Of Mr. Somervile's life I am not able to say anything that can
satisfy curiosity. He was a gentleman whose estate lay in
Warwickshire; his house, where he was born in 1693, is called
Edston, a seat inherited from a long line of ancestors; for he was
said to be of the first family in his county. He tells of himself
that he was born near the Avon's banks. He was bred at Winchester
school, and was elected fellow of New College. It does not appear
that in the places of his education he exhibited any uncommon proofs
of genius or literature. His powers were first displayed in the
country, where he was distinguished as a poet, a gentleman, and a
skilful and useful justice of the peace.

Of the close of his life, those whom his poems have delighted will
read with pain the following account, copied from the "Letters" of
his friend Shenstone, by whom he was too much resembled:--

"--Our old friend Somervile is dead! I did not imagine I could have
been so sorry as I find myself on this occasion. Sublatum
quaerimus. I can now excuse all his foibles; impute them to age,
and to distress of circumstances: the last of these considerations
wrings my very soul to think on. For a man of high spirit conscious
of having (at least in one production) generally pleased the world,
to be plagued and threatened by wretches that are low in every
sense; to be forced to drink himself into pains of the body, in
order to get rid of the pains of the mind is a misery."--He died
July 19, 1742, and was buried at Wotton, near Henley on Arden.

His distresses need not be much pitied: his estate is said to be