John Dyer, of whom I have no other account to give than his own
letters, published with Hughes's correspondence, and the notes added
by the editor, have afforded me, was born in 1700, the second son of
Robert Dyer of Aberglasney, in Caermarthenshire, a solicitor of
great capacity and note. He passed through Westminster school under
the care of Dr. Freind, and was then called home to be instructed in
his father's profession. But his father died soon, and he took no
delight in the study of the law; but, having always amused himself
with drawing, resolved to turn painter, and became pupil to Mr.
Richardson, an artist then of high reputation, but now better known
by his books than by his pictures.

Having studied a while under his master, he became, as he tells his
friend, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales and the
parts adjacent; but he mingled poetry with painting, and about 1727
[1726] printed "Grongar Hill" in Lewis's Miscellany. Being,
probably, unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he, like other
painters, travelled to Italy; and coming back in 1740, published the
"Ruins of Rome." If his poem was written soon after his return, he
did not make use of his acquisitions in painting, whatever they
might be; for decline of health and love of study determined him to
the Church. He therefore entered into orders; and, it seems,
married about the same time a lady of the name of Ensor; "whose
grandmother," says he, "was a Shakspeare, descended from a brother
of everybody's Shakspeare;" by her, in 1756, he had a son and three
daughters living.