THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OE CALIEORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 ^
 
 CHATTEP/rON: 
 
 A .STORY OF THE YEAH 1770.
 
 CHATTEBTON: 
 
 A /STUJiV OF THE YEAH 1770. 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVIJ) MASSON. M.A., LL.D., 
 
 Prnfessor of RMoric and Englinh Lileraiurc in the University of Edinhurah 
 
 M A M 1 I. l.A \ AN D (JO. 
 KS74. 
 
 Till Rigid of TranslaUon and Rcprodiichmi is Jicserved.
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 U. OLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PiUNTERS, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The Story is reprinted from the Author's Essays 
 BiogrcqjTiical and Critical: chiefly on English Poets, 
 published in 1856. In several pages of Part II. 
 there has been a correction of the facts. Tlie reasons 
 are explained in footnotes at pages 161 and 250. 
 
 Edinburgh : 
 
 September 1874.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAIIT I.— BRISTOL. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I'ACE 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY ... 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE attorney's APPRENTICE OF BRIST(n 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 BOUND FOR I.ONOiiy 85 
 
 rART II.—LOXDOX 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 SHORKDITCH 103
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PAGK 
 TOWX-TAI.K LOXG AGO 125 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIUF, 142 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BUOOKE .STREET, HOLBOKN 206 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTEPaTY 258
 
 PAUT I. 
 BRISTOL. 
 
 C. B
 
 CHATTEETON: 
 
 A STORY OF THE YEAR 1770 
 
 CHArraii I. 
 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 Was there ever a time that did not think higlily of 
 its own importance ? Was there ever a time when the 
 world did not believe itself to be going to pieces, and 
 when alarming pamphlets on " the present crisis " did 
 not lie unbought on the counters of the booksellers ? 
 Poor mortals that we are, how we do make the 
 most of our own little portion in tlie general drama 
 of history ! Nor are we quite wrong, after all. There 
 is nothing really to laugh at in our laborious anxieties 
 about this same "present crisis," which is always hap- 
 pening, and never over, " We live in earnest times : " 
 what is there in the incessant repetition of this stereo- 
 
 B 2
 
 CHATTERTON. 
 
 typed phrase, but an explicit assertion by each gene- 
 ration for itself that the great sense of life, transmitted 
 already tlirough so many generations, is now, in turn, 
 passing through it ? The time when we ourselves are 
 alive, the time when our eyes behold the light, and 
 wlien the breath is strong in our nostrils, that is the 
 crisis for us ; and, although it belongs to a higher than 
 we to determine the worth of what we do, yet that 
 we should do everything with a certain amount of 
 vehemence and bustle seems but the necessary noise 
 of the shuttle as we weave forth our allotted portion 
 of the general web of existence. 
 
 Well, many years ago, there was " a crisis " in Eng- 
 land. It was the time, reader, when our great-great- 
 grandfathers, intent on bringing about your existence 
 and mine, were, for that purpose, paying court to 
 our reluctant great-great -gi-andmothers. George III. 
 an obese young sovereign of thirty-three, had been 
 then ten years on the throne. Newspapers were 
 not so numerous as now ; Parliament was not open 
 to reporters ; and, had gentlemen of the Liberal 
 press been alive, with their present political opinions, 
 every soul of them would have been hanged. Never- 
 theless, people got on very well ; and there was enough 
 for a nation of seven millions to take interest in and 
 talk about, when they were in an inquisitive humour. 
 Lord North, an ungainly country gentleman, with
 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 goggle eyes and big cheeks, had just succeeded the 
 Duke of Grafton as the head of a Tory ministry ; 
 Lord Chatliam, throwing off his gout for the occasion, 
 had, at the age of sixty-two, resumed his place as the 
 tliundering Jove of the Opposition ; Bute and other 
 Scotchmen were still said to be sucking the blood oi" 
 the nation ; and Edmund Burke, then in the prime of 
 his strength and intellect, was publishing masterly 
 pamphlets, and trying to construct, under the auspices 
 of the Marquis of Eockingham, a new Whig party. 
 Among the notabilities out of Parliament were — Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson, then past his sixty-first year, and a 
 most obstinate old Tory ; his friend Sir Joshua Bey- 
 nolds, fourteen years younger ; Goldy, several years 
 younger still ; and Garrick, fifty-four years of age, 
 but as sprightly as ever. In another circle, but not 
 less prominently before the town, were Parson Home 
 and Mrs. Macaulay; and all England was ringing 
 with the terrible letters of the invisible Junius. But 
 the man of the hour, the hero of the self-dubbed crisis, 
 was John "Wilkes. 
 
 Arrested in 1763, on account of the publication of 
 No. 45 of the North Briton, in which one of the King's 
 speeches had been severely commented on; discharged 
 a few days afterwards in consequence of his privilege 
 as a Member of Parliament ; lifted instantaneously by 
 this accident into an unoxam]ilcd blaze of popular
 
 CHATTERTON. 
 
 favour; persecuted all the more on this account by the 
 Court party ; at last, in January 1764, expelled from 
 his seat in the House of Commons by a vote declaring 
 him to be a seditious libeller ; put on his trial there- 
 after before the Court of Queen's Bench, and escaping 
 sentence only by a voluntary flight to France : — this 
 squint-eyed personage, known up to that time only 
 as a profligate wit about town, who lived on his wife's 
 money, and fascinated other women in spite of his 
 ugliness, had now been for six years the idol and 
 glory of England. For six years "Wilkes and Forty- 
 five " had been chalked on the walls, " Wilkes and 
 Liberty" had been the cry of the mobs, and portraits 
 of Wilkes had hung in the windows of the print-shops. 
 Kemembering that he was the champion of liberal 
 opinions, even pious Dissenters had forgotten his 
 atheism and his profligacy. They distinguished, they 
 said, between the man and the cause which he re- 
 presented. 
 
 For a year or two the patriot had been content with 
 the mere echo of this applause as it was wafted to 
 him in Paris. But, cash failing him there, and the 
 parliament from which he had been ejected having 
 been dissolved, he had returned to England early in 
 17G8, had offered himself as a candidate for the City 
 of London, had lost that election, but had almost 
 instantly afterwards been returned for the county of
 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 Middlesex. Hereupon he had ventured to surrender 
 himself to the process of the law ; and the result had 
 been his condemnation, in June, 17(i8, to pay a fine 
 of 1,00U/., and undergo an imprisonment of twenty- 
 two months. Nor had this been all. No sooner had 
 Parliament met than it had proceeded to expel the 
 member for Middlesex. Then had begun the tug of 
 war between Parliament and the People. Thirteen 
 days after his expulsion, the exasperated electors of 
 Middlesex had again returned Wilkes as their repre- 
 sentative, no one having dared to oppose him. Again 
 the House had expelled him, and again the electors 
 had returned him. Not till after the fourth farce of 
 election had the contest ceased. On that occasion 
 three other candidates had presented themselves; and 
 one of them. Colonel Luttrell, having polled 296 votes, 
 had been declared by the House to be duly elected, 
 notwithstanding that the votes for Wilkes had been 
 four times as numerous. Tremendous then had been 
 the outcry of popular indignation. During the whole 
 of the years 17G8 and 1769 " the violation of the 
 right of election by parliamentary despotism" had 
 been the great topic of the country; and in the be- 
 ginning of 1770 this was still the question of the hour, 
 the question forced by the people into all other dis- 
 cussions, and regarding which all candidates for popular 
 favour, from Chatham himself down to the parish
 
 CBATTERTON. 
 
 beadle, were obliged distinctly to declare them- 
 selves. 
 
 jMeanwliile, Wilkes was in the King's Bench, South- 
 wark. His consolations, we may suppose, were that 
 by all tliis his popularity had been but increased, that 
 Parson Home and the Society for the Protection of 
 the BiU of Eights had organised a subscription in his 
 favour, which would more than pay his fine, and that 
 the whole country was waiting to do him honour on 
 the day when he should step out of prison. 
 
