Oldmixon, who was a Whig historian, if a violent party-writer ought ever to be dignified by so venerable a title,—unmercifully rigid to all other historians, was himself guilty of the crimes with which he so loudly accused others.-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1812-13, Authors by Profession, Calamities of Authors, note.

Oldmixon's assertion, unsupported by evidence, is of no weight whatever.MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1849, History of England, ch. xi, note.

His chief work was a history of the reign of the Stuarts in folio, a production which no doubt suggested to Hume the plan and title of his first two volumes. This work, although highly popular in its own time, has had little success with posterity. It wants fidelity, accuracy of research, a pleasing style and a philosophic tone; and it was no doubt a great encouragement to Hume that he had no more formidable rival than the imperfect volumes of Oldmixon.

A few

lines of bitter satire in the Dunciad have done more to preserve the name of John Oldmixon to posterity than all his own labored productions.-LAWRENCE, EUGENE, 1855, The Lives of the British Historians, vol. I, 322.

Oldmixon could do nothing but rant and abuse given to the world the worst history of England that ever was or is ever likely to be written. The student who resorts to his voluminous work for information rises from the perusal with disgust and wonder that a man who lived through a considerable part of the period he professes to pourtray, who was personally acquainted with many of the characters whose actions he undertakes to record, should have contented himself with drawing his materials wholly from

party squibs, without contributing one atom of intelligence upon matters which fell under his own observation, or making one comment which is not either extravagantly laudatory or extravagantly abusive. -WYON, FREDERICK WILLIAM, 1876, The History of Great Britain During the Reign of Queen Anne, vol. II, pp. 262, 327.

John Oldmixon, the pamphleteer, was a waspish person. He was continually attacking somebody, and even ventured to have his fling at Pope, who promptly gibbeted him in "The Dunciad." As he

was universally disliked, his verses were usually kept out of the miscellanies of the time; but from his little volume of poems in the manner of Anacreon, published in 1696, I have chosen some dainty trifles. -BULLEN, A. H., 1895, Musa Proterva, Preface, p. xii.

His historical work has little value now, and his main object in writing it was to promote the cause of the party. He never hesitated in attacking those on the other side, whether dead or living.-AITKEN, GEORGE A., 1895, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLII, p. 118.

Unfortunately, the great Whig historian and essayist sometimes allowed political bias to influence his brilliant literary productions; and he sacrificed accuracy to his love of rhetorical antithesis. Incomparably superior in attainments and character to Oldmixon (16731732), one of the heroes of the "Dunciad," both are remarkable for their overmastering spirit of Whig partisanship, though it is a degradation to Macaulay to imply a comparison in literary style with Oldmixon's dull, careless, and unveracious compilations.-AUBREY, W. H. S., 1896, The Rise and Growth of the English Nation, vol. III, p. 238.

PERSONAL

Our old friend Somerville is dead; I did not imagine I could have been so sorry as I find myself on this occasion. Sublatum fucerimus, I can now excuse all his foibles; impute them to age and to distressed circumstances. The last of these considerations wrings my very soul to think on; for a man of high spirit, conscious of having (at least in one production) generally pleased the world, to be plagued and threatened by wretches that are low in every sense; to be forced to drink himself into pains of the body in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a misery.-SHENSTONE, WILLIAM, 1742, Letters, p. 318.

Somerville was a handsome noisy squire, a strapping fellow six feet high, a hard rider, a crack shot. crack shot. No more characteristic specimen of the sporting country gentleman, pure and simple, could be imagined, or one less likely to develop into a poet. It was, in fact, not until fast living begun to break down his constitution that he took to literature as a consolation. One of his earliest exercises was an epistle addressed to Addison, who had bought a property in Warwickshire, and so had become Somerville's neighbour.GOSSE, EDMUND, 1880, English Poets, ed. Ward, vol. III, p. 189.

THE CHASE

1734

To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his subject, which is the first requisite to excellence; and though it is impossible to interest the common readers of verse in the dangers or pleasures of the chase, he has done all that transition and variety could easily effect; and has with great propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Somerville, Lives of the English Poets.

He is strictly and almost solely a descriptive poet; and his talent lies in delineating actual scenes with fidelity and spirit, adorning them with the beauties of diction, but leaving them to act upon the imagination by their own force, without aid from the creations of fancy. In clas

sical allusion he is not deficient, but it is of the more common kind; and little occurs in his writings that indicates a mind inspired by that exalted enthusiasm

which denotes the genius of superior rank. His versification is generally correct and well varied, and evidently flows from a nice and practised ear. His language is well suited to his subjects, rising and sinking with them, and free from that stiffness and affectation so commonly attendant upon blank verse. It more resembles that of Armstrong, than of Thomson or Akenside.-AIKIN, JOHN, 1820, A Critical Essay on Somerville's Poem of the Chase.

