reparation. In time his expenses brought clamours about him that
overpowered the lamb's bleat and the linnet's song, and his groves
were haunted by beings very different from fauns and fairies. He
spent his estate in adorning it, and his death was probably hastened
by his anxieties. He was a lamp that spent its oil in blazing. It
is said that, if he had lived a little longer, he would have been
assisted by a pension: such bounty could not have been ever more
properly bestowed; but that it was ever asked is not certain; it is
too certain that it never was enjoyed. He died at Leasowes, of a
putrid fever, about five on Friday morning, February 11, 1763, and
was buried by the side of his brother in the churchyard of Hales-
Owen.

He was never married, though he might have obtained the lady,
whoever she was, to whom his "Pastoral Ballad" was addressed. He is
represented by his friend Dodsley as a man of great tenderness and
generosity, kind to all that were within his influence; but, if once
offended, not easily appeased; inattentive to economy, and careless
of his expenses; in his person he was larger than the middle-size,
with something clumsy in his form; very negligent of his clothes,
and remarkable for wearing his grey hair in a particular manner, for
he held that the fashion was no rule of dress, and that every man
was to suit his appearance to his natural form. His mind was not
very comprehensive, nor his curiosity active; he had no value for
those parts of knowledge which he had not himself cultivated. His
life was unstained by any crime. The "Elegy on Jesse," which has
been supposed to relate an unfortunate and criminal amour of his
own, was known by his friends to have been suggested by the story of
Miss Godfrey in Richardson's "Pamela."