and the two Miss Hornecks, the elder of
whom, christened by the poet with the pretty pet-name of 'The Jessamy
Bride,' is supposed to have inspired him with more than friendly
feelings. Upon his return he had to fall again to the old
'book-building' in order to recruit his exhausted finances. Since his
last poem he had published a short 'Life of Parnell'; and Davies now
engaged him on a 'Life of Bolingbroke', and an abridgement of the 'Roman
History'. Thus, with visits to friends, among others to Lord Clare, for
whom he wrote the delightful occasional verses called 'The Haunch of
Venison', the months wore on until, in December, 1770, the print-shops
began to be full of the well-known mezzotint which Marchi had engraved
from his portrait by Sir Joshua.
His chief publications in the next two years were the above-mentioned
'History of England', 1771; 'Threnodia Augustalis', a poetical
lament-to-order on the death of the Princess Dowager of Wales, 1772; and
the abridgement of the 'Roman History', 1772.
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