SHERBORNE, a market-town of England, Dorsetshire, VOL. XX.
English poetry, and in 1737 published a small Miscellany, without his name. He published, in 1741, his Judgment of Hercules, addressed to Mr Lyttleton, whose interest he supported with great warmth at an election. This was afterwards followed by the Schoolmistress in 1742, unquestionably Shenstone's best poem. Gray said of it, in a letter to Walpole, that it was "excellent of its kind, and masterly." Now began his delight in rural pleasures, and his passion for rural elegance; but in time his expenses occasioned clamours that overpowered the bleat of the lamb and the song of the linnet, and his groves were haunted by beings very different from fauns or fairies. He spent his estate in adorning it, and his death was probably hastened by his anxieties. It is said, that if he had lived a little longer, he would have been assisted by a pension. He died at the Leasowes, of a putrid fever, on the 11th of February 1763.
In his private opinions Shenstone adhered to no particular sect, and hated all religious disputes. Tenderness, in every sense of the word, was his peculiar characteristic; and his friends, domestics, and poor neighbours, daily experienced the effects of his benevolence. This virtue he carried to an excess that seemed to border upon weakness; yet if any of his friends treated him ungenerously, he was not easily reconciled. On such occasions, however, he used to say, "I never will be a revenging enemy; but I cannot, it is not in my nature, to be half a friend." If we consider the perfect paradise into which he had converted his estate, the hospitality with which he lived, his charities to the indigent, and all out of an estate that did not exceed £300 a-year, one should rather wonder that he left anything behind him, than blame his want of economy. He yet left more than sufficient to pay all his debts, and by his will appropriated his whole estate to that purpose. Shenstone never married. His works have been published by Dodsey, in three volumes 8vo. The first volume contains his poetical works, which are particularly distinguished by an amiable elegance and beautiful simplicity; the second volume contains his prose works; the third his letters and other pieces. His life has been written by Johnson in his Lives of the Poets. (See Cunningham's Edition, 1854.) There is likewise an edition of his poetical works, published in Edinburgh in 1854, with a biography.
on the slope of a hill in the fertile valley of Blackmore, watered by a branch of the Yeo, 18 miles N. by W. of Dorset, and 117 S.W. by W. of London. It is compactly built, has some ancient houses, and several handsome public buildings. Among the latter is the parish church, formerly a cathedral, built at various dates, and in various styles. It has recently been restored at great expense, and it has a very fine tower in the Norman style, with a ponderous bell, presented by Cardinal Wolsey. Near the church are the handsome town-hall, the market-house, and the free grammar-school, which occupies some of the buildings of the old abbey restored. This school was founded by Edward VI., in 1550; it has an endowment of £1000 a-year, and several exhibitions at the universities. It contained, in 1854, 109 scholars. There are various other schools in the town, also places of worship for Wesleyans, Quakers, and Independents, the last a very handsome edifice. In the vicinity stands Sherborne Lodge, or Castle, the seat of the Earl of Digby, originally built by Sir Walter Raleigh. The remains of the Castle of Sherborne, which was demolished in the time of the Commonwealth, occupy a rocky hill at the east end of the town. Many of the inhabitants are employed in sewing gloves for manufacturers in Yeovil; and there are large silk-mills, which employ a considerable number of hands. The town is ancient, having existed in the time of the Saxons, when it was the seat of a bishop, subsequently removed to Old Sarum, and still later to Salisbury. The strength of its castle made it a place of importance in the various civil wars of the middle ages. Its staple manufacture was at one time woollen cloth, after that buttons and haberdashery, now silk. Pop. 3878.