63 Johnson, Lives of the English Poets, op. cit., vol. III, Life of William Shenstone: ‘The four parts of his Pastoral Ballad demand particular notice. I cannot but regret that it is pastoral; an intelligent reader acquainted with the scenes of real life sickens at the mention of the crook, the pipe, the sheep, and the kids, which it is not necessary to bring forward to notice, for the poet’s art is selection, and he ought to shew the beauties without the grimness of the country life’ (p. 356).