His ecclesiastical provision was for a long time but slender. His
first patron, Mr. Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp in
Leicestershire, of eighty pounds a year, on which he lived ten
years, and then exchanged it for Belchford, in Lincolnshire, of
seventy-five. His condition now began to mend. In 1751 Sir John
Heathcote gave him Coningsby, of one hundred and forty pounds a
year; and in 1755 the Chancellor added Kirkby, of one hundred and
ten. He complains that the repair of the house at Coningsby, and
other expenses, took away the profit. In 1757 he published "The
Fleece," his greatest poetical work; of which I will not suppress a
ludicrous story. Dodsley the bookseller was one day mentioning it
to a critical visitor, with more expectation of success than the
other could easily admit. In the conversation the author's age was
asked; and being represented as advanced in life, "He will," said
the critic, "be buried in woollen." He did not indeed long survive
that publication, nor long enjoy the increase of his preferments,
for in 1758 he died.

Dyer is not a poet of bulk or dignity sufficient to require an
elaborate criticism. "Grongar Hill" is the happiest of his
productions: it is not indeed very accurately written; but the
scenes which it displays are so pleasing, the images which they
raise are so welcome to the mind, and the reflections of the writer
so consonant to the general sense or experience of mankind, that
when it is once read, it will be read again. The idea of the "Ruins
of Rome" strikes more, but pleases less, and the title raises
greater expectation than the performance gratifies. Some passages,
however, are conceived with the mind of a poet; as when, in the
neighbourhood of dilapidating edifices, he says,