OSEPH SPENCE was born at Kingsclere, Hants, on the 25th day of April, 1699. His father, whose name was also Joseph, was Rector of Winnal near Winchester, and afterwards of Ulverstoke in the same county. I believe he died in 1721. By the mother's side Spence was descended from the Neville family, she was a granddaughter of Sir Thomas Lunsford, her maiden name was Mirabella Collier. Young Spence, whose birth was premature, and who was but a sickly boy, was taken under the protection of Mrs. Fawkener, an opulent relation, and was educated under her eye, until he had reached his tenth year, when he was sent to a school at Mortimer in Berkshire, kept by Mr. Haycock; from thence he went to Eton College, which he left in a short time, for some unknown cause;* and went to that of * There is some reason to think that he may have been disgusted with the severity of the school discipline at that time, when Dr. George was master, and Dr. Cooke (afterwards provost,) propositor. Cole, in a letter to Horace Walpole, among his papers in the British Museum, adverts to a piece of waggery on the part of Spence, which, if true, gives some colour to the supposition. He says that the vignette at the end of the 17th dialogue in the first edition of Polymetis, contains a caricature of Dr. Cooke, under the character of a Pedagogue with an Ass's head. The resemblance of Provost Cooke's features to those of the Ass, are said to have been too striking not to be instantly perceived by those who knew him. It is but justice to add, that though Cooke was a strict disciplinarian, he was nevertheless not deserving of the satire, if it is true that it was levelled at him, which, after all, when Winchester, where he continued until he became a member of New College, Oxford, in 1720. He had been previously entered at Magdalen Hall in the year 1717. His benefactress had fully intended that he should have been amply provided for by her will, but from the neglect or delay of the person employed to draw it up, she died, in 1714, before it was executed, and Spence lost at once his friend and the prospect of succeeding to an estate of £600 a year. He was then too young to have felt his loss very poignantly, and it is said, that in his after life, he used rather to rejoice at it as an escape, saying, that it might have made him idle and vicious to have been rendered independent of exertion at that age. In 1722 he became fellow of New College. In 1724* he entered into Holy Orders, and took the degree of A.M. November 2, 1727. And in the succeeding year was chosen Professor of Poetry, the first day he became capable of it, by being made Regent Master. His fellow collegian, Christopher Pitt, writing to a friend in 1728, says, "Mr. Spence is the completest scholar either in solid or polite learning, for his years, that I ever knew. Besides, he is the sweetest tempered gentleman breathing.” About the same time he was presented to the small Rectory of Birchanger in Essex, where he used occasionally to reside with his mother, to whom he always showed extraordinary tenderness and attention. He had now, for the first time, an opportunity of indulging in some degree his natural inclination for gardening, though he could here try his hand only in miniature, and entertained himself with forming his little plot of ground into what he called a Lizard Garden. Toward the close of the year 1730 he received an invitation to accompany Charles, Earl of Middlesex,† and made the tour of France and Italy with that amiable young nobleman Spence's mild disposition is recollected, there may be reason to doubt. It was removed in the third edition of Polymetis, and another vignette of Hermes, the Egyptian Mercury, inserted in its stead. * In this year he published a Defence of Mr. Woolaston's Notion of a Rule of our Actions. Afterwards the second Duke of Dorset. in quality of a companion, and not as governor. Their route was by Lyons, Turin, Milan, and Venice to Rome, taking Florence in their way back, and from thence by way of Paris they returned to England. At Lyons he had the happiness of meeting Thomson, the poet, (who was travelling with Mr. Talbot) with whom he had previously contracted an intimacy in England. Spence had spoken very highly of the Poet's Winter on its first publication, in one of the editions of his Essay on the Odyssey, which being a popular book, contributed to make the poem more known. Thomson, who always acknowledged the use of this recommendation, became acquainted with him through the intervention of Dr. Young,* and an intimacy commenced between them, which only terminated with the lamented premature death of the poet, whose amiable temper and benevolent spirit found congenial qualities in Spence. Dr. Warton had seen a letter of Spence's to Mr. Christopher Pitt, earnestly soliciting him to subscribe to the quarto edition of the Seasons, and mentioning a design which Thomson had formed of writing a descriptive poem on Blenheim; a subject which would have shone in his hands. At Verona he became intimate with the Marquis Maffei, and he thus describes the gaiety and good humour of the then venerable author of Merope. "The Marquis Scipio Maffei, is one of the most eminent and learned men now in Italy. He is an old bachelor, and talks as if the ladies had played him some scurvy tricks in his youth. He introduced us to a ball, where he presided, and you cannot conceive how busy the good old gentleman was among the ladies from the eldest to the youngest. He would whisper each as soon as ever she stood still, and was perpetually saying lively civil things to all. Everybody is fond of him, he is a mighty good man, and has done much for the Veronese; among other things, he has just built a very pretty opera-house, with rooms for dancing, conversation, and concerts, all contrived and carried on by him, and at his expense."