Somerville is best known by his poem, entitled the "Chase," which still has considerable popularity. It is written in blank verse, tolerably harmonious, and his descriptions, always accurate, from his own practical knowledge of his subject, are frequently vivid and beautiful.CLEVELAND, CHARLES D., 1848, A Compendium of English Literature, p. 431.

Somerville has the merit of being inspired by a genuine love for the subject. He writes directly from the testimony of his own eyes, and the impulses of his own heart. He has obviously had the mould of his poem suggested by Thomson's "Seasons, but it is the mould only; the thoughts and feelings which are poured into it are his own.-GILFILLAN, GEORGE, 1859, ed. Somerville Chase, p. 319.

This epic, which is in four books, discusses in its first part the origin of hunting, the economy of kennels, the physical and moral accomplishments of hounds, and the choosing of a good or bad scenting day. The second book, which possesses more natural language and a finer literary quality than the others, commences with directions for hare-hunting, and closes with a moral reproof of tyranny. In the third book hunting is treated from an antiquarian and an exotic standpoint, while the fourth deals with the breeding of hounds, their diseases and the diseases they cause, such as hydrophobia. It will hardly be guessed from such a sketch of the contents that "The Chase" is a remarkably readable and interesting poem: It is composed in blank verse that is rarely turgid and not very often flat, and the zeal and science of the author give a certain vitality to his descriptions which compels the reader's attention. People that have a practical knowledge of the matters. described confess that Somerville thoroughly understood what he was talking about, and that in his easy chair before the

in his head and it is not above six months ago that the king hated him so, that he would not suffer him to be one in his diversions at play. I think 'tis possible that sir Robert Walpole may make some use of him at first, and perhaps the other may have vanity enough to imagine that he may work himself up to be a great man; but that is too mad, I think, to be ever effected, because all the world except sir Robert abhors him, and notwithstanding all the mischiefs sir Robert has done the nation, and myself in particular, which people generally resent in the first place, I had much rather he should continue in power than my lord Hervey.MARLBOROUGH, SARAH JENNINGS DUCHESS, 1737, Opinions, ed. Hales, p. 44.

The last stages of an infirm life are filthy roads, and like all other roads I find the farther one goes from the capital the more tedious the miles grow and the more rough and disagreeable the way. I know of no turnpikes to mend them; medicine pretends to be such, but doctors who have the management of it, like the comissioners for most other turnpikes, seldom execute what they undertake: they only put the toll of the poor cheated passenger in their pockets, and leave every jolt at least as bad as they found it, if not worse. "May all your ways (as Solomon says of wisdom) be ways of pleasantness, and all your paths peace;" and when your dissolution must come may it be like that of your lucky workman. Adieu!-HERVEY, JOHN LORD, 1743, Letter to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, June 18.

You will see in the papers that Lord Hervey is dead-luckily, I think, for himself; for he had outlived his last inch of character.-WALPOLE, HORACE, 1743, To Sir Horace Mann, Aug. 14; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. 1, p. 264.

Beneath the effeminacy of the Maccaroni, Lord Hervey was one of the few who united to intense finery in every minute detail, an acute and cultivated intellect. To perfect a Maccaroni it was in truth advisable, if not essential, to unite some smattering of learning, a pretension to wit, to his super-dandyism; to be the author of some personal squib, or the translator of some classic. Queen Caroline was too cultivated herself to suffer fools about her, and Lord Hervey was a man after her own taste: as a courtier he

was essentially a fine gentleman; and, more than that, he could be the most delightful companion, the most sensible adviser, and the most winning friend in the court. His ill health, which he carefully concealed, his fastidiousness, his ultra delicacy of habits, formed an agreeable contrast to the coarse robustness of "Sir Robert," and constituted a relief after the society of the vulgar, strongminded minister, who was born for the hustings and the House of Commons rather than for the courtly drawing-room.— THOMSON, KATHARINE AND J. C. (GRACE AND PHILIP WHARTON), 1860, The Wits and Beaux of Society.

