The ambitious four-book "The Fleece" (1757), was also written in blank-verse. It was a georgic in the line of Virgilian imitations written during the 18th century that included John Philips' "Cyder", Christopher Smart's "The Hop-Garden" (1752) and James Grainger's "The Sugar Cane" (1764). Dyer's poem deals with the tending of sheep, the shearing and preparation of the wool, weaving, and trade in woollen manufactures. Its lofty epic diction also addresses the reasons for England's prosperity and on a personal level reflects on the benefits that trade will bring to him. Poetic recognition, however, was not among such benefits at the time, although the work had its supporters, including Grainger, one of the few who reviewed Dyer's poem sympathetically. In the following century William Wordsworth was to address a sonnet to Dyer as the