 It came at last: Tuesday, the 17th of April, 1770. 
 There was a considerable show of excitement all day 
 in the vicinity of the prison; and it was with some 
 difficulty that the patriot, getting into a hackney-coach 
 late in the afternoon, made his way, past the cordial 
 clutches of the mob, into the country. That evening 
 and the next there were huzzas and illuminations in 
 his honour ; the house of Beckford, the Lord Mayor, 
 in the then aristocratic region of Soho Square, was 
 conspicuously decorated with the word " Liberty ; " 
 and public dinners to celebrate the release of the 
 patriot were held in various parts of the city. 
 
 The rejoicings were not confined to London. In 
 many other towns in England there were demonstra- 
 tions in honour of Wilkes. A list of the chief places 
 may still be culled from the newspapers of the day. 
 From these newspapers we learn, what indeed might
 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY. 9 
 
 have been indepeiidently surmised, that not the least 
 eager among the towns of England, in this emulous 
 show of regard for Wilkes, was the ancient mercantile 
 city of Bristol. Tlie following appeared in the ruhlic 
 Advertiser of London, as from a Bristol correspondent, 
 on the very day of Wilkes's release: — 
 
 " Bristol, April 14:fh. — We hear that on Wednesday 
 next, being the day of Mr. Wilkes's enlargement, 
 forty-five persons are to dine at the ' Crown,' in the 
 passage leading from Broad Street to Tower I>ane. The 
 entertainment is to consist of two rounds of beef, of 
 45 lbs. each ; two legs of veal, weighing 45 lbs. ; two 
 ditto of pork, 45 lbs. ; a pig, roasted, 45 lbs. ; two 
 puddings of 45 lbs. ; 45 loaves ; and, to drink, 45 
 tankards of ale. After dinner, they are to smoke 45 
 pipes of tobacco, and to drink 45 bowls of punch. 
 Among others, the following toasts are to be given : — 
 1. Long live the Iving; 2. Long live the supporters 
 of British Liberty ; 2. The Magistrates of Bristol. And 
 the dinner to be on the table exactly 45 minutes after 
 two o'clock." 
 
 AVhether the precise dinner thus announced by the 
 Bristol correspondent of the Puhlic Advertiser was held 
 or not must, we fear, remain a mystery ; but that 
 there were several dinners in Bristol on the occasion 
 is quite certain. On Thursday, the 19th, in particular, 
 a public entertainment (possibly the above, with the 
 day altered) was given in honour of the patriot by
 
 10 CHATTERTON. 
 
 "an eniiuent citizen," and attended by many of the 
 most influential men in the place. 
 
 Ah ! the poetry of coincidences ! On that same 
 Thursday evening, while the assembled guests in the 
 " Crown " were clattering their glasses in the hot room, 
 pnffing their tobacco-smoke, and making the roof ring 
 with their tipsy uproar, there was walking moodily 
 through the streets of Bristol a young attorney's ap- 
 prentice, who, four days before, had been discharged 
 from his employment because he had alarmed his mas- 
 ter by threatening to commit suicide. This attorney's 
 apprentice was Thomas Chatterton.
 
 CHAPTER 11, 
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S AFF RENT ICE OF BRISTOL. 
 
 It was in the month of August 1760 that a poor 
 widow, who supported herself and two children by 
 dressmaking, and by keeping a small day-school in 
 one of the back streets of Bristol, gained admission 
 for her younger child, a boy of seven years and nine 
 months old, into Colston's School, a charitable founda- 
 tion similar in some respects to Christ's Hospital in 
 London. The husband of this widow, a rough, drunken 
 fellow, who had been a singer, or sub-chaunter, in the 
 cathedral choir of Bristol, as well as the master of a 
 kind of free school for boys, had died a month or two 
 before his son's birth. An old grandmother, how- 
 ever — either the widow's own mother or her husband's 
 — was still alive, dependent, in some degree, on the 
 family. 
 
 For nearly seven years, or from August 17G0 to 
 July 1707, the boy remained an inmate of Colston's
 
 12 CHATTERTON. 
 
 School, wearing, as the Christ's Hospital hoys in 
 London still do, a hlue coat and yellow stockings, 
 and receiving, according to the custom of the institu- 
 tion, such a plain education as might fit him for an 
 ordinary mercantile or mechanical occupation. But, 
 from the very first, the hoy was singular. For one 
 thing, he w^as a prodigious reader. The Bible, theolo- 
 gical treatises, scraps of history, old magazines, poetry, 
 whatever in the shape of a printed volume came in 
 his way — all were eagerly pounced upon and devoured ; 
 and it was not long before his reputation in this respect 
 enabled him to lay one or two circulating libraries 
 under friendly contribution. Then, again, his temper, 
 people remarked, had something in it quite unusual 
 in one so young. Generally very sullen and silent, 
 he was liable to sudden and unaccountable fits of 
 weeping, as well as to violent fits of rage. He was 
 also extremely secretive, and fond of being alone ; and 
 on Saturday and other holiday afternoons, when he 
 was at liberty to go home from school, it was a subject 
 of speculation with his mother, Mrs. Chatterton, and 
 her acquaintances, what the boy could be doing, sitting 
 alone, for hours, as was his habit, in a garret full of all 
 kinds of out-of-the-way lumber. 
 
 When he was about ten years of age, it became 
 known to some of his seniors that the little Bluecoat 
 was in the habit of writing verses. It is supposed that
 
 THE ATTORNEY 'a APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 13 
 
 a taste for that exercise had been roused in him, as 
 well as in other boys in Colston's Scliool, by the usher or 
 under-master of the school, a Mr. Thomas I'liillips, 
 who himself dabbled in literature, and contributed to 
 periodicals. If so, however, the little pupil does not 
 seem to have taken even the usher into his confidence 
 originally, but to have proceeded on his own account. 
 His first known attempt in verse had been a pious 
 little achievement, entitled " On the Last Epiphany ; 
 •or, Christ's coming to Judgment ; " and so proud had 
 he been of this performance, and so ambitious of seeing 
 it in print, that he boldly dropped it, one Saturday 
 afternoon, into the letter-box of Felix Farley's Bristol 
 Journal, a weekly newspaper in high local repute. It 
 appeared in the columns of that newspaper on the 8 th 
 of January, 1763. From that day Chatterton was a 
 sworn poet. Piece after piece was dropped by him 
 during a period of three years into the letter-box of 
 the accommodating Journal. Only one of these, how- 
 ever, is it necessary to mention particularly — a little 
 lampoon, printed the 7th of January, 1764, and entitled 
 " The Churchwarden and the Apparition ; a Fable." 
 A Mr. Joseph Thomas, a brickmaker by trade, chancing 
 in that year to hold the office of churchwarden for the 
 parish of St. ]Mary lledclifte, had greatly scandalized 
 the public mind by causing the old churchyard to be 
 levelled, and the surplus earth and clay to be carted
 
 14 CRATTERTON. 
 
 away, as people said, for his own professional uses. 
 For this outrage on decorum he was much attacked 
 by the local press, and nowhere more severely than 
 in the above-mentioned verses of the little Bluecoat; 
 in whom, by-the-bye, there must have been a kind of 
 hereditary resentment of such a piece of sacrilege, as 
 his ancestors, the Chattertons, had been sextons of the 
 church of St. Mary Eedcliffe for a period of one hundred 
 and fifty years continuously. The ofSce had, in fact, 
 only passed out of the family on the death of an older 
 brother of his father, named John Chatterton. 
 
