Thomas Park

Thomas Park (1759-1834, Sonnets, and other small poems (1797) Kessinger, 2010. Courtesy Amazon.com.

Thomas Park (1759 - 26 November 1834) was an English poet, literary editor, and antiquary.

Life

Youth and education

Park was the son of parents who lived at East Acton, Middlesex, and were both buried in Acton churchyard; Park erected a tombstone there with a poetical epitaph to his father's memory.

When 10 years old he was sent to a grammar school at Heighington in Durham, probably through some family connection with that county, and remained there for more than 5 years.

Career

Park was brought up as an engraver, and produced several mezzotint portraits, including Dr. John Thomas, bishop of Rochester, and Miss Penelope Boothby, after Sir Joshua Reynolds; Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse, after Hoppner; and a Magdalen after Gandolfi.

In 1792 he made the acquaintance of William Cowper, who recognized his "genius and delicate taste," and added that "if he were not an engraver he might be one of our first hands in poetry." He was encouraged by Cowper to publish his poems, and his compositions were corrected by Anna Seward; but Southey laughed at his pretensions to poetry.

In 1797 he abandoned engraving, and devoted himself entirely to literature and the study of antiquities.

He had been a collector, especially of old English poetry and of the portraits of poets, for about 10 years before that date, and his possessions, though few in number, soon became famous. He lived in turn in Piccadilly; High Street, Marylebone, where Richard Heber used to drink tea 2 or 3 times a week, and stimulate his own desire for acquiring ancient literature; Durweston Street, Portman Square; and Hampstead; and in the last place helped to administer the local charities.

His books, which were "of the highest value and curiosity," were sold by him to Thomas Hill (1760–1840), with the stipulation that he should be permitted to consult them whenever he liked, and for a long time he regularly used them. Ultimately they passed, with many others, into the hands of Longmans, and, after being catalogued by A.F. Griffiths in the volume entitled Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica, were dispersed by sale. Park annotated profusely the volumes which belonged to him, and at the British Museum there are copies of many works, antiquarian and poetical, containing his manuscript notes.

Park was described as the best-informed student of his time "in our old poetical literature and biography," and Southey praised him to Longmans as the best editor for the Bibliotheca Britannica which they projected. He edited many works of an important character, and assisted the leading antiquaries in their researches.

Park's assistance was acknowledged by Sir Egerton Brydges in the Restituta’ (vol. iv. p. xi), and in almost every preface to the volumes of the ‘Censura Literaria.’ He helped George Ellis in his various collections of poetry and romance; he aided Ritson in the Bibliographia Poetica and the unpublished ‘Bibliographia Scotica,’ though their friendly relations were broken off before Ritson's death; and George Steevens, when engaged in editing Shakespeare, called on him for advice and information daily.

For a time he meditated completing and editing Warton's History of English Poetry, but this design was abandoned. His notes were added to the 1824 edition of that work, although they were acquired by the publisher too late for insertion in their proper places in the first 2 volumes, but all of them were incorporated under their legitimate headings in the 1840 edition. Several poetical articles were supplied by him for Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth;’ a few of his notes and illustrations were added to W.C. Hazlitt's edition of ‘Diana, Sonnets and other Poems, by Henry Constable,’ 1859; and he was a contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ and the ‘Monthly Mirror.’

On 11 March 1802 he was admitted as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; but his means were limited, and, through the necessity of husbanding his resources, his resignation was announced at the annual meeting on 24 April 1815. The education of his only son, John James Park, involved him in considerable expense, and his early death in June 1833 was a heavy blow to the father's expectations.

Park was of a very generous and kindly disposition. Robert Bloomfield, the ploughboy poet, was introduced to him, and he superintended the publication, and corrected the various editions, of Bloomfield's Poems. He is also said to have helped the "posthumous fame and fortunes" of Kirke White.