Hervey was a remarkable man. His physical frame was as feeble as that of Voltaire. He suffered from epilepsy and a variety of other ailments. He had to live mainly on a dietary of ass's milk. His face was so meagre and so pallid, or rather livid, that he used to paint and make up like an actress or a fine lady. Pope, who might have been considerate to the weak of frame, was merciless in his ridicule of Hervey. He ridiculed him as Sporus, who could neither feel satire nor sense, and as Lord Fanny. Yet Hervey could appreciate satire and sense; could write satire and sense. He was a man of very rare capacity. He had already distinguished himself as a debater in the House of Commons, and was afterwards to distinguish himself as a debater in the House of Lords. He wrote pretty verses and clever pamphlets, and he has left to the world a collection of "Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second," which will always be read for its vivacity, its pungency, its bitterness, and its keen, penetrating good-sense. Hervey succeeded in obtaining the hand of one of the most beautiful women of the day, the charming Mary Lepell, whose name has been celebrated in more than one poetical panegyric by Pope, and he captivated the heart of one of the royal princesses. The historical reader must strike a sort of balance for himself in getting at an estimate of Hervey's character. No man has been more bitterly denounced by his enemies or more warmly praised by his friends. MCCARTHY, JUSTIN, 1884, A History of the Four Georges, vol. 1.

We have said that Lord Hervey was a man of considerable parts, a wit, a ready

writer, a keen and amusing observer of character, but when this has been said all has been said. In a lax age his profligacy was notorious. He was a sceptic, and took the greatest delight in wounding the religious susceptibilities of those he came across. In his creed there was nothing great, nothing noble, nothing of good report; all was hollow, artificial, and insincere. As a necessary consequence of his distorted faith, he believed in nothing, except perhaps himself, and in nobody, except perhaps Queen Caroline. -EWALD, ALEXANDER CHARLES, 1885, Studies Re-Studied, p. 330.

His

Hervey was a clever and unprincipled man, of loose morals and sceptical opinions. He was an effective though somewhat pompous speaker, a ready writer, and a keen observer of character. wit and charm of manner made him a special favourite of women.-BARKER, G. F. RUSSELL, 1891, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXVI, p. 285.

As long as the loathsome traits which are delineated in the character of "Sporus" repel and sicken mankind, so long will the name of John Lord Hervey be infamous. Of the impotence of truth to contend with the fiction of so great an artist as Pope, the result of Mr. Croker's attempt to vindicate Hervey's fame is a striking illustration. In 1848 Mr. Croker published that nobleman's "Memoirs," prefixing an Introduction, in which he proved, as indeed the "Memoirs" themselves proved, that the original of Pope's picture was a man whose genius and temper had been cast rather in the mould of St. Simon and Tacitus than in that of the foppish and loathsome hermaphrodite with whom he had been associated. But the popular estimate of Hervey remains unchanged. He was "Sporus" to our ancestors, who had neither his "Memoirs" nor Mr. Croker's Introduction before them, and he is "Sporus" to us who have both, but who, unfortunately for Hervey, care for neither, and know Pope's verses by heart.-COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, The Porson of Shakspearian Criticism, Essays and Studies, p. 265.

One has certainly to fortify oneself by the recollection of Horace and his sic visum Veneri. Everything that one hears of the brilliant and cynical John Hervey, with his "coffin-face" and his painted

cheeks, his valetudinarian, anaemic beauty, and his notorious depravity of life, makes it difficult to understand what particular qualities in him-apart from opportunity and proximity-could possibly have attracted the affection of a young and a very charming woman, who was besides far in advance of her contemporaries in parts and education. Yet it must be remembered that "-when Hervey the handsome was wedded To the beautiful Molly Lepell"

(as the ballad has it), he was only fourand twenty.-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1896, Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Third Series, p. 301.

MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF
GEORGE II

Lord Hervey himself fairly admits that impartiality in such cases as his is not to be expected, and he justifies that confession to its fullest extent; but though we see that his colouring may be capricious and exaggerated-no one can feel the least hesitation as to the substantial and, as to mere facts, the minute accuracy of his narrative. He may, and I have no doubt too often does, impute a wrong motive to an act, or a wrong meaning to a speech; but we can have no doubt that the act or the speech themselves are related as he saw and heard them: and there are many indications that the greater part was written from day to day as the events occurred. I know of no such near and intimate picture of the interior of a court; no other memoirs that I have ever read bring us so immediately, so actually into not merely the presence, but the company of the personages of the royal circle. Lord Hervey is, may I venture to say, almost the Boswell of George II. and Queen Caroline-but Boswell without his good nature. He seems to have taken perhaps under the influence of that "wretched health" of which he so frequently complained—a morbid view of mankind, and to have had little of the milk of human kindness in his temper.CROKER, JOHN WILSON, 1848, ed., Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Prefatory and Biographical Notice, vol. 1, p. 49.

Lord Hervey, for we put aside his poetical effusions, gave to our own day a present which, one may say, has enriched the treasury of our social literature with