 The date does not seem quite certain, but it was 
 probably nearly three years after this occurrence, and 
 when Chatterton was above fourteen years of age, and 
 one of the senior boys in the Bluecoat School, that he 
 stepped, one afternoon, into the shop of a Mr. Burgum, 
 partner of a Mr. Catcott in the pewter trade, 
 
 " I have found out a secret about you, Mr. Burgum," 
 he said, going up to the pewterer at his desk. 
 
 " Indeed : what is it ? " said Mr. BurQ;um. 
 
 " That you are descended from one of the noblest 
 families in England." 
 
 " I did not know it," said the victim, 
 
 " It is true though," said Chatterton ; " and, to prove 
 it, I will bring you your pedigree written out, as I 
 have traced it by the help of books of the peerage and 
 old parchments."
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 15 
 
 Accordingly, a few days afterwards, he again called, 
 and presented the astonished pewterer with a manu- 
 script copybook, headed in large text as follows: 
 "Account of the Family of the De Berghams, from 
 the Norman Conquest to this Time ; collected from 
 original Records, Tournament EoUs, and the Heralds 
 of March and Garter Records, by T, Chatterton." In 
 this document the Burgum pedigree was elaborately 
 traced up, through no end of great names and illus- 
 trious intermarriages, to one " Simon de Seyncts Lyze, 
 alias Senliz," who had come into England with the 
 Conqueror, married a daughter of the Saxon chief 
 Waltheof, become possessed of Burgham Castle in 
 Northumberland, and other properties, and been even- 
 tually created Earl of Northampton. 
 
 Pleased with the honours thus unexpectedly thrust 
 upon him, the pewterer gave the Bluecoat five shillings 
 for his trouble. To show his gratitude, Chatterton 
 soon returned with "A Continuation of the Account 
 of the Family of the De Berghams, from the Norman 
 Conquest to this time." In the original pedigree the 
 young genealogist had judiciously stopped short at the 
 sixteenth century. In the supplement, however, he 
 ventures as far down as the reign of Charles II., back 
 to which point the pewterer is left to supply the links 
 for himself. But the chief feature in the pedigree, 
 as elaborated in the second document, is that, in addi-
 
 16^ CHA TTERTON. 
 
 tion to other great names, it contains a poet. This 
 poet, whose name was John de Bergham, was a monk 
 of the Cistercian order, in Bristol; he had been edu- 
 cated at Oxford, and was "one of the greatest orna- 
 ments of the age in which he lived." He wrote several 
 books, and translated some part of the Iliad, under 
 the title of " Eomance of Troy." To give Mr, Burgum 
 some idea of the poetic style of this distinguished man, 
 his ancestor, there was inserted a short poem of his in 
 the ancient dialect, entitled, " The Eomaunte of the 
 Cnychte;" and, to render the meaning of the poem 
 more intelligible, there was appended a modern metri- 
 cal paraphrase of it by Chatterton himself. 
 
 By the eclat of this wonderful piece of genealogical 
 and heraldic ingenuity done for Mr. Burgum, as well 
 as by the occasional exercise in a more or less public 
 manner of his talent for verse-making, Chatterton, 
 already recognised as the first for attainments among 
 all the lads in Colston's School, appears to have won 
 a kind of reputation with a few persons of the pew- 
 terer's stamp out of doors — honest people, with small 
 pretensions to literature themselves, but willing to 
 encourage a clever boy whose mother was in poor 
 circumstances. 
 
 It was probably through the influence of such 
 persons that, after having been seven years at the 
 school, he was removed from it, in July, 1767, to be
 
 TffE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 17 
 
 apprenticed to Mr. Jolin Lambert, a Bristol attorney. 
 The trustees of Colston's School paid to Lambert, on 
 the occasion, a premium of ten pounds ; and the 
 arrangement was that Chatterton should be bound 
 to him for seven years, during which period he was 
 to board and lodge in j\Ir. Lambert's house, his mother 
 undertaking to wash and mend for him. There was 
 no salary; but, as happens in such cases, there were 
 probably means in Bristol by which a lad writing, as 
 Chatterton did, a neat clerk's hand, could hope to earn, 
 now and then, a few stray shillings. At any rate, he 
 had the prospect of finding himself, at the end of seven 
 years, in a fair way to be a Bristol attorney. 
 
 Lambert's office-hours were from eight in the morn- 
 ing till eight in the evening, with an interval for 
 dinner. From eight till ten in the evening the appren- 
 tice was at liberty ; but he was required to be home 
 at his master's house, which was at some distance from 
 the office, punctually by ten. An indignity which he 
 felt very much, aud more than once complained of, 
 was that, by the household arrangements, which were 
 under the control of an old lady, his master's mother, 
 he was sent to take his meals in the kitchen, and made 
 to sleep with the footboy. To set against this, liow- 
 ever, there was the advantage of plenty of spare time ; 
 for, as Lambert's business was not very extensive, the 
 apprentice was often left alone in the office with nothing 
 
 c. c
 
 18 CHATTERTON. 
 
 special to do, and at liberty to amuse himself as he liked. 
 From copying letters and precedents, he could turn 
 to Camden's Britannia, an edition of which lay on the 
 office- shelves, to Holinshed's Chronicles, to SpegMs 
 Chaucer, to Geoffrey of Monmouth, or to any other book 
 that he could borrow from a library, and smuggle in 
 for his private recreation. Sometimes, also, the tradition 
 goes, his master, entering the office unexpectedly, would 
 catch him writing verses, and would lecture him on 
 the subject. Once the offence was still more serious. 
 An anonymous abusive letter had been sent to Mr. 
 Warner, the head-master of Colston's School ; and, by 
 the texture of the paper and other evidences, this letter 
 was traced to the ex-Bluecoat of Mr. Lambert's office, 
 whose reasons for sending it had probably been personal 
 On this occasion his master was so exasperated as to 
 strike him. 
 
 A young attorney's apprentice, of proud and sullen 
 temper, discontented with his situation, ambitious, con- 
 scious of genius, yet treated as a boy and menial ser- 
 vant : such was Chatterton during the two years that 
 followed his removal from the Bluecoat School. To 
 this add tlie want of pocket-money ; for, busy as he was 
 with his master's work and his own secret exercises 
 in the way of literature, it is still authentically known 
 that he found time of an evening not only to drop in 
 pretty regularly at his mother's house, but also to do
 
 TH,E ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. H) 
 
 as other attorneys' apprentices did, and i)rosecute little 
 amusements, such as all apprentices like to lind prac- 
 ticable. Altogether, the best glimpse we have of 
 Chatterton in his commoner aspect as an attorney's 
 apprentice in Bristol is that which we get from a 
 letter written by him, during his first year with Mr. 
 Lambert, to a youth named Baker, who had been his 
 chum at Colston's School, and had emigrated to 
 America. Baker had written to him from South Caro- 
 lina, informing him, amongst other things, that he had 
 fallen in love with an American belle, of the name of 
 Hoy land, whose charms had obscured his memory of 
 the Bristol fair ones, and begging him, it would also 
 appear, to woo the ]Muses in his favour, and transmit 
 him across the Atlantic a poem or two, to be presented 
 to Miss Hoyland. Chatterton complies, and sends a 
 long letter, beginning with a few amatory effusions to 
 Miss Hoyland, such as Baker wanted, and concluding 
 thus : — 
 
 "March 6th, 1768. 
 
