Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/102

, he was nominated to the office of treasurer of Chelsea Hospital in 1752; a sinecure, which, in addition to one of the lucrative clerkships of the privy council, enabled him to pass in affluence and ease a life too short for the wishes of his friends. Grief for the loss of an only son provoked a stroke of the palsy, which brought him to the grave, Anno Domini 1756.

James Thomsonson of a dissenting minister in Scotland. Soon after his arrival in London, he was engaged as travelling tutor to the son of Chancellor Talbot, by whom he was made secretary of the briefs. On the death of his patron, our poet, was either too proud or too timid to solicit a continuance of the employment, and his affairs again fell into a poetical posture. By the recommendation of George Lord Lyttelton, he obtained a pension of one hundred pounds per annum from Frederic Prince of Wales; and under the same influence gained the appointment of surveyor-general of the Leeward-Islands. As a poet, he may almost be styled the child of nature; when we read his 'Seasons,' we see around us all that he describes, and wonder that the view has so long escaped us. Obiit 1748. Æt. 47.

Over the bookcases are four good marble Busts, by Shremaker, representing Milton, Shakespeare,