Who Is William Shenstone?

Willianm Shenstone is an English poet and landscaper who is perhaps remembered more so for the later then the former. He lived between 1714 and 1763, a life of just forty eight years. The estate that belonged to him and where he undertook all his landscaping was called "The Leasowes".

Though his writing carrier began in 1737 with the publication of "Poems on various occasions, written for the entertainment of the author" his carrier in landscaping or horticulture only got going when he inherited the Leasowes estate in 1745. He retired that year and took up gardening.

William Shenstone received his education first at the Solihull Grammar School and then at Pembroke college in Oxford. He left the college however, without a degree.  

His works include "The Schoolmistress" published in 1742 and "Elegy written in a country church" in 1751 which are considered the most well known of his works.