"How soft the first ideas prove Which wander through our minds ! Which swiftly passing, all grows fair, The gently-rising hill of Time, From whence with grief we see that prime, And all its sweetness end. "The die now cast, our station known, Fond expectation past; The thorns which former days had sown, "Whilst ev'ry care 's a driving harm, That helps to bear us down; Which faded smiles no more can charm, But ev'ry tear 's a winter-storm, And ev'ry look's a frown!" Lady Winchelsea is principally known as a poetess from her apologue of "The Atheist and Acorn," which, with a " Nocturnal Reverie," was printed in Ritson's English Anthology, vol. ii. Her ladyship obtained the good will of Pope, who addressed a copy of verses to her, which drew forth an elegant replication, printed in Cibber's Lives, vol. iii.] JOHN SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. THE life of this peer takes up fourteen pages and a half in folio in the General Dictionary, where it has little pretensions to occupy a couple. But his pious relict was always purchasing places for him, herself, and their son, in every suburb of the temple of fame-a tenure, against which, of all others, quo-warrantos are sure to take place. The author of the article in the Dictionary calls the duke "one of the most beautiful prose-writers and greatest poets of this age ;" which is also, he says, proved by the finest writers, his cotemporaries-certificates, that have little weight, where the merit is not proved by the author's own works3. It 2 [Catharine, a natural daughter of James the second. This lady applied to Pope to draw her husband's character, which he declined; but he composed, probably at her solicitation, a very fine epitaph for her son. See Warburton's edit. of Pope, vol. vi. p. 223, and vol. ix. p. 107.] 3 [Dunton says he had a piercing wit, a quick apprehension, an unerring judgment; that he understood critically the delicacies of poetry, and was as a great judge as a patron of learning. Life and Errors, p. 422.] |