a friend, on his leaving a favourite village in Hampshire." Both were
written on the occasion of his brother's absence, who had gone in the
train of the Duke of Bolton to France. One motive, on which he went,
would not now be thought quite creditable to a clergyman. It was that he
might be at hand to join the Duke in marriage to his mistress, as soon
as the Duchess, who was far gone in a dropsy, should be no more. Warton
set out reluctantly, but with the hope that he might benefit his family
by compliance. He had not been away five months, when the impatience for
home came on him so strongly, that he quitted Montauban, where the Duke
was residing, and made his way towards England by such conveyances as he
could meet with; at one time in a courier's cart; at another, in the
company of carriers who were travelling in Britanny. Thus he scrambled
on to Bourdeaux, and till he reached St. Malo's, where he took ship and
landed at Southampton. When he had been returned a month the Duchess
died. He then asked permission to go back, and perform the marriage
ceremony; but the chaplain of the embassy at Turin was already on his
way for that purpose.

He was now once more at Wynslade, restored to a domestic life, and the
uninterrupted pursuit of his studies. Before going abroad, he had
published (in 1749) his Ode on West's translation of Pindar; and after
his return, employed himself in writing papers, chiefly on subjects of
criticism, for the Adventurer, and in preparing for the press an edition
of Virgil, which (in 1753) he published, together with Pitt's
translation of the Aeneid, his own of the Eclogues and Georgies, his
notes on the whole, and several essays. The book has been found useful
for schools; and was thought at the time to do him so much credit, that
it obtained for him the degree of Master of Arts by diploma from the
University of Oxford, and no doubt was instrumental in recommending him
to the place of second master of Winchester School, to which he was