, a very polite and elegant Scholar, son of the rev. Thomas Holdsworth,
, a very polite and elegant
Scholar, son of the rev. Thomas Holdsworth, rector of
North Stoneham, in the county of Southampton, was born
Aug. 6, 1688, and trained at Winchester-school. He was
thence elected demy of Magdalen college, Oxford, in
July 1705; took the degree of M. A. in April 1711; became a college tutor, and had many pupils. In 1715,
when he was to be chosen into a fellowship, he resigned
his demyship, and left the college, because unwilling to
swear allegiance to the new government. The remainder
of his life was spent in travelling with young noblemen and
gentlemen as a tutor: in 1741 and 1744 he was at Rome
in this capacity, with Mr. Pitt and with Mr. Drake and Mr.
Townson. He died of a fever at lord Digby’s house at
Coleshill in Warwickshire, Dec. 30, 1746. He was the
author of the “Muscipula,
” a poem, esteemed a masterpiece in its kind, written with the purity of Virgil and the
pleasantry of Lucian, and of which there is a good English
translation by Dr. John Hoadly, in vol. V. of “Dodsley’s
Miscellanies,
” and another among Dr. Cobden’s poems.
He was the author also of a dissertation entitled “Pharsalia
and Philippi; or the two Philippi in Virgil’s Georgics attempted to be explained and reconciled to history, 1741,
”
4to; and of “Remarks and Dissertations on Virgil; with
some other classical observations, published with several
notes and additional remarks by Mr. Spence, 1768,
” 4to.
Mr. Spenoe speaks of him in his Polymetis, as one who
understood Virgil in a more masterly manner than any person he ever knew. The late Charles Jennens, esq. erected
a monument to his memory at Gopsal in Leicestershire.