User:CIreland/Notes for GW

Note: Add a line or two on Resurrection of Jesus Christ and translations of Pindar.

Works

 * Stowe, the gardens of the Right Honourable Richard, Lord Viscount Cobham (1732)
 * A canto of the Fairy Queen. Written by Spenser (1739)
 * The institution of the order of the garter. A dramatick poem (1742)
 * Observations on the history and evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1747)
 * The odes of Pindar, with several other pieces translated (1749)
 * Education: a poem in two cantos. (1751)
 * Two orations (1759) (translation of Thucydides)
 * The oration of Plato (1768) (translation of Thucydides)

Note: Some publication dates are posthumous.

Biog
The son of a minister, West was educated at Winchester, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; his father intended a career in the Church for him. However, he was persuaded by his uncle, Lord Cobham to take a commission in the army but soon left to work under Lord Townshend, a prominent Whig. West left this position when it became clear that he had no prospect of advancement in such a career.

West married a Miss Bartlett with whom he lived in Wickham in Kent and was appointed Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital which provided him a modest income. Only late in his life, did West achieve a measure of financial success when he was appointed to a clerkship of the Privy Council in 1752. He died four years later.