Colley Cibber. A common friend of Young and Cibber was Samuel Richardson, who corresponded with him from 1744 to 1759. A ‘Caroline’ mentioned in these letters was apparently Miss (called Mrs.) Hallows, daughter of Daniel Hallows, rector of All Hallows, Hertfordshire. Her father died in 1741, when Young wrote an epitaph placed in the chancel of the church (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 501). The daughter became Young's housekeeper, and, as his friends thought, came to have too great power in the family. Young and his housekeeper were caricatured in a rubbishy novel called ‘The Card’ by John Kidgell [q. v.] In 1753 Young brought out the tragedy of ‘The Brothers,’ written many years before, and suppressed when he took orders and thought that play-writing was not consistent with his new profession. He now proposed to give the profits to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It was played at Drury Lane on 3 March 1753, and ran eight nights, but produced only 400l. Young, who had anticipated 1,000l., liberally paid the full sum to the society (Richardson, Correspondence, vi. 246). He afterwards wrote ‘The Centaur not Fabulous’ (1754), a kind of ‘Night Thought’ in prose; and a letter (to Richardson) upon ‘Original Composition’ (1759) which shows remarkable vivacity for a man of nearly eighty. This book was much admired by Klopstock and his friends, who were beginning to aim at originality (see Gervinus, Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 1853, iv. 332). Archbishop Secker, in a letter of July 1758 (printed by Croft), wonders that Young had received no preferment; but points out to him that his fortune and reputation put him above the need of it, and judiciously infers that he is too wise to feel concern for such things. In 1761 he was appointed ‘clerk of the closet’ to the princess dowager in succession to Stephen Hales [q. v.] In October 1761 his old friend Dodington (Lord Melcombe), who also had at last got his reward by a peerage, sent him an ode full of most edifying sentiments. In 1762 Mrs. Boscawen, who had found consolation for the loss of her husband, Admiral Edward Boscawen (1711–1761) [q. v.], in her perusal of ‘Night Thoughts,’ was introduced by Mrs. Montagu to the author. He administered further consolation in person and by his last publication, a poem called ‘Resignation.’ It shows the decay of his power. Young's last years were melancholy. He was never cheerful, as his son told Johnson, after the death of his wife. Details of his growing infirmity are given in the correspondence with Birch of his last curate, John Jones (1700–1770) [q. v.] Jones was persuaded to stay on with him, though complaining a good deal of the old man's irritability and the influence of Mrs. Hallows. Young's only son had been educated at Winchester, and was afterwards at Balliol, where he seems to have got into trouble (Biogr. Brit.). Young had refused to see him for many years. In Young's last illness, however, Mrs. Hallows properly sent for the son. The father was then too ill to see him, but sent a message of forgiveness, and left to him the bulk of his property. Young died on 5 April 1765. He left a legacy of 1,000l. to Mrs. Hallows, one to ‘his friend Henry Stevens, a hatter at the Temple Gate,’ and a third to Jones, who was one of his executors. He also left directions, which were apparently not executed, that all his papers should be destroyed. Young had built a steeple to his church (Richardson, Corresp. ii. 19), and had founded a charity school in the parish. The life in the ‘Biographia Britannica’ asserts that proper respect was not paid at his funeral by the parishioners, who were not sufficiently appreciative of their rector's merits. Jones, however (Lit. Anecd. i. 634), says that he was ‘decently buried’ under the communion table near his wife, with a proper attendance of the clergy.
Few anecdotes are told of Young's personal habits. A story told by Pope (Works, x. 261) is supposed to apply to him, and to illustrate the absence of mind for which he was famous. He is said in the ‘Biographia’ to have spent many hours a day ‘among the tombs,’ which is perhaps an inference from his poetry; and he put up an alcove in his garden, where a bench was painted so as to produce an illusion of reality. Under it was inscribed Invisibilia non decipiunt. He did better by planting a fine avenue of lime trees in the rectory garden, which still thrives. On 30 Sept. 1781 it formed a ‘handsome Gothic arch,’ much admired by Johnson and Boswell. The house in which he lived (not the rectory) remains, and his writing-desk is shown there. The house was in 1781 occupied by Young's son, to whom Johnson said, ‘I had the honour to know that great man your father.’ Johnson, however, seems only to have met him at Richardson's house to discuss the letter upon ‘Original Composition.’ Owing to Young's retirement in later years he had passed out of the personal knowledge of most literary contemporaries. His poetry had become very popular, and he is mentioned with reverence by literary ladies such as Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Delany.
