Friday, February 28 1755

Received of Dame Inkpin 0.7.6 in full. Had Braizer at work a-gardening. Settled with Mrs Atkins for Mrs Virgoe and paid Mrs Atkins 0.10.0 in full, which Mrs Virgoe has repaid me.

The following from The Sports of the Muses on Milton:

“Three poets in three distant ages born
Greece, Italy and England did adorn;
The first in loftiness of thoughts surpast,
The next in majesty; in both the last,
The force of nature could no farther go;
To make a third she joined the former two.”

[Dryden]

A cure for poetry from the same:

“Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead
Through which the living Homer begged his bread.”

In the evening at Master Durrant’s; otherwise at home all day.