ABSTRACT

James Thomson, dramatist and poet, was born in the Scottish borders and settled in London in 1725, after completing a short course of study at Edinburgh. Already at the centre of a talented circle of London-based Scottish poets, Thomson published Winter, the first of his descriptive poem The Seasons, in 1726. Over the next 15 years Thomson revised and extended The Seasons, and its expanding installments enjoyed immense popularity. The Seasons set a new standard and pan-European vogue for meditative landscape poetry. One of the most popular poems of the eighteenth century, it has attracted readers, fellow-poets, and scholars ever since. The Prince of Wales granted Thomson a generous annual pension in 1737. Thomson was a close friend of John Armstrong and had incorporated Armstrong's verses into his Castle of Indolence. Upon hearing that his friend had developed a dangerous fever following an outing in Richmond, Armstrong tried but was unable to reach Thomson on his deathbed.