Born at the family seat, Edston, Warwickshire, in 1677, (?) (not 1692, as Dr. Johnson states), was admitted to Winchester school in 1690; in the same year became Fellow of New College, Oxford; resigned on succeeding to his patrimonial estate in 1704; divided his time between his justiceship of the peace, his books, hounds, and bottle, and died July 19, 1742…. 1. “The Two Springs; a Fable,” London, 1725. 2. “Occasional Poems, Translations, Fables Tales,” &c., 1727. 3. “The Chace; a Poem, 1735,” 4th ed., 1743…. 4. “Field Sports; a Poem,” 1742, 5. “Hobbinol; or, The Rural Games; a Burlesque Poem in Blank Verse,” 1740.

Personal

  Our old friend Somerville is dead; I did not imagine I could have been so sorry as I find myself on this occasion. Sublatum fuœrimus, I can now excuse all his foibles; impute them to age and to distressed circumstances. The last of these considerations wrings my very soul to think on; for a man of high spirit, conscious of having (at least in one production) generally pleased the world, to be plagued and threatened by wretches that are low in every sense; to be forced to drink himself into pains of the body in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a misery.

  Somerville was a handsome noisy squire, a strapping fellow six feet high, a hard rider, a crack shot. No more characteristic specimen of the sporting country gentleman, pure and simple, could be imagined, or one less likely to develop into a poet. It was, in fact, not until fast living begun to break down his constitution that he took to literature as a consolation. One of his earliest exercises was an epistle addressed to Addison, who had bought a property in Warwickshire, and so had become Somerville’s neighbour.

The Chase, 1734

  To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his subject, which is the first requisite to excellence; and though it is impossible to interest the common readers of verse in the dangers or pleasures of the chase, he has done all that transition and variety could easily effect; and has with great propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries.

  He is strictly and almost solely a descriptive poet; and his talent lies in delineating actual scenes with fidelity and spirit, adorning them with the beauties of diction, but leaving them to act upon the imagination by their own force, without aid from the creations of fancy. In classical allusion he is not deficient, but it is of the more common kind; and little occurs in his writings that indicates a mind inspired by that exalted enthusiasm which denotes the genius of superior rank. His versification is generally correct and well varied, and evidently flows from a nice and practised ear. His language is well suited to his subjects, rising and sinking with them, and free from that stiffness and affectation so commonly attendant upon blank verse. It more resembles that of Armstrong, than of Thomson or Akenside.

  Somerville is best known by his poem, entitled the “Chase,” which still has considerable popularity. It is written in blank verse, tolerably harmonious, and his descriptions, always accurate, from his own practical knowledge of his subject, are frequently vivid and beautiful.

  Somerville has the merit of being inspired by a genuine love for the subject. He writes directly from the testimony of his own eyes, and the impulses of his own heart. He has obviously had the mould of his poem suggested by Thomson’s “Seasons,” but it is the mould only; the thoughts and feelings which are poured into it are his own.

  This epic, which is in four books, discusses in its first part the origin of hunting, the economy of kennels, the physical and moral accomplishments of hounds, and the choosing of a good or bad scenting day. The second book, which possesses more natural language and a finer literary quality than the others, commences with directions for hare-hunting, and closes with a moral reproof of tyranny. In the third book hunting is treated from an antiquarian and an exotic standpoint, while the fourth deals with the breeding of hounds, their diseases and the diseases they cause, such as hydrophobia. It will hardly be guessed from such a sketch of the contents that “The Chase” is a remarkably readable and interesting poem: It is composed in blank verse that is rarely turgid and not very often flat, and the zeal and science of the author give a certain vitality to his descriptions which compels the reader’s attention. People that have a practical knowledge of the matters described confess that Somerville thoroughly understood what he was talking about, and that in his easy chair before the fire he “plied his function of the woodland” no less admirably than he had done in the saddle in his athletic youth.

  In “The Chase” Somerville had the advantage of knowing his subject, but knowledge is not poetry, and the interest of the poem is not due to its poetical qualities. He deserves some credit for his skill in handling a variety of metres as well as blank verse, in which his principal poem is written.

General

  Somerville’s fame rests chiefly on “The Chase,” a poem of four books in blank verse, to which “Field Sports” may be considered a supplement. It contains a vivid description of his favourite pastime and some lively pictures of animal life. It has always been held in high esteem by sportsmen, and many editions of it have been published, the finest being that of 1796, with illustrations by the brothers Bewick, of whose art it exhibits some of the best examples. The edition of 1800 has designs by Stothard. In 1896 it was reissued with illustrations by Mr. Hugh Thomson…. His poems figure in the collections of Johnson, Anderson, Chalmers, Bell, Stanford and Park.