 "Dear Friend, — T must now close my poetical 
 labours, my master being returned from London. You 
 write in a very entertaining style ; though I am afraid 
 mine will be to the contrary. Your celebrated JSIiss 
 Eumsey is going to be married to JNIr. Fowler, as he 
 himself informs me. Pretty children! about to enter 
 into the comfortable yoke of matrimony, to be at their 
 liberty ; just d propos to the old saw, ' But out of the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 CHATTERTON. 
 
 frying-pan into the fire.' For a luver, heavens mend 
 him ! but for a liusband, oh, excellent ! What a female 
 Machiavel this Miss Rumsey is ! A very good mistress 
 of nature, to discover a demon in the habit of a parson ; 
 to find a spirit so well adapted to the humour of an 
 English wife; that is, one who takes off his hat to 
 every person he chances to meet, to show his staring 
 horns ! . . . mirahih, what will human nature de- 
 generate into ? Fowler aforesaid declares he makes a 
 scruple of conscience of being too free with Miss 
 Eumsey before marriage. There's a gallant for you ! 
 Why, a girl with anything of the woman would despise 
 him for it. But no more of this. I am glad you 
 approve of the ladies in Charlestown, and am obliged 
 to you for the compliment of including me in your 
 happiness. My friendship is as firm as the white rock 
 when the black waves war around it, and the waters 
 burst on its hoary top ; when the driving wind ploughs 
 the sable sea, and the rising waves aspire to the clouds, 
 turning with the rattling hail. So much for heroics ; 
 to speak plain English, I am, and ever will be, your 
 unalterable friend. 1 did not give your love to Miss 
 Rumsey, having not seen her in private ; and in public 
 she will not speak to me, because of her great love to 
 Fowler, and on another occasion. I have been violently 
 in love these three-and-twenty times since your depar- 
 ture, and not a few times came off victorious. I am 
 obliged to you for your curiosity, and shall esteem it 
 very much, not on account of itself, but as coming from 
 you. The poems, &c., on Miss Hoyland, I wish better, 
 for her sake and yours. The ' Tournament ' I have only 
 one canto of, which I send herewith ; the remainder is 
 entirely lost. I am, with the greatest regret, going to
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 21 
 
 subscribe myself your faithful and constant friend till 
 death do us part. 
 
 " Thomas Ciiatteetox. 
 
 "To Mk. Bakeu. Charlestown, South Carolina." 
 
 When Chatterton wrote .this letter he was fifteen 
 years and four months old. To its tone, as illustrative 
 of certain parts of his character, we shall have yet to 
 refer ; meanwhile let us attend to the mention made 
 in it of the Tournament, one canto of which is said to 
 be sent along with it. The poem here meant is doubt- 
 less the antique dramatic fragment published among 
 Chatterton's writings in the assumed guise of an ori- 
 ginal poem of the fifteenth century, descriptive of a- 
 tournament held at Bristol in the reign of Edward I. 
 From the manner of the allusion it is clear that as 
 early as this period of Chatterton's life — that is, before 
 the close of the first year of his apprenticeship — he 
 was in the habit of showing about to some of his 
 private friends poems in an antique style, which he 
 represented as genuine antiques, copied from old 
 parchments in his possession. It was not, how- 
 ever, till about si.x months after the date of the 
 foregoing epistle that he made his debut in the 
 professed character of an antiquarian and proprietor 
 of ancient manuscripts before the good folks of Bristol 
 generally. 
 
 In September, 1708, a new bridge was opened at
 
 22 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 Bristol witli much civic pomp and ceremony. While 
 the excitement was still fresh, the antiquaries of the 
 town were startled by the appearance, in Felix Farley s 
 Journal, of a very interesting account of the cere- 
 monies that had attended the similar opening, several 
 centuries hefore, of the old bridge, which had just been 
 superseded. This account, communicated by an anony- 
 mous correspondent, signing himself " Dunhelmus Bris- 
 toliensis," purported to be taken from an old manuscript, 
 contemporary with the occurrence. It described how 
 tlie opening of the old bridge luul taken place on a 
 " Fridaie " ; how, on that " Fridaie ", the ceremonies 
 had begun by one " Master Greggorie Dalbenye ", 
 who went " aboute the tollynge of tlie tenth clock ", 
 to inform " Master ]\Iayor all thyngs were prepared " ; 
 how the procession to tlie bridge had consisted, first, 
 of " two Beadils streying fresh stre ", then of a man 
 dressed as " a Saxon Elderman ", then of " a mickle 
 strong manne in armour carrying a huge anlace ('i.e. 
 sword) ", then of " six claryons and minstrels ", then of 
 " Master Mayor " on a white horse, then of " the 
 Eldermen and Cittie Brothers" on sable horses, and, 
 finally, of " the preests, parish, mendicant, and seculor, 
 some synging Saincte Warburgh's song, others sound- 
 ing claryons thereto, and others some citrialles " ; how, 
 when the procession had reached the bridge, the 
 " manne with the anlace " took his station on a mound
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 23 
 
 reared in the middle of it ; liow the rest gathered round 
 him, " the preestes and freers, all in white albs, making 
 a most goodlie shewe", and singing "the song of 
 Saiucte Baldwyn " ; how, when this was done, " the 
 nianne on the top threwe with greet myght his anlace 
 into tlie see, and the claryons sounded an auntiant 
 cliarge and forloyn " ; how then there was more sing- 
 ing, and, at the town-cross, a Latin sermon " preeched 
 by lialph de Blundeville " ; and how the day was 
 ended by festivities, tlie performance of the play of 
 " The Knyghtes of Bristowe " by the friars of St, 
 Augustine, and the lighting of a great bonfire on 
 Kynwulph Hill. 
 
 The antiquaries of the town were eager to know 
 the anonymous "Dunhelmus Bristoliensis " who had 
 contributed this perfectly novel document to the 
 archives of Bristol ; and they succeeded in identifying 
 him with Mr. Lambert's singular apprentice, — the dis- 
 coverer, as they would now learn, of a similar piece 
 of antiquity in the shape of a pedigree for Mr. Burgum, 
 the pewterer. Examined, coaxed, and threatened, on 
 the subject of his authority, Chatterton prevaricated, 
 but at last adhered to the assertion that the manuscript 
 in question was one of a collection which had belonged 
 to his father, who had obtained them from the laige 
 chest or coffer in the nnininicnt-room of the church of 
 St. Mary Eedcliffe. And here, whether owing to his
 
 24 CHATTERTON. 
 
 obstinacy or the stupidity of the inquisitors, the matter 
 was allowed to rest. 
 
 The general impression that followed the discovery 
 of the author of the communication relative to the 
 opening of the old bridge was that Mr. Lambert's 
 apprentice was really a very extraordinary lad, who, 
 besides being a poet in a small way, was also a dabbler 
 in antiquities, and had somehow or other become 
 possessed, as he said himself, of valuable materials 
 respecting the history of Bristol. Accordingly he be- 
 came, in some sense, a local celebrity. Among the 
 persons who now took him by the hand, if they 
 had not been already acquainted with him, at least 
 three were of some name and importance in Bristol — 
 Mr. George Catcott, the partner of Mr. Burgum ; his 
 brother, the Eev. Alexander Catcott, vicar of one of the 
 Bristol parish-churches ; and Mr. Barrett, a surgeon in 
 good practice. Two of these had a reputation as 
 literary men. ]\Ir. William Barrett, the surgeon, was 
 not only a sedate and jjrosperous professional man, but 
 of repute as an antiquarian, and was known to be en- 
 gaged in writing a History of Bristol. The Eev. Mr. 
 Catcott had written a book in support of the Noachian 
 view of the Deluge, and was, besides, according to 
 Chatterton's delineations of him, a kind of oracle on 
 scientific points at Bristol tea-parties, where, " shewing 
 wondering cits his fossil store," he would expound his
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 25 
 
 orthodox theory of spring's, rocks, mountains, and 
 strata. "What the clerical Catcott was at refined tea- 
 parties his coarser brother, the pewterer, was at taverns. 
 Chattertou thus hits him off: — 
 
 " So at Llewellyn's your great brother sits, 
 The laughter of his tributary wits, 
 liuling the noisy multitude with ease, — 
 Empties his pint, and sputters his decrees," 
 
