He wrote an epistle (with a petition in it) to Sir John Blount, Bart. one of the directors of the South-Sea Company, 1726.

Oculus Britanniae, an Heroi-panegyrical Poem, on the University of Oxford, 8vo. 1724.

In a poem of Mr. Amhurst’s, called, An Epistle from the Princess Sobiesky to the Chevalier de St. George, he has the following nervous lines, strongly expressive of the passion of love.

  Relentless walls and bolts obstruct my way,
  And, guards as careless, and as deaf as they;
  Or to my James thro’ whirlwinds I would, go,
  Thro’ burning deserts, and o’er alps of snow,
  Pass spacious roaring, oceans undismay’d,
  And think the mighty dangers well repaid.

* * * * *

Mr. GEORGE LILLO.

Was by profession a jeweller.  He was born in London, on the 4th of Feb. 1693.  He lived, as we are informed, near Moorgate, in the same neighbourhood where he received his birth, and where he was always esteemed as a person of unblemished character.  ’Tis said, he was educated in the principles of the dissenters:  be that as it will, his morals brought no disgrace on any sect or party.  Indeed his principal attachment was to the muses.

His first piece, brought on the stage, was a Ballad Opera, called Sylvia; or, The Country Burial; performed at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields, but with no extraordinary success, in the year 1730.  The year following he brought his play, called The London Merchant; or, The True Story of George Barnwell, to Mr. Cibber junior; (then manager of the summer company, at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane) who originally played the part of Barnwell.—­The author was not then known.  As this was almost a new species of tragedy, wrote on a very uncommon subject, he rather chose it should take its fate in the summer, than run the more hazardous fate of encountering the winter criticks.  The old ballad of George Barnwell (on which the story was founded) was on this occasion reprinted, and many thousands sold in one day.  Many gaily-disposed spirits brought the ballad with them to the play, intending to make their pleasant remarks (as some afterwards owned) and ludicrous comparisons between the antient ditty and the modern drama.  But the play was very carefully got up, and universally allowed to be well performed.  The piece was thought to be well conducted, and the subject well managed, and the diction proper and natural; never low, and very rarely swelling above the characters that spoke.  Mr. Pope, among other persons, distinguished by their rank, or particular publick merit, had the curiosity to attend the performance, and commended the actors, and the author; and remarked, if the latter had erred through the whole play, it was only in a few places, where he had unawares led himself into a poetical luxuriancy, affecting to be too elevated for the simplicity of the subject.  But the play, in general, spoke