† * V. Appendix of Letters, No. IV. + Mr. Spence gave to his mother a detail of his three tours, and the principal occurrences in them in frequent letters, which are still preserved. At Venice they enjoyed the Carnival;—and he speaks with rapture of his first view of Naples, where he visited, with enthusiastic reverence, the tomb of Virgil, and plucked a leaf of laurel for his friend Pitt. But Rome was the place he had most eagerly longed to visit, and he talks of it as exceeding the highly coloured picture in his imagination. It was probably here, that the thought was first elicited which gave rise to his magnum opus, the Polymetis; as Gibbon conceived the design of his History, amid the Ruins of the Capitol.-But he did not begin his collection for it until he came to Florence, his first intention was to have called it Noctes Florentina. Spence had an eye for the beautiful in nature as well as in art, and describes, with becoming ardour, the lovely Vale of Arno, through which they passed during the Vintage. At Florence their stay was protracted through the winter months, and the society and other enjoyments of the place were so delightful to them, that they again saw the carnival here, and were not unwillingly detained by an uncommonly inclement spring, until the month of June, when they repassed the Alps, stayed at Paris a few days, and returned to England at the commencement of July, 1733. During his absence from England, and only a few days before his return, he was re-elected Poetry Professor for another five years. It is remarkable that Mr. Spence succeeded the Rev. Thomas Warton, father of the celebrated and worthy author of the History of English Poetry, who himself afterwards filled the chair; and that each of these three professors were twice elected to the office, and held it for ten years, the longest period the statute will allow. Previous to going abroad he had published, in 1726, his Essay on Pope's Odyssey, which not only acquired him considerable reputation, but introduced him to the notice of Pope, who is said to have been so well pleased with his book as to seek his acquaintance; this acquaintance soon ripened into friendship, which was lasting and uninterrupted, they ever after, until Pope's death, lived in habits of the strictest intimacy. Dr. Warton had seen a copy of the 66 Essay on the Odyssey,* with marginal observations, written in Pope's own hand, and generally acknowledging the justness of Spence's observations, and in a few instances pleading, humorously enough, that some favourite lines might be spared." It is probable that the regard and esteem, in which he was held by Pope, may have been, as Dr. Johnson asserts, one of the causes of his introduction to the notice of the great and powerful, but I know not whether he owed his introduction to the Dorset family to him or no. He describes a short visit he received from Pope, at Oxford. In a letter to his mother from that place, dated September 4, 1735, in which he says, "I have not seen honest Mr. Duck yet, but have had the pleasure of another visit that was wholly unexpected to me. Monday last, after dinner, according to the good sauntering custom that I use here every day, I was lolling at a coffee house half asleep, and half reading something about Prince Eugene and the armies on the Rhine, when a ragged boy of an ostler came in to me with a little scrap of paper not half an inch broad, which contained the following words, Mr. Pope would be very glad to see Mr. Spence at the Cross Inn just now.'-You may imagine how pleased I was; and that I hobbled thither as fast as my spindle-shanks would carry me. There I found him, quite fatigued to death, with a thin face lengthened, at least, two inches beyond its usual appearance. He had been to take his last leave of Lord Peterborough; and came away in a chariot of his lordship's, that holds but one person, for quick travelling. When he was got within about three miles of Oxford, coming down a hill in Bagly wood, he saw two gentlemen and a lady sitting in distress by the way side. Near them lay a chaise overturned and half broken to pieces; in the fall of which the poor lady had her arm broke. Mr. Pope had the goodness to stop and offer her his chariot to carry Among Mr. Spence's papers is a MS. copy of the two last dialogues of the Essay on the Odyssey, corrected throughout by Pope, and in which some few remarks appear on the blank pages. There is also a copy of the first edition, corrected throughout, but chiefly in what regards punctuation. It was probably these which Dr. Warton saw. b |