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.

Works

His works were first published by his friend Robert Dodsley (3 vols., 1764-1769). The second volume contains Dodsley's description of the Leasowes. The last, consisting of correspondence with Graves, Jago and others, appeared after Dodsley's death. Other letters of Shenstone's are included in Select Letters (ed. Thomas Hill 1778). The letters of Lady Luxborough (nee Henrietta St John) to Shenstone were printed by T. Dodsley in 1775; much additional correspondence is preserved in the British Museumletters to Lady Luxborough (Add. MS. 28958), Dodsley's letters to Shenstone (Add. MS. 28959), and correspondence between Shenstone and Bishop Percy from 1757 to 1763the last being of especial interest; To Shenstone was due the original suggestion of Percy's Reliques, a service which would alone entitle him to a place among the precursors of the romantic movement in English literature. See also Richard Graves, Recollections of some particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone (1788); H. Sydney Grazebrook, The Family of Shenstone the Poet (1890); Lennox Morison, " Shenstone," in the Gentleman't Magazine (vol. 289, 1900, pp. 196-205); A. Chalmers, English Poets (1810, vol. xiii.), with " Life " by Samuel Johnson; his Poetical Works (Edinburgh, 1854), with " Life " by G. Gilfillan; T. D'lsraeli, " The Domestic Life of a PoetShenstone vindicated," in Curiosities of Literature; and " Burns and Shenstone," in Furth in Field (1894), by " Hugh Haliburton " (J. L. Robertson).

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