William Shenstone, the son of Thomas Shenstone and Anne Pen, was
born in November, 1714, at the Leasowes in Hales-Owen, one of those
insulated districts which, in the division of the kingdom, was
appended, for some reason not now discoverable, to a distant county;
and which, though surrounded by Warwickshire and Worcestershire,
belongs to Shropshire, though perhaps thirty miles distant from any
other part of it. He learned to read of an old dame, whom his poem
of the "Schoolmistress" has delivered to posterity; and soon
received such delight from books, that he was always calling for
fresh entertainment, and expected that, when any of the family went
to market, a new book should be brought him, which, when it came,
was in fondness carried to bed and laid by him. It is said, that,
when his request had been neglected, his mother wrapped up a piece
of wood of the same form, and pacified him for the night. As he
grew older, he went for a while to the Grammar-school in Hales-Owen,
and was placed afterwards with Mr. Crumpton, an eminent schoolmaster
at Solihul, where he distinguished himself by the quickness of his
progress.

When he was young (June, 1724) he was deprived of his father, and
soon after (August, 1726) of his grandfather; and was, with his
brother, who died afterwards unmarried, left to the care of his
grandmother, who managed the estate.

From school he was sent in 1732 to Pembroke College in Oxford, a
society which for half a century has been eminent for English poetry
and elegant literature. Here it appears that he found delight and