Jackson was a pupil of John Travers, and wrote canzonets and elegies after the model established by Travers, close to, but separate from, the glee tradition. He was organist of Exeter Cathedral and a theorist on music. A friend of Thomas Gainsborough, he corresponded with him on the subject of aesthetics.

Lyrics: Samuel Croxall

Waft me some soft and cooling breeze
To Windsor's shady, cool retreat,
Where sylvan scenes, wide-spreading trees,
Repel the raging dogstar's heat;
Where tufted grass and mossy beds
Afford a rural calm repose;
Where woodbines hang their dewy heads
And fragrant sweets around disclose.

Old oozy Thames, that flows soft by,
Along the smiling valley plays;
His glassy surface cheers the eye,
While through the flow'ry mead he strays:
His fertile banks with herbage green,
His vales with golden plenty swell;
Where e'er his purer stream is seen,
The gods of health and pleasure dwell.

Let us thy clear, thy yielding wave
With naked arm once more divide;
In thee my glowing bosom lave,
And stem thy gently rolling tide.
Lay me, with damask roses crowned,
Beneath some osier's dusky shade;
Where waterlilies paint the ground
And bubbling springs refresh the glade.

Let chaste Clarinda too be there,
In azure mantle lightly dressed;
Ye nymphs, bind up her silken hair,
Ye zephyrs, fan her panting breast;
O haste away fair maid, and bring
The muse, the kindly friend to Love;
To thee alone the muse shall sing,
And warble through the vocal grove.