ABSTRACT
Like John Bennet a few years later, William Vernon found assistance from the Wartons in publishing his only collection of verse. Both Joseph and Thomas Warton were subscribers to his Poems on Several Occasions. Joseph Warton, whom he identifies as a 'friend from Winchester', may be assumed to have provided intellectual and literary assistance. However, as Vernon's opening advertisement indicates, he was also influenced by Christopher Smart. Vernon specifies Smart's impact only on his understanding of Horace, but other poems in the collection bear evidence that Smart's tone and style may have extended further. Although he was a soldier, a 'private in the Buffs', and as he readily admits, poorly educated, throughout his poems Vernon shows that he is very well acquainted with eighteenth-century poetry and poets. The e collection reflects this knowledge, including as it does locodescriptive poetry, verse epistles, pastorals, convivial pieces, epigrams, satirical dialogues, ballads, and imitations of the classics.