Between 1805 and 1808 he edited John Sharpe's Works of the British Poets, in 42 volumes, with a supplement in 6 more volumes. From 1808 to 1813 he edited the Harleian Miscellany in 10 volumes (2 of which were supplement from Park's own collection).

His wife, Maria Hester Park, who long suffered from ill-health, died at Hampstead on 7 June 1813, aged 52.

Park died at Church Row, Hampstead, where he had resided for 30 years, 26 November 1834, aged 75, leaving 4 daughters, the survivors of a large family.

Writing

Park wrote: 1. ‘Sonnets and other small Poems,’ 1797. Many of the sonnets in this volume were written on scenes in Kent, Sussex, and Hertfordshire. 2. ‘Cupid turned Volunteer. A series of prints designed by the Princess Elizabeth and engraved by W. N. Gardiner. With poetical illustrations by Thomas Park,’ 1804. 3. ‘Epitaphial Lines on Interment of Princess Charlotte,’ Lee Priory Press, 20 Nov. 1817, s. sh. Sir Egerton Brydges printed at this press in 1815 some verses to Park (Dyce Cat. S. K. Museum, i. 130), and several sonnets by him were struck off on single leaves by Brydges about the same date. Some of them are now at the London Library. 4. ‘Nugæ Modernæ Morning Thoughts and Midnight Musings,’ 1818. 5. ‘Advantages of Early Rising,’ 1824. 6. ‘Solacing Verses for Serious Times,’ 1832. He also wrote some cards of ‘Christian Remembrance: a Plain Clue to the Gospel of Peace.’ Park's name is included in Julian's ‘Hymnology’ for his hymn ‘My soul, praise the Lord; speak good of His name.’

Among the works which he edited were: 1. Several books for the ‘mental culture and moral guidance of youth,’ printed by a bookseller called Sael, who died in 1799 (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 663). 2. ‘Nugæ Antiquæ: a miscellaneous Collection of Papers by Sir John Harington, selected by the late Henry Harington, and newly arranged, with illustrative notes,’ 1804, 2 vols. His own copy of this work, with many manuscript additions for a new issue, is in the Dyce Library. 3. Dryden's ‘Fables from Boccaccio and Chaucer,’ collated with the best editions, 1806, 2 vols. 5. Horace Walpole's ‘Royal and Noble Authors, Enlarged and Continued,’ 1806, 5 vols. with many portraits, priced at seven guineas. Park proposed a continuation of this work, but it was never published. Many copies of the original impression seem to have remained on hand, and in some of them leaves were cancelled and others substituted. To copies sold about 1823 there was added a brief advertisement (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 283). A set of this work, enlarged by insertion of prints and portraits from five to twenty volumes, is in the Bodleian Library. 6. ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ 1808–1813, in ten volumes, two of which were supplementary, but they did not include the whole of Park's collections for it (ib. 3rd ser. i. 43). 7. ‘Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. By Bishop Percy,’ 5th edit. 1812. 3 vols. 8. Cooke's ‘Translation of Hesiod’ for the ‘Greek and Roman Poets,’ 1813. 9. Ritson's ‘Select Collections of English Songs, with their Original Airs,’ 2nd edit. with additional songs and occasional notes, 1813, 3 vols. 10. ‘Heliconia: a Selection of English Poetry between 1575 and 1604,’ 1815, 3 vols. John Payne Collier, when announcing a new issue of ‘England's Parnassus,’ commented severely on the edition in Heliconia.

Park is sometimes said to have been associated with Edward Dubois in editing, in 1817, the works in two volumes of Sir John Mennes and Dr. James Smith, and there was reprinted at the Lee Priory Press in 1818 under his editorship a volume called ‘The Trumpet of Fame, written by H.R. 1595.

