Note 148 — EPISTLE TO NATHANIEL LISTER, Esq. OF LICHFIELD, ON HAVING READ HIS VERSES IN MANUSCRIPT, WRITTEN DECEMBER 1786.[141]

l. 10. Virtuous Day—Thomas Day, Esq. since deceased, Author of the Dying Negro, which has, by misinformation, been given in one of the public prints of the year 1800, to his friend, Mr Bicknel, also deceased. It is a noble composition, and the first poem that called the attention of this nation to the miseries inflicted on that abused race. Mr Day’s Sandford and Merton is a very popular work on education. The philosophic Mr Keir, published a Life of that Gentleman, ingeniously written, but with too indiscriminate eulogy. Mr Day’s mind was rather great than amiable; his virtues were of a stern complexion. He resided in Lichfield during the years 1771 and 1772, and was living when the above poem was written.