Shenstone

Shenstone, WILLIAM (1714-63), poet, was born on his father's estate, the Leasowes, at Halesowen, in Worcestershire, and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. After his father's death in 1745 be lived quietly at the Leasowes, devoting himself zealously to landscape-gardening. His Elegies, which are graceful, though tedious, fascinated Burns; but it is mainly by the Pastoral Ballads and the Village Schoolmistress (1742) that he has secured a permanent place in literature. Their simplicity of diction and directness of sentiment contrast strongly with the artificiality of contemporary verse.