Note 98 — EPISTLE TO THE REV. DR WILLIAM BAGSHOT STEVENS, OF REPTON, DERBYSHIRE, WRITTEN IN 1783.

l. 6. Alluding to the Retirement, published by Mr Stevens, in 1782, the first of a small, but beautiful collection of poems, printed for Ab. Portal of the Strand; Faulder, of New Bond-street; and Kearsley, No. 46, Fleet-street. This work went through two editions, though it met the utmost injustice that dullness and spleen could produce, in one of the leading Reviewers. No compositions, especially those of so young a man, are without imperfections. The few defects of Retirement were assiduously pointed out, and exaggerated, and many unexceptionable lines and expressions clumsily ridiculed; while the numerous passages of striking and unborrowed beauty, were passed over in silence; but the Gentleman’s Magazine did more justice to those excellencies, which must impress and delight every reader, who possesses any portion of poetic taste.