 Besides the two Catcotts, Barrett, and Burgum (with 
 whom may be associated,, in a vague way, the Rev. 
 My. Broughton, vicar of St. Mary Eedcliffe), the follow- 
 ing are more or less heard of as among the acquaint- 
 ances of Chatterton in Bristol during his apprenticeship 
 in Mr. Bambert's office — Mr. Thomas Phillii)8, the usher 
 or under-master of Colston's School, already mentioned ; 
 Mr. Matthew ]\Iease, a vintner; Messrs. Allen and 
 Broderip, two musicians and church-organists of the 
 town; Mr. Clayfield, a distiller, "a worthy, generous 
 man;" Mr. Alcock, a miniature-painter; T. Gary, a 
 pipe-maker ; H. Kator, a sugar-baker ; William Smith, 
 a player ; J. Piudhall, an apothecary's apprentice ; and 
 James Thistlethwaite, who had been a Colston's charity- 
 boy with Chatterton, and had been apprenticed to a 
 Bristol stationer. There are references also to some 
 acquaintances of the other sex : Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Carty, 
 Miss Webb, Miss Sandford, Miss Bush, Miss Thatcher, 
 Miss Hill, and others ; the most conspicuous of all, and
 
 26 CHATTERTON. 
 
 the only one between whom and Chatterton one is able 
 to surmise a sentimental relation, being that " female 
 Machiavel, Miss Paimsey," so spitefully described in 
 the letter to the transatlantic Mr. Baker. On the whole, 
 however, the Catcotts, Barrett, and Burgum, come most 
 into notice. On the Rev. Mr. Catcott, Chatterton, we 
 are to suppose, drops in occasionally, to listen to a pre- 
 lection on fossils and the Deluge ; Burgum and the 
 other Catcott he may sometimes meet at Matthew 
 Mease's, where Catcott acts the chairman ; and from 
 Barrett, on w"hom he calls at his surgery once a week 
 or so, he receives sensible advices as to the propriety 
 of making poetry subordinate to his profession, as 
 well as (what he greatly prefers) tlie loan of medical 
 and uncommon books. 
 
 It was amid this little public of heterogeneous in- 
 dividuals — clergymen, surgeons, tradesmen, vintners, and 
 young apprentices like himself — that Chatterton pro- 
 duced his Eowley Poems and other antique writings. 
 As early as the date of the Burgum pedigree, we have 
 seen, he had ventured to bring out one antique 
 piece, the Romaunte of the CnycJde by the so-called 
 John de Bergham. To this had been added, as early 
 as the commencement of 1768, the " Tournament," 
 mentioned in tlie letter to Baker, and perhaps other 
 pieces. Farther, in the account of the opening of the 
 old bridge (September, 1768), references are introduced
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPBENTICE OF BLISTOL. 27 
 
 to the " Songe of Saincte WarLurgli," and the " Soiige 
 of Saincte Baldwyn," showing that those antiques must 
 liave been tlien extant. In short, there is evidence 
 that, before the conclusion of liis sixteenth year, Chat- 
 terton had produced at least a portion of his alleged 
 antiques. But the year that followed, or from the close 
 of 17G8 to the close of 1709, seems to have been his 
 most prolific period in this respect. In or about the 
 winter of 1 708-9 — that is, when he had just completed 
 his sixteenth year— he produced, in the circle of his 
 friends above mentioned, his ballad of The Bristowe 
 Tragedie; his "tragical interlude" of yElla, in itself 
 a large poem ; his Elinoure and Jnga, a fine pastoral 
 poem of the Wars of the Roses; and numerous other 
 pieces of all forms and lengths, in the same antique 
 spelling. Then, also, did he first distinctly give the 
 account of those pieces to which he ever afterwards 
 adhered : to wit, that they were, for the greater part, 
 the compositions of Thomas Eowley, a priest of Bristol 
 of the fifteenth century, many of whose manuscripts, 
 preserved in the muniment-room of the church of 
 St. Mary, had come into his hands. 
 
 The Catcotts were the persons most interested in the 
 recovered manuscripts ; and, whenever Chatterton had 
 a new poem of Rowley's on his hands, it was usually 
 to Mr. George Catcott that he first gave a copy of it. 
 To Mr. Barrett, on the other hand, he usually imparted
 
 28 CHATTERTON. 
 
 such scraps of ancient records, deeds, accounts of old 
 churches, &c., as were likely to be of use to that 
 gentleman in preparing his History of Bristol. So 
 extensive, in fact, were the surgeon's obligations to the 
 young man that he seems to have thought it impossible 
 to requite them otherwise tlian by a pecuniary recom- 
 pense. Accordingly, there is evidence of an occasisonal 
 guinea or half-guinea having been transferred from the 
 pocket of Mr. Barrett to that of Chatterton on the score 
 of literary assistance rendered to Barrett in the progress 
 of his work. From the Catcotts, too, Chatterton seems, 
 on similar grounds, to have now and then obtained 
 something. That they were not so liberal as they 
 might have been, however, the following bill in Chat- 
 terton's handwriting will show : — 
 
 " Mr. G. Catcott 
 
 To the Executors of T. Rowley. 
 To pleasure reed, in readg. his Historic works . .£550 
 
 his Poetic works ... 5 5 
 £10 10 0" 
 
 Whether the above was splenetically sent to Catcott, 
 or whether it was only drawn up by Chatterton in a 
 cashless moment by way of frolic, is not certain ; the 
 probability, however, is, that, if it was sent, the pew- 
 terer did not think it necessary to discharge it. Yet 
 he was not such a hard subject as his partner, Burgum,
 
 TffE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 29 
 
 whom Chatterton (no doubt after suiricient trial) repre- 
 sents as stinginess itself. 
 
 But it was not only as a young man of extensive 
 antiquarian knowledge and of decided literary talent 
 that Chatterton was known in Bristol. As the tran- 
 scriber of the Eowley Poems, and the editor of curious 
 pieces of information, derived from ancient manuscripts 
 which he was understood to have in his possession, the 
 Catcotts, Barrett, and the rest, had no lault to find 
 with him ; but there were other phases in which he 
 appeared, by no means so likely to recommend him to 
 their favour, or to the favour of such other influential 
 persons in the community as might have been disposed 
 to patronise modesty in combination with youth and 
 literature. 
 
 In a town of 70,000 inhabitants (which was about 
 the population of Bristol at that time) it must be 
 remembered that all the public characters are marked 
 men. The mayor, the various aldermen and common- 
 councilmen, the city clergymen, the chief grocers, 
 bankers, and tradesmen, the teachers of the public 
 schools, kc, are all recognised as they pass along the 
 streets; and their peculiarities, physical and moral, 
 such as the red nose of Alderman Such-an-one, the 
 wheezy voice of the Kev. Sucli-another, and the blus- 
 teriTig self-importance of citizen Such-a- third, are per- 
 fectly familiar to the civic imagination. Now, it is the
 
 CHATTERTON. 
 
