some facts, especially with regard to the production of Thomson's plays, his relations with Lyttelton, and the tenure of his posts, which have not appeared in any previous biography. The due estimation of Thomson's literary work involves a careful collation of the early editions of The Seasons, since there is as yet no full information published with regard to their important variations of text. Mr. Tovey's critical notes are useful, but incomplete; and, moreover, he takes no account of any edition earlier than 1730. In general it may be said that all information given in this book about variations is derived from original sources. With regard to other parts of the work, acknowledgments are especially due to Mr. J. L. Robertson, whose excellent annotated edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence has been frequently useful, to M. Morel again, and (with reference to the influence of other poets upon Winter) to Dr. Otto Zippel, from whom a complete critical edition of The Seasons is to be expected. The discussion on the revision of the text of The Seasons has been, with some hesitation, relegated to an appendix, not because the subject is unimportant or uninteresting, but because it is of a somewhat controversial character. I am unwilling to pass over without notice the useful reprint, by Judge Willis, of the very rare first edition of Winter, with a preface in which the mistakes of editors and biographers are faithfully pointed out. I did not make acquaintance with this book until my own was already finished; but I hope that by a careful following of original texts I have been preserved from such errors as are there denounced. JAMES THOMSON CHAPTER I EARLY CAREER JAMES THOMSON was the fourth child of Thomas Thomson, minister of Ednam, in the north-eastern corner of the county of Roxburgh, and was baptized on the 15th of September, 1700. In spite of the doubts raised by some of his biographers, there seems every reason to accept the statement of his friend Murdoch, that he was born on September 11th (22nd by the new style), which was certainly regarded by his family as his birthday. His father, a native of Ednam, was the son of Andrew Thomson, a gardener in the service of a Mr. Edmonston of that place, and several other members of the poet's family followed this vocation. The Rev. Thomas Thomson had married Beatrix, daughter of Alexander Trotter of Widehope, whose wife Margaret was descended apparently from a branch of the noble family of Home. Thomas Thomson was a minister of good repute, and devoted to his spiritual charge his wife is described for us, by one who knew her, as a person of uncommon natural endowments, "with an imagination for vivacity and warmth scarce inferior to her son's, and which raised her devotional exercises to a pitch bordering on enthusiasm.” : It is of some interest to note what the scenery and A surroundings were, in which the future poet of The Seasons grew up. These, however, are not to be sought for at Ednam; for within two months of James Thomson's birth his father accepted a call from the more important parish of Southdean, situated close to the Cheviots, on the upper stream of the "sylvan Jed," a locality which combines bleak mountain scenery with the charm of prettily wooded valleys; and it was here that the first impressions of external nature were received by the growing boy. Thomson is not very apt to describe particular localities, but it is partly on the scenery of Southdean that the descriptions are based which appeared in the first-published poem of The Seasons, and the poem is introduced by a passage which refers to his early experiences :— "Welcome, kindred glooms! Cogenial1 horrors, hail! with frequent foot The manse is described as a straw-thatched house, "clinging with a nestling snugness to the base of Southdean Law," and commanding a view of the valley. The river Jed sweeps round its garden, and in the distance is seen "the clear-cut sky-line of Carter Fell, ... whose heathland slopes retain the eye of the spectator above surrounding objects, as the storm-drift 1 66 'Cogenial" is Thomson's word, though it has been altered in all modern editions. He meant, of course, "familiar from birth." |