 1763, when he was in the 50th year of his 

 age : he was interred in the church-yard of Hales Owen. 



Of his poetical compofttions many were inlerted in Dodf- 

 ley's colleftion of original pieces ; and after his death, his 

 " Works in Verfe and Prole" were publilhed in two vols. 

 8vo. in 1764, and a third volume, confilling of " Letters," 

 was publilhed in 1769. " Of his poetry," fays the critic, 

 " the general opinion was almoft uniform ; it is regarded as 

 commonly elegant, melodious, tender, and correft in fen- 

 timent, and often pleafing and natural in defcription, but 

 verging to the languid and feeble, and never exhibiting 

 either the powers of the imagination, or the energy and 

 fplendour of diftion, that charaAerize compofttions of the 

 higher order. His profe writings difplay good fenfe and a 

 cultivated tafte, and contain juft and fometimes new and 

 acute obfervations on mankind." 



SHENUZ AN, in Geography, a town of Candahar ; 42 

 miles E. of Ghizni. 



SHEPEY, IJle of, an ifland within the liberty of the 

 fame, lathe of Sway, and county of Kent, England, is 

 fituated near the mouth of tlie river Thames, and is feparated 

 from the mainland by a narrow arm of the fea, called the 

 Swale, which bounds it on the fouth, while the elluary of 

 the Medway, and the German ocean, bound it on the well, 

 north, and eaft. It is uncertain by what name this ifland 

 was known to the Romans ; for though Ptolemy, in his 

 Geography, mentions two iflands in this part of Britain by 



the 



