From Richmond he removed to Acton-Common, where he had a house furnished
with great elegance--"kept a post-chaise, saddle-horses, and
pointers--and fished, fowled, hunted, coursed, and lived in an easy
independent manner." There he continued his irregular but rapid and
energetic course of composition, pouring out poem after poem as if he
felt his time to be short, or as if he were spurred on by the secret
stings of misery and remorse. To "The Duellist" succeeded "The
Author,"--a poem more general and less poisoned with personalities than
any of his former. "Gotham," by far the most poetical of his works, came
next. When Lord Sandwich stood for the High-Stewardship of Cambridge,
Churchill's ancient grudge, as well as his itch for satire, revived, and
he improvised "The Candidate," a piece of hasty but terrible sarcasm.
With breathless and portentous rapidity followed "The Farewell," "The
Times," and "Independence," which was his last published production. Two
fragments were found among his MSS., one "A Dedication to Warburton," and
another, "The Journey," his latest effort, and in which the last line now
seems prophetic--
"_I on my journey all alone proceed_."
A far and final journey was before this great and ill-fated poet. He was
seized with one of those sudden longings to see a friend, which are not
uncommon with the impulsive. He determined to visit Wilkes at Boulogne,
and conveyed his purpose to his brother John in the following
note:--"Dear Jack, adieu, C.C." On the 22d of October 1764, he started
for France, met Wilkes; but on the 29th was seized with miliary fever,
under which, while imprudently removed from his bed to be conveyed at his
own desire to England, his constitution sunk, and he expired on the 4th
of November, in the thirty-third year of his age. He is said to have died
calmly and firmly, rebuking the excessive grief of his friends, and
repeating some manly but not very Christian lines from his own poetry. By
a will made during his sickness, he left an annuity of sixty pounds to
his wife (in addition, we suppose, to her former allowance), fifty pounds
a-year to Miss Carr, besides providing for his two boys, and leaving
mourning rings to his more intimate friends. Wilkes got the charge of all
his works. His body was brought to Dover, where he now sleeps in an old
churchyard, which once belonged to the church of St Martin, with a stone
over him, bearing his age, the date of his death, and this line from one
of his own poems--
"Life to the last enjoy'd, here Churchill lies."
The words which he is reported to have used on his deathbed, _should_
have been inscribed on the stone--
"What a fool I have been!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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