William Shenstone

William Shenstone (November 13, 1714 - February 11, 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitoners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.

Life

Son of Thomas and Anne, daughter of William Penn of Harborough Hall,

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Hagley, Shenstone was born at the Leasowes, Halesowen, then an enclave of Shropshire within the traditional county of Worcestershire.

Related Topics:
Hagley - Halesowen - Enclave - Shropshire - Traditional county - Worcestershire

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At school he began a lifelong friendship with Richard Jago. He went up to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1732 and made another firm friend there in Richard Graves, the author of The Spiritual Quixote.

Related Topics:
Richard Jago - Pembroke College, Oxford - 1732 - Richard Graves

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He took no degree, but, while still at Oxford, he published Poems on various occasions, written for the entertainment of the author (1737). This edition was intended for private circulation only but, containing the first draft of The Schoolmistress, it attracted some wider attention. Shenstone tried hard to suppress it but in 1742 he published anonymously a revised draft of The Schoolmistress, a Poem in imitation of Spenser. The inspiration of the poem was Sarah Lloyd, teacher of the village school where Shenstone received his first education. Isaac D'Israeli contended that Robert Dodsley had been misled in publishing it as one of a sequence of Moral Poems, its intention having been satirical, as evidenced by the ludicrous index appended to its original publication.

Related Topics:
1737 - 1742 - Isaac D'Israeli - Robert Dodsley - Satirical

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In 1741 he published The Judgment of Hercules. He inherited the Leasowes estate, and retired there in 1745 to undertake what proved the chief work of his life, the beautifying of his property. He embarked on elaborate schemes of landscape gardening which gave the Leasowes a wide celebrity, but sadly impoverished the owner. Shenstone was not a contented recluse. He desired constant admiration of his gardens, and he never ceased to lament his lack of fame as a poet.

Related Topics:
1741 - 1745

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Shenstone died unmarried. One of the five houses of Solihull School is named after him.

Related Topics:
Houses - Solihull School

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