James Smith (writer)

[1][2][3] Smith entered his father's office and succeeded him as solicitor to the Board of Ordnance in 1812.

He died, unmarried, at his house in Craven Street, Strand, London, and was buried in the vaults of St.

[4] The occasion of this jeu d'esprit was the rebuilding of Drury Lane theatre in 1812, after a fire in which it had been burnt down.

Six weeks before that date it occurred to the brothers Smith to feign that popular poets of the time had been among the competitors; and they issued a volume of unsuccessful addresses in parody of their various styles.

James took on William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and George Crabbe, while George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, Thomas Moore, Walter Scott and Bowles were written by Horace.