The Query of G. C. (Vol. vi., p. 578.) relative to Mrs. Mackey's _Poems_,
has induced me to trouble you with a similar one respecting the author of a
volume in my possession. It is entitled _Mount Vernon_, a Poem, &c. &c., by
John Searson, formerly of Philadelphia, Merchant; Philadelphia, printed for
the author by Folwell. After the title-page (which is too long to be given
_in extenso_) follows a dedication to General Washington, in which the
author, after recording that he last returned to America from Ireland in
1796, and that having been established for several years at Philadelphia as
a merchant, he had been subjected to unforeseen losses in trade and
merchandize, proceeds as follows:
"Having a pretty good education in my youth, from an uncle, a clergyman
of the Church of England, I published two poems in Ireland, was well
received, and two publications since my last arrival in America, having
disposed of the last copy of one thousand, _Art of Contentment_, and
did myself the honour to visit your Excellency 15th May last [1799], so
as to obtain an adequate idea of Mount Vernon, wishing to compose a
poem on that beautiful seat, which I now most humbly dedicate to your
Excellency, with your likeness," &c.
Next follows a "Preface to the readers of Mount Vernon, a Poem," in which
he says:
"I published a rural, romantic, and descriptive poem of Down Hill, the
seat of the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Londonderry, in Ireland; for
which the gentlemen of that country actually gave me a guinea per copy,
and Sir George Hill, from Dublin, gave me five guineas in the city of
Londonderry; more, I am assured, as feeling from my having seen better
days, than from the intrinsic value of it."
Besides _Mount Vernon_, the book contains several other poems, &c., and
extends to eighty-three pages, 8vo., with four pages subsequently inserted
at the end. It is, I believe, a very scarce book in America, and the copy I
possess is probably unique in this country. Like Mrs. Mackey's poems, it
seems to have been written in earnest, and it is impossible within the
limits of an article of this nature to give an adequate idea of the vein of
self-complacency which pervades the book, or of the high estimation in
which the author evidently held his own productions both in prose and
verse.
A few quotations illustrative of his descriptive powers must suffice:
"Mount Vernon! I have often heard of thee,
And often wish'd thy beauties for to see."--P. 9.
"The house itself is elegant and neat,
And is two stories high, neat and complete."--P. 10.
"A thought now strikes my mind, of Mount Vernon,
That happiness may ever shine thereon;
For, Nature form'd it pleasing to the mind;
Therefore, true earthly bliss we here might find:
Or, in a cottage, if our God be there,
For He is omnipresent, everywhere.
A garden was the first habitation
Of our parents, and near relat'on," (_sic_) &c.--P. 14.