college, a discreet and grave divine, was observed in his garden one afternoon, wreaking his wrath on the shattered remains of his once proud rival, "throwing stones at the windows with much satisfaction, as if happy to contribute his share in completing the appearance of its ruin." This extraordinary act, Warton calmly styles "a striking instance of zeal for his college."
In 1764, was published "The Oxford Sausage, or Select Poetical Pieces written by the most celebrated wits of the University of Oxford," to which our poet was one of the principal contributors.
His studies having been mainly directed to the early English writers, an extensive and interesting field of research at that time comparatively neglected; he, this year, gave to the world the first volume of his "History of English Poetry," a valuable production which, though convicted of some inaccuracies, at once filled a void and occupied a position in English literature which succeeding and rival publications have only tended to confirm. A second and third volume were published, at intervals of four and three years, bringing the work down to the reign of Elizabeth; but a fourth and fifth volume, which were to continue the history to the eighteenth century were never composed. The somewhat abrupt termination of the design has been regretted as the effect of indolence. It might have been, the author felt a growing incapacity for the task.
Warton was a scholar and an antiquarian. To such a man, old books, written in an obsolete style, afforded positive pleasure. The difficulties that deterred ordinary readers were a fascination to him and who so capable as he to estimate the worth of those antique effusions, and to assign them their deserved position in the scale of literary merit? But when the language had undergone a significant transmutation, and other principles were at
