First edition. Hay’s only original poetic composition, Mount Caburn is a celebration of his native Sussex, historical, antiquarian and archaeological, as viewed from a hill fort on the South Downs near Lewes. The poem is dedicated to Henrietta Pelham-Holles, wife of the secretary of state, hinting at a political connection confirmed by Hay’s marriage in 1731 to Elizabeth Pelham; Hay acted as the election agent for the Duke of Newcastle in the bitterly contestion Lewes election of 1734 (Oxford DNB). He went on to a succesful parliamentary career, but was probably best known for his literary output, including Deformity: an Essay (1754), based on his own experiences of living with a spinal deformity.

Aubin, Topographical Poetry, p. 86, 298; Foxon H117; Sale 82.

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