Note 289 — Chapter VIII · The London Salon
Reading edition
Mrs. Boscawen was the subject of more than one literary tribute before this. Young’s dreary ode, Resignation, was addressed to her, on the death of Admiral Boscawen; Mrs. Montagu had taken the widow to the ancient poet for consolation. In this poem she is bidden to ‘go forth a moral Amazon, armed with undaunted thought.’ Perhaps the last of these poetical tributes was a sonnet (from which a selection is here printed for the first time), by Pye when poet laureate. Writing of her villa at Richmond, once the home of Thomson, the poet Pye says:
Still Fancy’s Train your verdant Paths shall trace, Tho’ closed her fav’rite Votary’s dulcet lay; Each wonted Haunt their footsteps still shall grace, Still Genius thro’ your green Retreats shall stray; For, from the Scene Boscawen loves to grace, Th’ Attendant Muse shall ne’er be long away. Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 27578.