Thomas Morrison

Born at Midhurst, Sussex, on March 26, 1705, he was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. He later became a clergyman, and reference sources connect him with Littleham in Devon, where he died on July 20, 1778.

He is now chiefly known for A Pindarick Ode on Painting Addressed to Joshua Reynolds, Esq. (1767). The poem shows a strong interest in painting as an art of memory, beauty, and emotion, and it reflects the close conversation between literature and the visual arts in 18th-century Britain.

Although not among the best-known writers of his era, his surviving work offers a vivid glimpse of a learned churchman writing with warmth and enthusiasm about art. For modern listeners, he stands out as a small but memorable voice from the world of Georgian poetry.