William Somervile

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William Somervile or Somerville (September 2, 1675 - July 19, 1742) was an English poet.

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 describing the Cotswold Games; and Field Sports (1742), a poem on hawking.

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

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

There is also a Dr. William Somerville (1771-1860), inspector of the army medical board, second husband of Mary Somerville.