EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
80:;
ererj benevolent emotion, be feelingly lamented the miseries of war; and so long as he could do it consistently with personal safety, he exercised the privilege of declaring his sentiments on every important subject with a boldness and freedom becoming a Briton; but always without descend- ing to licentiousness, or unbecoming personality. In the intercourse of business and of private life, he was actuated by similar principles, and by his talents,honesty, and benevolence, engaged the attachment of a numerous circle of friends. Mr. Hodgson died in the fortieth year of his age. Mrs. Sarah Hodgson, his widow, carried on Uie business until her death, which happened at Newcastle, Sept. 10, 1822, from wbicn time the Newcaitle Chronicle has been conducted by her sons, S. and T. Hodgson.
1800. Died, J. Waterwoth, printer and publisher of the Blackburn Mail.
1800. Died, Henry Spencer, bookseller, of Burnley, in Lancashire, aged fifty-eight years. Mr. Spencer was distinguished for eccentricity of character. His cofBu, which was made of wood of bis own growing, had been kept by him for several years prior to bis death.
1800, ^pril 25. Died, William Cowper, a distinguished English poet He was the son of Dr. Cowper, rector of Berkhampstead, where he was bom, November 2(}, I73I, and lost his mother when he was six years old. His consti- tution was remarkably delicate from his infancy, and his mind was so tender as to be easily de- pressed into melancholy. Being designed for the law, he was placed under an eminent attor- ney ; on quitting whom he entered of the inner temple, where he renewed an intimacy with his school-fellows, Colman Thornton, and Lloyd, and contributed three papers to the Connoisseur. At the age of thirty-one, he was nominated a clerk in the house of lords ; but an unconquer- able timidity prevented him from taking it. He was next appointed clerk of the journals, a situ- ation which, it was supposed, would require no personal attendance ; but an occasion occurring which rendered it necessary for the clerk to ap- pear at the bar of the house, it had such an effect on his nerves, that he was obligred to resign the place. A morbid melancholy seized him, and it was found necessary to place him under the care of Dr. Cotton,* at St. Albans. By the care of that benevolent physician he re- covered his mental faculties ; and from this time his ideas of religion were changed to a system of serenity. In 1763, he settled at Hunting- don, where he formed an acquaintance with a clergyman of the name of Unwin, in whose family he became an inmate. That gentleman being killed by a fall from his horse in 1767, Cowper and Mrs. Unwin went and settled at Olney, in Buckinghamshire, where they con-
- Nathaniel Cotton waa an eminent physician and poet,
who kept an asylum for lunatics many yean at St. Albans, where he died at a very advanced age, Aug. 3, 1798. He wrote riiuMU in Vent for Youagtr Hindt ; which have iMca freqDently printed. He was also the author of poems in Oodsley'i collection.
tracted an intimacy with Mr. Newton, then curate of that parish. To a collection of hymns published by that gentleman ourpoet contributed sixty-eight. In 1782 appeared a volume of his poems, which did not excite much attention ; but the second volume, in 1785, stamped his reputation as a fiist-rate poet, particularly by that exquisite piece The Tatk. Lady Austin, for whom the poet had a tender regard, being a p^eat admirer of Milton, reouested him to try his powers in blank verse ; and on his asking her for a subject, she said, " Oh, you can write upon any ; let it be this sofa." Thus originated one of the finest poems in our language. The same lady was also the occasion of the popular ballad of John Gilpin, which story she related to amuse Cowper in one of his gloomy moments ; and it had such an effect upon him that he turned it into verse. About this time he engaged in translating Homer into Miltonic verse ; and though the version is not so pleasing as that of Pope, it exhibits more of the original. In 1786, he removed to Weston, in Northamptonshire, with Mrs. Unwin, whom he regarded as a mother. After the publication of his Homer, he was per- suaded to undertake the life of Milton, and a complete edition of his poetical works. Mr. Hayley* was engaged in a similar design, which produced an intimacy between them, which con- tinued till Cowper's death. To this friendship, the public is indebted for a biography, minute, elegant, and highly instructive, as can seldom be expected. In 1794, bis majesty granted him a pension of £300 per annum, but the royal bounty yielded pleasure only to his friends, for he was now in a state of complete dejection, from which he never fully emerged. He continued, however, occasionally to write, and also finished a revisal of his Homer, which has since been printed. This amiable man, and extraordinary genius, died at Dereham, in Norfolk, and lies buried in the parish church, where a monument is erected to his memory. " The language of Cowper," says Campbell, "has such a masculine idiomatic strength, and bis manner, whether he rises into grace, or falls into negligence, has so much plain and familiar freedom, that we read no poetry with a deeper conviction of its senti- ments having come from the author's heart; and of the enthusiasm, in whatever he describes, having been unfeigned. He blends the determi- nation of age with an exquisite and ingenious sensibility ; and though he sports very much with his subjects, yet when he is in earnest, there is a gravity of long-felt conviction in his sentiments, which giyes an uncommon ripeness of character to his poetry."
- William Hayley, author of the Triumpha of Temper,
and other poems, was born at Chichester, Oct. 39, 1745, and died at Felpham, Nov. 13, 1830. In bis Life of Cow- per, which he published in 1803, he gave the first example of a species of biographical composition which seems to he now acknowledged as in some respects the best. The subject of the memoir was caused to display his own character, and to commemorate many biographical inci- dents by his letters — tbe biographer supplying only such a slender thread of narrative, as was snfflcient to connect the whole, and to render it intcUigiblc.
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