The Shenstone Circle, also known as the Warwickshire Coterie, was a
literary circle
A literary circle or coterie, according to ''The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms'', is a "small group of writers (and others) bound together more by friendship and habitual association than by a common literary cause or style that might unite ...
of
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
s living in and around
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
from the 1740s to the 1760s.
At its heart lay the poet and landscape gardener
William Shenstone
William Shenstone (18 November 171411 February 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of History of gardening#Picturesque and English Landscape gardens, landscape gardening through the development of his estate, ''The ...
, who lived at ''
The Leasowes
The Leasowes is a 57-hectare (around 141 acre) estate in Halesowen, historically in the county of Shropshire, later (from 1844) Worcestershire, England, comprising house and gardens. The parkland is now listed Grade I on English Heritage's Reg ...
'' in
Halesowen
Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England.
Historic counties of England, Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, ...
to the west of Birmingham, and whose role as patron and mentor to Midlands poets saw him compared to the Roman patron of the arts
Gaius Maecenas
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( 13 April 68 BC – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. ...
. Members of the group included Shenstone's near neighbour in Halesowen
John Scott Hylton;
John Pixell
John Prynne Parkes Pixell (1725 – 1784) was an English poet, priest and composer.
Background
Pixell was educated at the Birmingham Free School and at Queen's College, Oxford. He became the vicar of Edgbaston in 1751,
Published works
One of h ...
of
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...
;
William Somervile
William Somervile or Somerville (2 September 167517 July 1742) was an English poet who wrote in many genres and is especially remembered for "The Chace", in which he pioneered an early English georgic.
Life
Somervile, the eldest son of a long e ...
of
Edstone
The "EdStone" was a large stone tablet which was commissioned by the Labour Party during the 2015 general election. The stone was tall and featured six election pledges carved into it, together with the Labour logo, and a copy of the signa ...
in
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
;
Lady Luxborough
Henrietta Knight, Baroness Luxborough (; 15 July 1699 — 26 March 1756), was an English poet and letter writer, now mainly remembered as a gardener. She married the rising politician Robert Knight in 1727, but he banished her to his estate ...
of
Barrells Hall
Barrells Hall is a large house in the Warwickshire countryside near Henley-in-Arden. The nearest village is Ullenhall, which for many years was the estate village, large parts of it having been built by the owners of Barrells Hall, the Newtons, ...
near
Henley-in-Arden
Henley-in-Arden (also known as simply Henley) is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. The town takes its last name from the former Forest of Arden. Henley is known for its variety of historic ...
;
Richard Jago
Richard Jago (1 October 1715 – 8 May 1781) was an English clergyman poet and minor landscape gardener from Warwickshire. Although his writing was not highly regarded by contemporaries, some of it was sufficiently novel to have several imitator ...
of
Snitterfield
Snitterfield is a village and civil parish in the Stratford on Avon district of Warwickshire, England, less than to the north of the A46 road, from Stratford upon Avon, from Warwick and from Coventry. The population of the civil parish at ...
, whom Shenstone knew from their time together at
Solihull School
Solihull School is a coeducational private day school in Solihull, West Midlands, England. Founded in 1560, it is the oldest school in the town and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
History
In 1560 the revenu ...
and
John Perry of
Clent
Clent is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England, southwest of Birmingham and close to the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,600.
Parish history
The pa ...
.
References
Bibliography
*{{Citation, last=Suarez, first=Michael F. , year=1997, contribution=Who's Who in Robert Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands, contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TpsY5nmRPr0C&pg=PA120, editor1-last=Suarez, editor1-first=Michael F., editor2-last=Dodsley, editor2-first=Robert, title=Collection of Poems by Several Hands
, publication-place=London, publisher=Routledge, volume=I, pages=120–226, isbn=0415143829, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TpsY5nmRPr0C, accessdate=2012-10-24
Literary circles
History of Birmingham, West Midlands