 most natural of all things for a young man in such a 
 town, just arrived at a tolerable conceit of himself, and 
 determined to have a place some day in Mr. Craik's 
 " Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties," to be seized 
 with a tremendous disrespect for everything locally 
 sacred, and to delight in avowing the same. What 
 nonsense tliey do talk in the town-council ; what a 
 miserable set of mercantile rogues are the wealthy 
 citizens; what an absence of liberality and higli general 
 intelligence there is in the whole procedure of the com- 
 munity : these are the common-places (often, it must be 
 confessed, true enough) through which the high-spirited 
 young native of a middle-class British town must 
 almost necessarily pass, on his way to a higher appre- 
 ciation of men and things. Through the sorrows of 
 Lichfield, the Lichfield youth realizes how it is that all 
 creation groaneth and travaileth ; and, pinched by the 
 inconveniences of Dundee, the aspirant who is there 
 nursed into manhood turns down his collar at all 
 things, and takes a Byronic view of the entire universe. 
 Chatterton was specially liable to this discontent 
 with all around him. Of a dogged, sullen, and pas- 
 sionate disposition, not without a considerable spice of 
 malice; treated as a boy, yet with a brain believing 
 itself the most powerful in Bristol ; sadly in want 
 of pocket-money for purposes more or less question- 
 able, and having hardly any means of procuring it —
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 31 
 
 he took liis revenge out in satire against all that was 
 respectable in Bristol. If Mr. Thomas Ilarri.s, then 
 the Itight Worshipful Mayor of the city, passed him 
 on the pavement, either ignorant what a youth of 
 genius he was pushing aside, or looking down some- 
 what askance, as a mayor will do at an attorney's 
 apprentice that will not take off his hat when he is 
 expected, the thought that probably arose in his breast 
 was, "You are a purse-proud fool, Mr. Mayor, and I 
 have more sense in my little finger than you have in 
 your whole body." If there was a civic dinner, and 
 Chatterton was told of it, he would remark what 
 feeding there would be among the aldermen and city 
 brothers, what guzzling of claret, and what after-dinner 
 speeches by fellows that could not pronounce their h's 
 and hardly knew how to read. If he chanced to sit in 
 church, hearing the Eev. Dr. Cutts Barton, then Dean 
 of Bristol, preach, what would pass in his mind would 
 be, " You are a drowsy old rogue, Cutts, and have no 
 more religion in you than a sausage." Even when Dr. 
 Newton, the Bishop of the diocese, editor of Milton 
 and distinguished prelate as he was, made his appear- 
 ance in the pulpit, he would not be safe from the 
 excoriations of this young critic in the distant pew. 
 Chatterton's own friends and acquaintances, too, came 
 in for their share of his sarcasms. Lambert, we believe, 
 he hated; and we have seen how he could wreak a
 
 32 CHATTERTON. 
 
 personal grudge on an old teacher. The Eev. Mr. 
 Catcott, not a bad fellow in the main, he soon set 
 down, in his own private opinion, as a narrow-minded 
 parson, with no force or philosophy, conceited with his 
 reputation at tea-parties, and a dreadful bore with his 
 fossils and his theory of the Deluge. His brother, the 
 unclerical Catcott, again, had probably more wit and 
 vigour, but dogmatised insufferably over his beer; 
 Burgum was a vain, stingy, ungrammatical goose ; and 
 Mr. Barrett, witli all his good intentions, was too fond 
 of giving common-place advices. In short, Bristol was 
 a vile place, where originality or genius, or even ordi- 
 nary culture and intelligence, had no chance of being 
 appreciated ; and to spend one's existence there would 
 be but a life-long attempt to teach a certain class of 
 animals the value and the beauty of pearls ! 
 
 Poor unhappy youth ! how, through the mist and din 
 of many years past and gone since then, I recognise 
 thee walking, in the winter evenings of 1769-70, 
 through the dai'k streets of Bristol, or out into its 
 dark environs, ruminating such evil thoughts as these ! 
 And what, constituting myself for the moment the 
 mouthpiece of all that society has since pronounced 
 on thy case, should I, leaping back over the long years 
 to place myself at thy side, whisper to thee by way of 
 counsel or reproach ? —
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 33 
 
 " Persist ; be content ; be more modest ; think less of 
 forbidden indulgences ; give up telling lies ; attend to 
 your master's business ; and, if you ivill cherish the fire 
 of genius, and become a poet and a man of name, like 
 the Johnsons, the Goldsmiths, the Churchills, and others 
 whom you think yourself born to equal or surpass, at 
 least study patience, have faith in honourable courses, 
 and realize, above all, that wealth and fame are vanity, 
 and that whether you succeed or fail it will be all the 
 same a hundred years after this." 
 
 " Easily said," thou wouldst answer ; " cheaply ad- 
 vised ! I also could speak as you do ; if your soul 
 were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against 
 you, and shake mine head at you. That the present 
 will pass, and that a hundred years hence all the 
 tragedy or all the farce will have been done and over 
 — true; I know it. Nevertheless I know also that, 
 minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, the 
 present must be moved through and exhausted ! ' A 
 hundred years after this ! ' Did not Manlius the 
 Eoman know it ; and yet was there not a moment in 
 the history of the world — a moment to be fully felt and 
 gone through by Manlius — when, flung from the Tar- 
 peian rock, he, yet living, hung halfway between his 
 gaping executioners above and his ruddy death among 
 the stones below ? ' A hundred years after this 1 ' 
 Pompeius, the Koman, knew it ; and yet was there not 
 
 C. D
 
 34 GHATTERTON. 
 
 a moment in the history of the world — a moment fully 
 to be endured by Pompeius — when, reading in the 
 treacherous boat, he sat halfway between the ship that 
 bore his destinies and his funeral pile on the Libyan 
 shore ? Centuries back in the past those moments now 
 lie engulphed ; but what is that to me ? It is my turn 
 now ; here I am, wretched in this beastly Bristol, 
 where Savage was allowed to starve in prison ; and, 
 by the very fact that I live, I have a right to my 
 solicitude ! " 
 
 Obstinate boy ! is there then aught that can still, 
 with some show of sense, be advised to you ? Seek 
 a friend. Leave the Catcotts, lay and clerical, the 
 Burgums, the Barretts, the Matthew Meases, and the rest 
 of them, and seek some one true friend, such as surely 
 even Bristol can supply, of about the same age as your- 
 self, or, what were better, somewhat older. See him 
 daily, walk with him, smoke with him, laugh with him, 
 discuss religion with him, hear his experiences, show your 
 poetry to him, and, above all, make a clean breast to him 
 of your various delinquencies. Or, more efficient per- 
 haps still, fall really in love. Avoid the Miss Eumseys, 
 and find out some beauty of a better kind, to whom, 
 with or without hope, you can vow the future of your 
 noblest heart. Find her ; walk beneath her window ; 
 catch glimpses of her ; dream of her ; if fortune favours, 
 woo her, and (true you are but seventeen !) win her.
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 3r. 
 
 Bristol will then be a paradise ; its sky will be light- 
 some, its streets beautiful, its mayor tolerable, its 
 clergy respectable, and all its warehouses palaces! 
 
 Is this also nonsense? Well, then, my acquaint- 
 ance with general biography enables me to tell you 
 of one particular family at this moment living in 
 Bristol, with which it might be well for you to get 
 acquainted. Mr. Barrett might be able to introduce 
 you. The family I mean is that of the Mores, five 
 sisters, who keep a boarding-school for young ladies 
 in Park-street, " the most flourishing establishment of 
 its kind in the west of England." The Miss Mores, as 
 you know, are praised by all the mothers in Bristol as 
 extremely clever and accomplished young women ; and 
 one of them, Miss Hannah, is, like yourself, a writer 
 of verses, and, like yourself, destined to literary cele- 
 brity. Now T do not wish to be mischievous; but, 
 seeing that posterity will wish that you two, living 
 as you did in the same town, should at least have met 
 and spoken with each other, might I suggest a notion 
 to you ? Coidd you not elope with Hannah More ? 
 True, she is seven years your senior, extremely sedate, 
 and the very last person in the world to be guilty of 
 any nonsense with an attorney's apprentice. Never- 
 theless, try. Just think of the train of conseqiiences — 
 the whole boarding-school in a flutter; all Bristol 
 scandalised ; paragraphs in Fdic Farley s Journal ; 
 
 D 2
 
 3G CHATTERTON. 
 
 and posterity effectually cheated of two things — the 
 tragic termination of your life, and the admirable 
 old maidenhood of hers ! 
 
