HILL, Aaron, a poet of considerable eminence, the son of a gentleman of Malmesbury Abbey, in Wiltshire, was born in 1685. His father’s imprudence having ruined his paternal inheritance, he left Westminster School at fourteen years of age, and embarked for Constantinople to visit Lord Paget, the English ambassador there, who was his distant relation. Lord Paget received him with surprise and pleasure, provided him a tutor, and sent him to travel, thus affording him an opportunity of visiting Egypt, Palestine, and a great part of the East. About the year 1709 he published his first poem, entitled Camillus, in honour of the Earl of Peterborough, who had commanded in Spain; and being the same year made master of Drury-lane Theatre, he wrote his first tragedy, called Elfred, or the Fair Inconstant. In 1710, he became master of the opera-house in the Haymarket, and wrote an opera called Rinaldo, which met with great success, being the first that Handel set to music after he came to England. Unfortunately for Mr Hill, he was a projector as well as poet, and in 1715 obtained a patent for extracting oil from beech-nuts; an undertaking which miscarried after engaging his attention for three years. He was also concerned in the first attempt to settle the colony of Georgia, from which he never reaped any advantage; and in 1728 he made a journey into the Highlands of Scotland, in prosecution of a scheme of applying the woods there to ship-building; but in this he also lost his labour. Mr Hill seems to have lived in perfect harmony with all the writers of bis time, except Mr Pope, with whom he had a short paper war, occasioned by that gentleman’s introducing him in the Dunciad as one of the competitors for the prize offered by the goddess of Dulness. Mr Hill, amongst many other pieces, also wrote one called The Northern Star, upon the actions of Peter the Great; and for this he was several years afterwards complimented with a gold medal from the Empress Catharine, agreeably to the czar’s desire before his death. His last production was Merope, which was brought upon the stage in Drury Lane by Mr Garrick. He died on the 8th of February 1749, and after his decease four volumes of his works in prose and verse were published in octavo, and his dramatic works in two volumes.

Hill, Sir John, a voluminous writer, and singular character, was born about the year 1716. He was originally bred an apothecary; but his having married early, and without a fortune, made him very soon look around for other resources than his profession supplied. In the year 1746, he translated from the Greek a small tract by Theophrastus, on Gems, which he published by subscription; and which, eing well executed, procured him friends, reputation, and money. Encouraged by this, he engaged in works of greater extent and importance. The first he undertook was a General Natural History, in three vols. folio. He next engaged, in conjunction with George Lewis Scott, in furbishing a Supplement to Chambers’s Dictionary. He at the same time started the British Magazine; and whilst he was engaged in a great number of works, some of which would seem to have claimed the continued attention of a whole life, he carried on a daily essay, under the title of Inspector. Amidst this hurry of business, Mr Hill was so laborious and ready in all his undertakings, and was withal so exact an economist of his time, that for many years he scarcely ever missed a public amusement, where, whilst he relaxed from the severer pursuits of study, he gleaned up articles of information for his periodical works. It would not be easy to trace Mr Hill through all his various pursuits in life. He obtained his doctor’s degree from the university of St Andrews. A quarrel he had with the Royal Society, for being refused admission as a member, provoked him to ridicule that learned body, in a review of the works of the Royal Society, 4to, 1751. This, together with his writing upon all subjects without reserve, made him sink in the estimation of the public nearly at the same rate at which he had ascended. He found, as usual, however, resources in his own invention. He applied himself to the preparation of certain simple medicines, as the essence of water-dock, tincture of valerian, balsam of honey, and the like. The well-known simplicity of these medicines made the public judge favourably of their effects, insomuch that they had a rapid sale, and önce more enabled the doctor to figure in that style of life which was so congenial to his inclination. He obtained the patronage of the Earl of Bute, through whose interest he acquired the management of the royal gardens at Kew; and, to wind up the whole of an extraordinary life, having a little before his death seized an opportunity to introduce himself to the knowledge of the king of Sweden, that monarch invested him with the order of knighthood, which he had not the happiness of enjoying above two years. He died near the close of the year 1775.