William Somervile

Somervile was the eldest son of a country gentleman, and was born at Edstone, Worcestershire. He was educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford. After his father's death in 1705 he lived on his estate, devoting himself especially to field sports, which supplied the subjects of his best-known poems. His publications were The Two Springs (1725), a fable; Occasional Poems ... (1727); The Chace ("The Chase") (1735) Hobbinol, or the Rural Games (1740), a burlesque poem; and Field Sports (1742), a poem on hawking.

His Chase passed through many editions. It was illustrated by Bewick (1796), by Stothard (1800), and by Hugh Thomson (1896), with a preface by RF Sharp.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.