If a trace remained, it was in his admiration
of Churchill's verses, and in the general results of literary society,
and of early practice in composition. Cowper contributed to the
_Connoiseur_ and the _St. James's Chronicle_. His papers in the
_Connoisseur_ have been preserved; they are mainly imitations of the
lighter papers of the _Spectator_ by a student who affects the man of
the world. He also dallied with poetry, writing verses to "Delia," and
an epistle to Lloyd. He had translated an elegy of Tibullus when he
was fourteen, and at Westminster he had written an imitation of
Phillips's _Splendid Shilling_, which, Southey says, shows his manner
formed. He helped his Cambridge brother, John Cowper, in a translation
of the _Henriade_. He kept up his classics, especially his Homer. In
his letters there are proofs of his familiarity with Rousseau. Two or
three ballads which he wrote are lost, but he says they were popular,
and we may believe him. Probably they were patriotic. "When poor Bob
White," he says, "brought in the news of Boscawen's success off the
coast of Portugal, how did I leap for joy! When Hawke demolished
Conflans, I was still more transported.
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