Many letters to and from him are printed in Nichols's ‘Illustrations of Literature,’ viii. 376–8; Miss Seward's ‘Letters,’ vols. iv.–vi.; Pinkerton's ‘Correspondence,’ i. 349–50; and ‘Notes and Queries,’ 1st ser. xi. 217, 2nd ser xii. 221–2; and many more addressed to Sir Egerton Brydges, Thomas Hill, and Litchfield of the ‘Monthly Mirror,’ are in the British Museum Additional MSS. 18916 and 20083. Cowper's letters to him, originally printed in the Monthly Mirror, were inserted by Southey (who entertained a very high respect for Park) in his edition of the Life and Correspondence of Cowper, vii. 322–3.

Publications

Poetry

• Sonnets, and other small poems. London: G. Sael, 1797.
• Cupid Turned Volunteer: In a series of prints designed by the Princess Elizabeth, with poetical illustrations by Thomas Park. London: W. Bulmer, for E. Harding, 1804.

Collected editions

• Nugae Modernae: Morning thoughts and midnight musings; in prose and verse. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1818.

Edited

• John Harington, Nugae Antiquae: Being a miscellaneous collection of original papers in prose and verse. (2 volumes), London: T. Cadell, 1804.
• The Works of the British Poets. (42 volumes), London: J. Sharpe, 1805-1808, 1818.
  • Volume 1: The First and Second Volumes of Milton
  • Volume 2: The Third and Fourth Volumes of Milton
  • Volume 3: Addison's 'Critique', and Johnson's 'Remarks on Milton;' and the Poems of Sir John Denham
  • Volume 4: The Two Volumes of Waller
  • Volume 5: The First and Second Volumes of Butler
  • Volume 6: The Third Volume of Butler, and the Poems of Phillips
  • Volume 7: The Two Volumes of Dryden's Fables
  • Volume 8: The First and Second Volumes of Dryden
  • Volume 9: The Third Volume of Dryden, and the Poems of Garth
  • Volume 10: The Poems of Addison and Tickell
  • Volume 11: The First and Second Volumes of Prior
  • Volume 12: The Third Volume of Prior, and the Poems of Parnell
  • Volume 13: The First and Second Volumes of Gay
  • Volume 14: The Third Volume of Gay, and the Poems of Savage
  • Volume 15: The Two Volumes of Somervile
  • Volume 16: The First and Second Volumes of Swift
  • Volume 17: The Third and Fourth Volumes of Swift
  • Volume 18: The First and Second Volumes of Pope
  • Volume 19: The Third and Fourth Volumes of Pope
  • Volume 20: The Two Volumes of Thomson
  • Volume 21: The Two Volumes of Watts
  • Volume 22: The Two Volumes of Shenstone, 1818.
  • Volume 23: The First and Second Volumes of Young
  • Volume 24: The Third and Fourth Volumes of Young
  • Volume 25: The Two Volumes of Akenside
  • Volume 26: The Poems of Dyer and William Thompson
  • Volume 27: The Poems of Green and Jago,and Hammond and Lord Lyttleton
  • Volume 28: The Two Volumes of Hamilton
  • Volume 29: The Poems of Edward Moore and Mallet
  • Volume 30: The Poems of Collins and Gray, and Falconer and Day
  • Volume 31: The First and Second Volume of Churchill
  • Volume 32: The Third Volume of Churchill, and the Poems of Jenyns
  • Volume 33: Blair, Glynn, Boyse, Porteus, Shaw, Lovibond, Penrose
  • Volume 34: Armstrong, Mickle
  • Volume 35: Cunningham, Cotton
  • Volume 36: The Two Volumes of Langhorne
  • Volume 37: Goldsmith, Beattie, Johnson, Joseph Warton
  • Volume 38: The Two Volumes of Glover
  • Volume 39: The Poems of Scott and Thomas Warton
  • Volume 40: The Two Volumes of Burns
  • Volume 41: Smollet, Bruce, and Logan; Hoyland, J.H. Moore, Headley, and Russell; and Oram, Bampfylde, and Lovell
  • Volume 42: The Two Volumes of Sir William Jones
• Select Works of the Minor British Poets (supplement to Works of the British Poets). London: J. Sharpe, 1809
  • Volume 1: Select Poems from the Works of The Earl of Rochester, Earl of Roscommon, Otway, Pomfret, Earl of Dorset, Stepney, Walsh, Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Earl of Halifax, and Rowe
  • Volume 2: Select Poems from the Works of Hughes, Duke of Buckingham, Congreve, Fenton, and Blackmore
  • Volume 3: Select Poems from the Works of Granville, Yalden, Pattison, Hill, Broome, Pitt, Ambrose Phillips, and Gilbert West
  • Volume 4: Select Poems from the Works of Harte, Richard West, Cawthorne, Lloyd, John Gilbert Cooper, Paul Whitehead, John Brown, D.D.

