ey supported him in solitude for many months, but his friends
declared, that the short time in which it was spent, sufficiently
confuted his own account of his conduct.

His perpetual indigence, politeness, and wit, still raised him friends,
who were desirous to set him above want, and therefore sollicited Sir
Robert Walpole in his favour, but though promises were given, and Mr.
Savage trusted, and was trusted, yet these added but one mortification
more to the many he had suffered. His hopes of preferment from that
statesman; issued in a disappointment; upon which he published a poem in
the Gentleman's Magazine, entitled, The Poet's Dependance on a
Statesman; in which he complains of the severe usage he met with. But to
despair was no part of the character of Savage; when one patronage
failed, he had recourse to another. The Prince was now extremely
popular, and had very liberally rewarded the merit of some writers, whom
Mr. Savage did not think superior to himself; and therefore he resolved
to address a poem to him.

For this purpose he made choice of a subject, which could regard only
persons of the highest rank, and greatest affluence, and which was
therefore proper for a poem intended to procure the patronage of a
prince; namely, public spirit, with regard to public works. But having
no friend upon whom he could prevail to present it to the Prince, he had
no other method of attracting his observation, than by publishing
frequent advertisements, and therefore received no reward from his
patron, however generous upon other occasions. His poverty still
pressing, he lodged as much by accident, as he dined; for he generally
lived by chance, eating only when he was invited to the tables of his
acquaintance, from which, the meanness of his dress often excluded him,
when the politeness, and variety of his conversation, would have been
thought a sufficient recompence for his entertainment. Having no
lodging, he passed the night often in mean houses, which are set open
for any casual wanderers; sometimes in cellars, amongst the riot and
filth of the meanest and most profligate of the rabble; and sometimes
when he was totally without money, walked about the streets till he was
weary, and lay down in the summer upon a bulk, and in the winter, with
his associates in poverty, among the ashes of a glass-house.

In this manner were passed those days and nights, which nature had
enabled him to have employed in elevated speculation