The UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE for APRIL, 1793.

241

MEMOIRS of the LIFE of the Reverend JOHN DYER, LL. B. With a fine Portrait of that eminent Poet.

Of the education of our poet it is only known, that he finifhed his fchool ftudies at Weftminster, under the tuition of Dr. Friend. Hence he was called home, to be inftructed in his father's profeffion. But his father died foon after; and having been ever fond of amufing himself with drawing, and entertaining, moreover, a great diflike to the fludies of the law, he determined to embrace a profeffion more congenial to his tale. With this view, he became the pupil of Mr. Richardfon of Lincoln's-innfields; an artist of confiderable reputation then, although now better known by his books than by his pic

tures.

tions. The principal beauties of his Ruins of Rome are perhaps of this kind; and the various rural landscapes in his Fleece have been particularly admired.

He returned to England in 1740, and then published the Ruins of Rome. It does not appear that he made much ufe of his acquifitions, whatever they were, as a painter. He foon found that he could not relish a town life. He had naturally a fondnefs for books, for folitude, and reflection; and as he now experienced fome degree of ill-health, he could not fubmit to the affiduity which his prefent profeffion required. As the turn of his mind too was rather ferious, and his behaviour and conduct had been irreproachable, he was advised by his friends to enter into holy orders; and it may be prefumed, that, although his education had not been regular, he found no difficulty in obtaining them. He was ordained by the bishop of Lincoln, and had the degree of bachelor of laws conferred upon him.

Having fludied, fome time, under his mafter, he became (as he him- About the fame time, he married felf obferves, in his letter to the Rev. a lady of Coleshill in Warwickshire. J. Duncombe) an itinerant painter in Her name was Enfor. Her grandhis native country, South Wales, and mother,' he obferves, in the letter in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, &c. already quoted, was a Shakspeare, At the fame time, he cultivated a defcended from a brother of every poetical talent; and, in the year 1727, body's Shakspeare.' His ecclefiaftical printed his Grongar Hill in Lewis' provifion was, for a long time, but Mifcellany. Being probably diffatif- flender. In the year 1741, his firit fied with his own proficiency, he made patron, Mr. Harper, gave him the the tour of Italy. In that favourite living of Catthorpe in Leicestershire, feat of the mufes, befide the ufual of about eighty pounds a year. ftudy of the remains of ancient mag- This he quitted, in 1751, for Belchnificence, and the works of the great ford, a mall living of feventy-five mafters, he frequently fpent whole pounds a year, which was given him days in the country in the vicinity of by the lord chancellor, through the Rome and Florence; sketching with intereft of David Wray, efq. one of facility and spirit the most picturefque the deputy tellers of the exchequer, a and beautiful views. The images friend to virtue and the mufes. A which these exhibited, he naturally year after, through the fame intereft, transferred into his poetical compofi- fir John Heathcote, of Normanton, in

VOL. XCII.

Letters by feveral eminent Perfons deceased, 2 vols.
Hh

Rutland

Rutlandfhire, prefented him with the living of Coningsby, near Horncastle, in Lincolnshire; and, in 1756, that worthy baronet, without any folicitation, procured for him, from the lord chancellor, the living of Kirkby, in the neighbourhood of Coningsby. The latter was worth one hundred and forty pounds a year, and the annual value of Kirkby was one hundred and ten pounds. But he was at firft, a lofer by the exchange of Belchford for Coningsby, on account of the repairs of the parfonage house, and the expences of the feal, difpenfations, journeys, &c.

In 1757, he published The Fleece, his greatest poetical work. In this he did not forget fome grateful ef fufions to his generous patrons:

Now, of the fever'd lock, begin the fong,
With various numbers, through the fim-
ple theme

To win attention: this, ye fhepherd fwains,
This is a labour. Yet, O Wray, if thou
Ceafe not with skilful hand to point her

way,

The lark-wing'd mufe, above the graffy vale,

And hills, and woods, fhall, finging, foar

aloft ;
And he, whom Learning, Wildom, Can-

dour grace,
Who glows with all the virtues of his fire,
Royston approve, and patronize the strain.
Book II.

*

And thou, the friend of every virtuous

deed

And aim, though feeble, fhalt thefe rural lays

Approve, O Heathcote, whofe benevo

lence

Vifits our vallies; where the pafture

fpreads,

And where the bramble; and would justly

act

True charity, by teaching idle Want
And Vice the inclination to do good,
Good to themselves, and in themselves to
all,

Through grateful toil.

Book III.

But he did not long furvive this publication, nor the increase of his preferments. He had long ftruggled

with a confumptive diforder, which terminated in his diffolution, in the year 1758. He left four children; the youngest of which, a boy, was eight years of age, at the time of his father's death.

Speaking of our author's poetical talents, Dr. Johnson obferves, that he was not a poet of bulk or dignity fufficient to require an elaborate criticifm. Grongar Hill,' he continues, is the happieft of his productions. It is not, indeed, very accurately written; but the fcenes which it dif plays are fo pleafing, the images which they raise fo welcome to the mind, and the reflections of the writer fo confonant to the general fenfe or experience of mankind, that when it is once read, it will be read again.

The idea of The Ruins of Rome ftrikes more, but pleafes lefs; and the title raises greater expectation than the performance gratifies. Some paffages, however, are conceived with the mind of a poet; as when, in the neighbourhood of dilapidating edi fices, he fays,

At dead of night

The pilgrim oft, 'mid his orifons, hears,
Aghaft, the voice of time-difparting towers.

• Of The Fleece, which never became popular, and is now univerfally neglected, I can fay little that is likely to recall it to attention. The woolcomber and the poet appear to me fuch difcordant natures, that an attempt to bring them together is to couple the ferpent with the fowl. When Dyer, whofe mind was not unpoetical, has done his utmost by interefting his reader in our native commodity, by interfperfing rural imagery, and incidental digreffions, by clothing fmall images in great words, and by all the writer's arts of delufion, the meannefs naturally adhering, and the irreverence habitually annexed, to trade and manufacture, fink him under infuperable oppreffion; and the difguft which

* The late earl of Hardwicke, then viscount Royfton, fon of the lord chancellor.

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