 Chatterton did not conceal his contempt from the 
 very persons it was most likely to offend. Known 
 not only as a transcriber of ancient English poetry^ 
 but also as a poet in his own person, he began to 
 support his reputation in the latter character by pro- 
 ducing from time to time, along with his Eowley 
 poems, certain compositions of his own in a modern 
 satirical vein. In these compositions, which were 
 written after the manner of Churchill, there was the 
 strangest possible jumble of crude Whig politics and 
 personal scurrility against local notabilities. What 
 effect they were likely to have on Chatterton's posi- 
 tion in his native town may be inferred from a 
 specimen or two. How would Broderip, the organist, 
 like this ? — 
 
 " While Broderip's humdrum symphonies of flats 
 Eival the harmony of midnight cats." 
 
 Or the lay Catcott this allusion to a professional feat 
 of his in laying the topstone of a spire? — 
 
 " Catcott is very fond of talk and fame — 
 His wish a perpetuity of name ; 
 Which to procure, a pewter altar's made
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 37 
 
 To bear his name and signify his trade, 
 
 In pomp burlesqued the rising spire to head, 
 
 To tell futurity a pewterer's dead." 
 
 And how would the clerical Catcott like this reference 
 to his orthodoxy ? — 
 
 " Mi<rht we not, Catcott, then infer from hence 
 Your zeal for Scripture hatli devoured your sense ? " 
 
 Or what would the mayor say to this ? — 
 
 " Let Harris wear his self-sufficient air, 
 Nor dare remark, for Harris is a mayor." 
 
 Or the civic dignity of Bristol generally to this ? — 
 
 " 'Tis doubtful if her aldermen can read : 
 This of a certainty the muse may tell, 
 None of her common-couucilmen can spell." 
 
 Clearly enough an attorney's apprentice that was in 
 
 the habit of showing about such verses was not in the 
 
 way to procure patronage and goodwill. If, however, 
 
 any of his friends remonstrated with him, his answer 
 
 was ready : — 
 
 " Damn'd narrow notions, tending to disgrace 
 The boasted reason of the human race ! 
 Bristol may keep her prudent maxims still ; 
 But know, my saving friends, 1 never will. 
 The couiposition of my soul is made 
 Too great for servile, avaricious trade. 
 When, raving in the lunacy of ink, 
 I catch the pen, and publish what I think."
 
 38 CHA TTEETON. 
 
 Accordingly Chatterton continued to support, in the 
 eyes of the portion of the community of Bristol that 
 knew liim, a twofold cliaracter — that on the one hand 
 of an enthusiastic youth with much antiquarian know- 
 ledge, the possessor of many antique manuscripts, 
 chiefly poetry of the fifteenth century ; and that on the 
 other of an ill-conditioned boy of spiteful temper, the 
 writer of somewhat clever but very scurrilous verses. 
 Nay, more, it was observable that the latter character 
 was growing upon him, apparently at the expense of the 
 former; for while, up to his seventeenth year (1768-9), 
 his chief recreation seemed to be in his antiques and 
 Eowley MSS., after that date he seemed to throw his 
 antiques aside, and devote all his time to imitations 
 of the satires of Churchill, under such names as The 
 Consuliad, Kew Gardens, &c. And here the reader 
 must permit me a little Essay or Disquisitional Inter- 
 leaf on the Character and Writings of Chatterton. 
 
 All thinking persons have now agreed to abandon 
 that summary method of dealing with human character 
 according to which unusual and eccentric courses of 
 action are attributed to mere caprices on the part of 
 the individuals concerned, mere obstinate determina- 
 tions to go out of the common route. 
 
 " Tlie dog, to gain some private ends, 
 Went mad, and bit the man,"
 
 TflE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 3!) 
 
 is a maxim less in repute than it once was. In such 
 cases as that of Chatterton, it is now believed, deeper 
 causes are always operating than the mere wish to 
 deceive people and make a figure. 
 
 Now, in the case of Chatterton, it appears, we must 
 first of all take for granted an extraordinary natural 
 precocity or prematurity of the faculties. We are 
 aware that there is a prejudice against the use of this 
 hypothesis. But why should it be so ? How other- 
 wise can we represent to ourselves the cause of that 
 diversity which we see in men than by going deeper 
 than all that we know of pedigree, and conceiving the 
 birth of every new soul to be, as it were, a distinct 
 creative act of the unseen Spirit ? That now, in some 
 Warwickshire village, the birth should be a Shake- 
 speare, and that, again, in the poor posthumous child 
 of a dissipated Bristol choir-singer the tiny body 
 should be shaken by the surcharge of soul within it, 
 are not miracles in themselves, but only variations in 
 the ereat standing miracle that there should be birth 
 at all. Nor with the idea of precocity is it necessary to 
 associate that either of disease or of insanity. There was 
 nothing in Chatterton to argue disease in the ordinary 
 sense, or to indicate that, had he lived, he might not, 
 like Pope or Tasso, who were also precocious, have gone 
 on steadily increasing in ability till the attainment of 
 a good old age. And, though it seems certain that
 
 40 CHA TTEBTON. 
 
 there was a tendency to madness in the Chatterton 
 blood — Chatterton's sister, j\Irs. Newton, having after- 
 wards had an attack of insanity — the use of this fact 
 by Southey and others to explain the tenor of Chat- 
 terton's life has been much too hasty and inconsiderate, 
 A medical friend of ours avers that he never knew a 
 man of genius who had not some aunt or other in a 
 lunatic asylum, or at least fit for one ; and, so long as 
 we can account for Chatterton's singularities in any 
 other way, we see no reason, any more than in the 
 similar instance of Charles Lamb, why we should attri- 
 bute them to what was at the utmost only a dormant 
 taint of madness in his constitution. 
 
 Assuming, then, that Chatterton, without being either 
 a mere lusus naturce or insane, was simply a child of 
 very extraordinary endowments, we would point out, 
 as the predominant feature in his character, his re- 
 markable veneration for the antique. In the boyhood 
 even of Sir Walter Scott, born as he was in the very 
 midst of ballads and traditions, we see no manifesta- 
 tion of a love of the past and the historic nearly so 
 strong as that which possessed Chatterton from his 
 infancy. The earliest form in which this constitutional 
 peculiarity appeared in him seems to have been a fond- 
 ness for the ecclesiastical antiquities of his native city, 
 and, above all, an attachment to the old Gothic Church 
 of St. Mary Eedcliffe.
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 41 
 
 Some time ago we saw in a provincial Scottish news- 
 paper an obituary notice of a poor idiot named John 
 M'Bey, who had been for about sixty years a pro- 
 minent character in the village of Huntly, Aberdeen- 
 shire. Where the poor creature had been born, no one 
 knew ; he had been found, when apparently about ten 
 years old, wandering among the Gartly Hills, and had 
 been brought by some country people into the village. 
 Here, " supported by the kindness of several families, 
 at whose kitchen-tables he regularly took his place at 
 one or other of the meals of the day," he continued to 
 reside ever after, a conspicuous figure in the schoolboy 
 recollections of all the inhabitants for more than half a 
 century. The " shaggy carroty head, the vacant stare, the 
 idle trots and aimless walks of ' Jock,' could yet," said 
 the notice, " be recalled in a moment" by all that knew 
 him. "At an early period of his history," proceeded 
 the notice, " he had formed a strong affection for the 
 bell in the old ruined church of Iluthven, in the parish 
 of Cairnie ; and many were the visits he paid to that 
 object of, to liini, surpassing interest. Having dubbed 
 it with the name of ' Wow' he embraced every oppor- 
 tunity at funerals to get a pull of the rope, interpreting 
 the double peals, in his own significant language, to 
 mean, ' Come hame, come hame.' Every funeral going 
 to that cliurchyard was known to him ; and, till his 
 old age, he was generally the first person that appeared
 
 42 CEATTERTON. 
 
 on the ground. The emblems of his favourite bell, in 
 bright yellow, were sewed on his garments ; and woe 
 to the schoolboy that should utter a word in depre- 
 ciation of his favourite. When near his end, he was 
 asked how he felt. He said ' he was ga'in awa' to the 
 wow, nae to come back again.' After his death, he was 
 laid in his favourite burying-place, within sound of 
 his cherished bell." 
 
