Thomson, the master of it, whose
wife is sister to the authour of _The Seasons_. She is an old woman; but
her memory is very good; and she will with pleasure give me for you
every particular that you wish to know, and she can tell. Pray then take
the trouble to send me such questions as may lead to biographical
materials. You say that the _Life_ which we have of Thomson is scanty.
Since I received your letter I have read his _Life_, published under the
name of Cibber, but as you told me, really written by a Mr. Shiels[344];
that written by Dr. Murdoch; one prefixed to an edition of the Seasons,
published at Edinburgh, which is compounded of both, with the addition
of an anecdote of Quin's relieving Thomson from prison[345]; the
abridgement of Murdoch's account of him, in the _Biographia Britannica_,
and another abridgement of it in the _Biographical Dictionary_, enriched
with Dr. Joseph Warton's critical panegyrick on the _Seasons_ in his
_Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope_: from all these it appears to
me that we have a pretty full account of this poet. However, you will, I
doubt not, shew me many blanks, and I shall do what can be done to have
them filled up.
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