and James Grainger, M.D.

• • Volume 5: Select Poems from the Works of Wilkie, Dodsley, Smart, Graeme, William Whitehead, and Blacklock
  • Volume 6: Containing Poems Omitted in the Works of Addison, Gay, Pope, Thomson, Watts, Akenside, W. Thompson, Lyttelton, Collins, Mickle, Langhorne, Johnson, T. Warton, and Smollett.
  • also published as The Select Work of the Minor British Poets. London: Suttaby, Evans, & Fox, 1819.

Poetical works of William Hamilton, ed. Park. 1805. Poetical works of Isaac Watts, ed. Park. 1805. Poetical works of James Hammond, ed. Park. 1805. Poetical works of Thomas Warton, ed. Park. 1805.

• Thomas Day, Poetical Works. London: J. Sharpe, 1805.

Fables of Bocaccio, ed. Park. 1806.

• Horace Walpole, A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland; with lists of their works. (5 volumes), London: J. Scott, 1806.

Poetical works of Edward Moore, ed. Park. 1806. Poetical works of John Dryden, ed. Park. 1806. The poetical works of Nathaniel Cotton., ed. Park. 1806. Poetical works of Richard Glover, ed. Park. 1806. Poetical works of Robert Burns, ed. Park. 1807. Poetical works of Thomas Tickell, ed. Park. 1807.

• Thomas Gray, Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London: J. Sharpe, 1808.

Poetical works of William Collins, ed. Park. 1808.

• The Harleian Miscellany: A collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts, as well in manuscript as in print: Selected from the library of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford. (10 volumes), London: J. White / J. Murray / J. Harding, 1808-13; New York: AMS Press, 1965.

Poetical works of Samuel Butler, ed. Park. 1812. Poetical works of Edward Young, ed. Park. 1813. Reliques of ancient English poetry [Percy, ed. Park]. 3 vols, 1812.

• Supplement to the Harleian Miscellany: Consisting of miscellaneous pieces, not included in the former edition. London: White & Cochrane / John Murray / John Harding, 1812-13.
• Joseph Ritson, A Select Collection of English Songs. (3 volumes), London: F.C. & J. Rivington, 1813.
• Heliconia: Comprising a collection of English poetry of the Elizabethan age, 1575-1604. (3 volumes), London: T. Davison, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1815.
• Epitaphial Lines: Supposed to be inscribed near the royal vault at Windsor. Kent, UK: Press of Lee Priory, 1817.
• John Mennes & Sir James Smith, Facetiae: Musarum deliciae; or, The muses recreation: Containing severall pieces of poetique wit. London: T. Davison, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1817.
• H.R., The Trumpet of Fame. Kent, UK: Press of Lee Priory, 1818.

'Works of the British Poets' courtesy University of California, Santa Barbara. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Courtney, William Prideaux (1895) "Park, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 43 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 223-225 . Wikisource, Web, Sep. 1, 2016.

External links

Poems

• "Stanzas on the Death of Dame Morris"
• "To E.W., author of The Village Sunday: A poem written in the Manner of Spenser"
• "To Edward, Lord Thurlow"

About

• Thomas Park (1759-1834) in English Poetry, 1579-1830

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Park, Thomas