Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/83

 10 S. XL JAN. 23, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

company met to hear the news, and discuss j the politics of the day. Graves had met Shenstone and Whistler in all the sets except that of the water-drinkers, but they did not seem in their element with any set.

The more familiar acquaintance of all three began at a breakfast by Shenstone. It was a protracted meeting, and the first of many. At last they came together every day, morning and evening, in each other's chambers, reading " plays and poetry, Spectators or Tatlers, and other works of easy digestion, and sipping Florence wine." They were soon considered " a dangerous triumvirate," and accused of penning sati- rical characters of their neighbours.

Whistler was described at that time as " a young man of great delicacy of senti- ment." Twenty years later he lived " in elegant style, and evinced a refined taste and softness of manners." A pleasing little touch of Gilbertian humour is recorded by Graves (p. 119). Shenstone is depicted as moralizing (during a journey in the Eastern counties of England) at the sight of some cottages " where all the unambitious people are warm and happy or at rest in their beds," and contrasting their condition with that of those in the higher circles of life. " Ah," said Whistler, " some of them are as wretched as princes, for what we know to the con- trary." While at Oxford he published with- out his name, in 1736, " The Shuttlecock, an heroi-comical poem in four canto's " (sic), which was prompted by his favourite poem, Pope's ' Rape of the Lock.' He wrote a great part of a tragedy on the story of Dido, and left other manuscripts which, in the opinion of Graves, " would be no discredit to his memory." When Shenstone was engaged "in a poetical contest with some writers in The Gentleman's Magazine against enigmas or riddles," he called to his assistance Whistler, Graves, and one or two others.

Like most other young men of means at that period, Whistler did not take a degree at the University. He lived in retirement on his estate at Whitchurch, with a visit to London in most years, and with an occa- sional journey to Oxford or Bristol. He had been to the latter city in April, 1754, and meditated a trip to Shenstone at the Leasowes in the summer. His fatal illness he suffered much from gout before began " with a sore throat, which continued for some days without any apparent symp- toms of danger." He was thought, indeed, to be getting better, but he was seized by " a mortification in his inside which the power of art " could not stop. He died

on the 10th of May, 1754, and was buried at Whitchurch on 17 May, his Christian name being then spelt as Anthony.

The letter, dated 26 May, from John Whist - er to Shenstone, on the death of his brother, s given in Hull's ' Select Letters,' ii. 81-3. The news was received with deep regret. Their " little strifes and bickerments "' were mentioned by Shenstone in his letter ne hastened to add that they " fondly loved and esteemed each other." " The trium- virate which was the greatest happiness and the greatest pride of my life is broken. . . . . ' Tales animas oportuit esse Concordes " was his reflection. All the works that had been executed at the Leasowes had been carried out with Whistler's " approbation and amusement in my eye," and he would " inscribe the larger urn to his memory." The original of this communication is among the MSS. of the late Mr. Alfred Morrison; it is printed in the catalogue of his collec- tion, vi. 124, and in Shenstone's works, iii. 262-3.
 * o Graves on the death of their friend, but

Many letters from Whistler to Shenstone are printed by Thomas Hull in his volumes (i. 102-6, 131-4, 160-63 ; ii. 22-62), and one from Shenstone to him is contained in them (ii. 15-19). Shenstone was anxious that his letters to Whistler should be preserved, but they were destroyed by John Whistler, whom Graves described as a sensible man,

bred a merchant," but one who " enter- tained no very high idea of that sentimental intercourse." He sent Shenstone a ring in remembrance of his brother, but the gift was deemed an " inadequate memorial of their friendship." Johnson condemned the burning of these letters, as " Shenstone was a man whose correspondence was an honour " (' Tour to the Hebrides,' 29 Sept.).

Anne, the widow of the Prebendary and the mother of the poet, was married by licence at Whitchurch on 15 Feb., 1725/6, to the Rev. Samuel Walker, the Rector of the parish from 1723 to 1768. She died on 17 Aug., 1753, aged 62, and was buried on 24 August. He survived until 14 March, 1768, and was buried on 21 March. The son of Henry Walker, he was born at Stafford in December, 1690, and was educated at Eton under the Rev. John Newborough, being probably the Walker entered in the 1707 list. He was admitted pensioner at Trinity CoUege, Cambridge, on 10 Aug., 1708, where the Rev. Thomas Pilgrim was his tutor, and Scholar on 22 April, 1710. His degrees were B.A. 1712, M.A. 1716 ; and he became Minor Fellow on 3 Oct., 1715, and Major