...her; and the two last nights of my stay in the country had sleep been a mortal sin, I was innocent. I returned home very considerably improved. My reading...addition of Thomson's and Shenstone's works; I had seen mankind in a new phase; and I engaged several of my schoolfellows to keep up a literary correspondence...

...Collection of English Songs, which is generally supposed to have been The Lark, 1751. Again he writes, " My reading was enlarged with the very important addition of Thomson's and Shenstone's works. ... I had met with a collection of letters by the wits of Queen Anne's reign, and I poured over them devoutly....