William Somervile

After his father's death in 1705 he lived on his estate and devoted himself to the field sports which were eventually to supply the subjects of his best-known poems.

[3] But Somervile's convivial hospitality strained his small personal income and plunged him into debt.

[2] The poems continued to be republished for the best part of a century after they first appeared but, The Chace apart, criticism of them was generally guarded.

"[6] In the eyes of John Aikin, a little later, "He is strictly and almost solely a descriptive poet…Little occurs in his writings that indicates a mind inspired by that exalted enthusiasm which denotes the genius of superior rank.

His versification is generally correct and well varied, and evidently flows from a nice and practiced ear… His Chase is probably the best performance upon that topic which any country has produced.

"[7] But by the time of The Cambridge History of English Literature (1913), the attitude is plainly dismissive: "Much of his verse is poor doggerel in the form of fables and tales, dull and coarse after the usual manner of such productions".

The situation of the ancient fable of the lion, the boar and the vultures has been given the modern context of bear-baiting in which the dog and bear contestants suddenly gain an insight into how their virtues are being exploited in ways that harm rather than benefit themselves.