Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/76

 read several classical authors with him. With a view to paying off some debts which he had contracted with booksellers, he dedicated with satisfactory results an ‘Ode on Christmas Day’ to Sir Christopher Musgrave of Edenhall, Cumberland. Pattison was equally lucky in disposing of an ode to John Tufton, nephew of the Earl of Thanet. On 6 July 1724 he was admitted as a sizar at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge; but he did not find the life congenial, and in the summer of 1726 he cut his name out of the college books, in order, apparently, to avert its being erased, and commenced author in London. Although his prospects were not exhilarating, his first letters from London displayed a most sanguine temper (Letters prefixed to Poetical Works, 1728). He associated with Eusden, Harte, Concanen, and other wits of the town, and dated his letters from Button's. He collected his poems for publication, and Pope subscribed to the volume, though he excused himself from a personal introduction. But the appearance of the book was delayed, and Pattison, incapable of husbanding his small resources, was soon reduced to miserable poverty.

In a poem entitled ‘Effigies Authoris,’ addressed to Lord Burlington, the unfortunate poet described himself as passing the nights on a bench in St. James's Park. In his distress he put forth proposals for the immediate issue of his poems, and while he was transcribing them for the press Curll the bookseller gave him shelter in his house. According to Pope, Curll starved him to death (An Author to be Lett by Iscariot Hackney, i.e. Pope and Richard Savage, 1729, p. 3), but it is more correct to say that he saved him from starving. Pattison died of smallpox in Curll's house on 11 July 1727, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Clement Danes. He had not completed his twenty-first year.

In the year following the poet's premature death Curll issued ‘The Poetical Works of Mr. William Pattison, late of Sidney-Sussex College,’ London, 8vo; dedicated to the Earl of Peterborough, and with a distinguished list of subscribers. It contained a satirical piece called ‘College Life,’ an ambitious imitation of Pope, entitled ‘Abelard to Eloisa,’ a number of miscellaneous poems, frequently of an erotic tendency, and odes to various persons. Another volume appeared in the same year, entitled ‘Cupid's Metamorphosis, or Love in all Shapes, being the second and last volume of the Poetical Works of Mr. William Pattison,’ London, 8vo, with a portrait engraved by Foudrinière after J. Saunders. This comprises ‘Select Epistles from Ovid,’ ‘Laura, or the Mistress,’ and ‘Epigrams.’ A portrait was also engraved for Caulfield's ‘Memoirs’ (1819, ii. 142).

In his choice of subjects Pattison was influenced by Dr. Croxall, the author of the ‘Fair Circassian,’ but he also imitated Waller, Pope, and Gay, and his versification is generally good. His poems, however, are distinguished by little save precocity, the tone of which is not attractive. There is not much to sanction the comparison with Chatterton which has been made. Selections from Pattison's poems are printed in Pratt's ‘Cabinet of Poetry’ (1808, iii. 271), in Sanford's ‘British Poets’ (Philadelphia, 1819, xiii. 415), and in Park and Anderson's ‘British Poets;’ but they have not found favour with more recent anthologists.

[Life prefixed to Poetical Works, 1728; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. xxiv. 204; Lower's Sussex Worthies; Elwin and Courthope's Pope, vi. 133 and n.; Disraeli's Miscellanies of Literature, 1840, p. 91; Noble's Continuation of Granger, iii. 303; An Author to be Lett, 1729; Admission Book, Sidney-Sussex College; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

PATTON, GEORGE, (1803–1869), Scottish judge, third son of James Patton of the Cairnies, sheriff-clerk of Perthshire, was born at the Cairnies in 1803. He received the rudiments of his education at Perth, and proceeded thence to Oxford, where he does not seem to have matriculated. Returning to Scotland, he began his legal studies at Edinburgh University, and was admitted advocate in 1828. He made some figure at the bar as a pleader. But he was an ardent tory in politics, and it was not until Lord Derby's second government came into power in 1859 that Patton, after very many delays and disappointments, received official recognition. He then became solicitor-general for Scotland for a few weeks. In the spring of 1866 he entered the House of Commons as conservative member for Bridgewater, and a few weeks later, when Lord Derby's third administration was formed, he was made lord advocate. The appointment necessitated a new election at Bridgewater, and Patton was defeated by Mr. Vanderbyl. Reports were abroad that gross bribery had been practised at both these elections, and a commission was appointed to inquire into these charges. The dread of compromising disclosures preyed on Patton's mind, but he was relieved of the necessity of taking any part in the inquiry by becoming, in 1867, lord justice clerk. John Inglis (1810–1891) [q. v.] had resigned the post to take that of lord president. The choice of his successor lay with the lord advocate, and Patton conferred