e College
of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his sons, Malloch was recommended;
and I never heard that he dishonoured his credentials. When his pupils
were sent to see the world, they were entrusted to his care; and having
conducted them round the common circle of modish travels, he returned
with them to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he
resided, he naturally gained admission to many persons of the highest
rank, and the highest character--to wits, nobles, and statesmen. Of his
works, I know not whether I can trace the series. His first production
was, "William and Margaret;" of which, though it contains nothing very
striking or difficult, he has been envied the reputation; and plagiarism
has been boldly charged, but never proved. Not long afterwards he
published the "Excursion" (1728); a desultory and capricious view of
such scenes of nature as his fancy led him, or his knowledge enabled
him, to describe. It is not devoid of poetical spirit. Many of his
images are striking, and many of the paragraphs are elegant. The cast
of diction seems to be copied from Thomson, whose "Seasons" were then
in their full blossom of reputation. He has Thomson's beauties and his
faults. His poem on "Verbal Criticism" (1733) was written to pay court
to Pope, on a subject which he either did not understand, or willingly
misrepresented; and is little more than an improvement, or rather
expansion, of a fragment which Pope printed in a miscellany long
before he engrafted it into a regular poem. There is in this piece more
pertness than wit, and more confidence than knowledge. The versification
is tolerable, nor can criticism allow it a higher praise.

His first tragedy was Eurydice, acted at Drury Lane in 1731; of which I
know not the reception nor the merit, but have heard it mentioned as
a mean performance. He was not then too high to accept a prologue and
epilogue from Aaron Hill, neither of which can be much commended. Having
cleared his tongue from his native pronunciation so as to be no longer
distinguished as a Scot, he seems inclined to disencumber himself from
all adherences of his original, and took upon him to change his name
from Scotch Malloch to English Mallet, without any imaginable reason of
preference which the eye or ear can discover. What other proofs he gave
of disrespect to his native country I know not; but it was remarked of
him that he was the only Scot whom Scotchmen did not commend. About this