DYER, Sir James, an eminent English lawyer, chief judge of the court of common pleas in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He died in 1581; and about twenty years afterwards was published his large collection of Reports, which have been highly esteemed for their succinctness and solidity. He also left other writings behind him relative to his profession.

Dyer, John, the son of Robert Dyer, a Welsh solicitor of great capacity, was born in 1700. He passed through Westminster school under the care of Dr Freind, and was then called home to be instructed in his father’s profession. His genius, however, led him a different way; for besides his early taste for poetry, he had a passion no less strong for the arts of design, and determined to make painting his profession. With this view, having studied some time under a master, he became, as he tells his friend, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales and the parts adjacent. About 1727 he printed Grongar Hill. Being probably dissatisfied with this own proficiency, he made the tour of Italy, where, besides the usual study of the remains of antiquity, and the works of the great masters, he frequently spent whole days in the country about Rome and Florence, sketching those picturesque prospects with facility and spirit. Images drawn from thence naturally transferred themselves into his poetical compositions; the principal beauties of The Ruins of Rome are perhaps of this kind; and the various landscapes in The Fleece have been particularly admired. On his return to England he published The Ruins of Rome, 1740; but soon found that he could not relish a town life, nor submit to the assiduity required in his profession. As his turn of mind was rather serious, and his conduct and behaviour were always irreproachable, he was advised by his friends to enter into holy orders; and it is presumed, though his education had not been regular, that he found no difficulty in obtaining them. He was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln, and had a law degree conferred on him.

’ About the same time he married a lady of Coleshill, named Ensor, “whose grandmother,” says he, “was a Shakspeare, descended from a brother of every body’s Shakspeare.” His ecclesiastical provision was a longtime but slender. His first patron, Mr Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorpe, in Leicestershire, of L.80 a year, on which he lived ten years; and in April 1751 he exchanged it for Belchford, in Lincolnshire, of L.75, which was given him by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, on the recommendation of a friend to virtue and the muses. His condition now began to mend. In 1752 Sir John Heathcoate gave him Coningsby, of L.140 a year, and, in 1756, when he was created LL.B, without any solicitation of his own, obtained for him from the chancellor, Kirby-on-Bane, of L.110. In 1757 he published The Fleece, his greatest poetical work, of which Dr Johnson relates this ludicrous story. Dodsley the bookseller was one day mentioning it to a critical visitor, with more expectation of success than the other could easily admit. In the conversation the author’s age was asked; and being represented as advanced in life, “He will,” said the critic, “be buried in woollen.” He did not indeed long outlive that publication, nor enjoy the increase of his preferments; for a consumptive disorder, with which he had long struggled, carried him off at length in 1758.

Mr Dyer’s character as a writer has been fixed by three poems, Grongar Hill, The Ruins of Rome, and7⅞e Fleece ; in which a poetical imagination perfectly original, a natural simplicity connected with, and often productive of the true sublime, and the warmest sentiments of benevolence and virtue, have been universally observed and admired. These pieces were published separately in his lifetime; but after his death were collected and published in one volume 8vo, 1761, with a short account of himself prefixed.
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