John Dyer, poet, painter, clergyman, and farmer, wrote one of the best topographical poems in eighteenth-century literature, "Grongar Hill" (1726). He also wrote the best formal georgic of the period, The Fleece (1757). His poetic output was relatively small, and only "Grongar Hill" survives on its artistic merit alone, though The Fleece also continues to receive occasional attention. Dyer's work, however, continues to interest critics on other than purely aesthetic grounds, particularly as it reflects his training in painting and his attitudes towards mercantilism and industrialization.

Dyer was born in Aberglasney, Wales, probably in late July or early August 1699, the second son of Robert and Catherine Cocks Dyer, and baptized on 13 August 1699 in the parish of Llanfynnydd, Carmarthenshire. He spent his boyhood there and in Aberglasney in the nearby parish of Llangathen. Robert Dyer was a successful attorney who obviously wished to do well by his children, for in about...