 Do not despise this little story, reader. To our 
 mind it illustrates much. As this poor idiot, debarred 
 from all the general concerns of life, and untaught in 
 other people's tenets, had invented a religion for him- 
 self, setting up as a central object in his own narrow 
 circle of images and fancies an old ruined belfry, 
 which had somehow (who knows through what horror 
 of maternity ?) caught his sense of mystery, clinging 
 to this object with the whole tenacity of his affections, 
 and even devising symbols by which it might be ever 
 present to him : so, with more complex and less rude 
 accompaniments, does the precocious boy of Bristol 
 seem to have related himself to the Gothic fabric near 
 which he first saw the light. This church was his 
 fetich, his " wow." It was through it, as through a 
 metaphorical gateway, that his imagination worked itself 
 back into the great field of the past, so as to expatiate 
 on the ancient condition of his native " Brystowe " 
 and the whole olden time of England.
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 43 
 
 This is no fancy of ours. " Chatterton," says one of 
 
 his earliest acquaintances, tlie Mr. William Smith above 
 
 mentioned, " was fond of walking in the iields, parti- 
 
 "cularly in Eedcliffe meadows, and of talking of liis 
 
 " manuscripts, and sometimes reading them there. There 
 
 " was one spot in particular, full in view of the church, 
 
 " in which he seemed to take peculiar delight. He 
 
 " would frequently lay himself down, fix his eyes upon 
 
 " the church, and seem as if he were in a kind of 
 
 " trance ; then, on a sudden, he would tell me, ' That 
 
 "steeple. was burnt down by lightning; that was the 
 
 " place where they formerly acted plays.' " To the same 
 
 effect, also, many allusions to the church in the liowley 
 
 poems ; thus : — 
 
 " Thou seest this maestrie of a human hand, 
 The pride of Bristowe and the western land." 
 
 And here we may remind the reader of a circumstance 
 mentioned above : namely, that the ancestors of Chat- 
 terton had, for a hundred and fifty years, been sextons 
 of this same Church of St. Mary Eedcliffe, and that 
 the office had only passed out of the family on the 
 death of his father's elder brother, John. Chatterton's 
 father, too, it should be remembered, was a choir-singer 
 in the church ; and Chatterton himself, while a child, 
 had, in virtue of old family right and proximity of 
 residence, had the run of its aisles and galleries. Can
 
 44 CHATTEETON. 
 
 it be, we would ask the physiological philosophers, that 
 a veneration for the edifice of St. Mary Eedcliffe, and 
 for all connected with it, had thus come down in the 
 Chatterton blood ; that the defunct old Chattertons, 
 Johns and Thomases in their series, who had, in times 
 gone by, paced along the inteiior of the churcli, jangling 
 its ponderous keys, brushing away its cobwebs, and 
 talking with its stony effigies of knights and saints 
 buried below, had thus acquired, in gradually-increasing 
 mass, a store of antique associations, to be transmitted, 
 as a fatal heritage, to the unhappy youtli in whom 
 their line was to become extinct and immortal ? One 
 can suppose that, in part, this was the case. 
 
 But Chatterton's disposition towards the antique did 
 not remain a mere fetichistic instinct of veneration for 
 the relic his ancestors had guarded. From his very 
 boyhood he entered with all the zeal of a reader and 
 intelligent inquirer into the service of his hereditary 
 feeling. It would not be long, for example, before, 
 passing from the edifice to its history, as recorded in 
 the annals of Bristol, he would learn to pronounce, 
 with undefinable reverence, the name of its founder, 
 William Canynge, the Bristol merchant of the fifteenth 
 century. AVhatever particulars were to he gleaned from 
 books regarding the life of this notable personage must 
 have been familiar to Chatterton long before he ceased 
 to be a Bluecoat scholar. How Canynge had been such
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 4.-) 
 
 a wealthy man that, according to William ol" Worcester, 
 he was owner of ten vessels, and gave employment to 
 one hundred mariners, as well as to one hundred arti- 
 ficers on shore; how lie had been as munificent as 
 he was wealthy ; how he had been mayor of Bristol in 
 1431, and four separate times afterwards; how he and 
 the town had become involved in the Wars of the 
 Eoses, and how, on the accession of Edward IV., he 
 had made the peace of the town by paying a fine to that 
 monarch ; how, finally, he had become a priest in his 
 old age, and devoted a large part of his fortune to the 
 erection, or rather reconstruction, of the Church of 
 St. Mary Redcliffe: all this knowledge, easily acces- 
 sible to an inquiring Bristol boy, Chatterton would 
 collect and ponder. 
 
 Chatterton, however, was not merely an inquisitive 
 lad; he was a young poet, full of enthusiasm and 
 constructive talent. Hence, not satisfied with a meagre 
 outline of the story of Canynge, as it could be derived 
 from the chronicles of Bristol, he set himself to fill up 
 the outline by conjectures and synchronisms, so as to 
 malv-e clear for himself " Canynge's Life and Times " as 
 a luminoTis little spot in the general darkness of the 
 English past. And here comes in the story of tlie 
 old parchments. 
 
 Over the north porch of St. Mary's Eedcliffe was a 
 room known as "the muniment-room." Here, at the
 
 46 CHATTERTON. 
 
 begiiiDing of the eighteenth century, there lay six or 
 seven locked chests, which were understood to contain 
 old deeds and other writings. One of the chests was 
 traditionally known as " Mr. Canynge's Coffer." The 
 keys of this chest had been long lost; and when, in 
 the year 1727, it was deemed expedient to secure some 
 title-deeds that were believed to be contained in it, 
 a locksmith was employed to break it open. Such 
 documents as were thought of importance were then 
 removed, and the rest were left in the open chest as 
 of no value. The other chests were similarly treated. 
 Accordingly, parcels of the remaining contents were 
 subsequently, from time to time, carried off by various 
 persons ; and, in particular, it was remembered that, 
 when John Chatterton was sexton, his brother, the 
 choir-singer and teacher of Pyle Street school, had 
 carried off a quantity of them to be used as book- 
 covers and for suchlike purposes. A bundle of these 
 parchments remained in the possession of Mrs. Chat- 
 terton after her husband's death, and such of them as 
 had not been previously snipped into thread-papers 
 came into Chatterton's hands. 
 
 What these old documents really contained we have 
 no means of knowing. That some of them may have 
 been papers of historical value is not improbable. It 
 is certain, at least, that they interested Chatterton, that 
 the possession of them nourished his sense of the
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BlilHTOL. 47 
 
 antique, and that he learnt to deciplier parts of them, 
 catching out old hits of Latin phraseology, and the 
 like, which he mis-wrote in copying. We may even 
 go farther, and surmise that out of those papers he may 
 liave derived hints that were of iise to him in his 
 attempt to represent the circumstances of Canynge's 
 life. They may have helped him, for example, to 
 appropriate names for some of those fictitious or 
 semi-fictitious personages whom he thought proper 
 to group around Canynge in that tableau or his- 
 torical romance of " Bristol in the Fifteenth Cen- 
 tury" with the construction of which he regaled 
 himself. 
 
 Of these secondary dramatis ;personce, grouped in his 
 imagination around Canynge, the most important was 
 a supposed priest called Thomas Rowley, or more fully, 
 "Thomas Eowlie, parish-preeste of St. John's in the 
 city of Bristol." The relations between Canynge and 
 Rowley, as bodied forth in Chatterton's conception, were 
 as follows : — Rowley, who had been at school in Bristol 
 with Canynge, became chaplain to Canynge's father. 
 On that old gentleman's death, Canynge, then a rising 
 young merchant, continued the family patronage to his 
 schoolmate, and employed him, amongst other things, 
 in collecting manuscripts and drawings for him. About 
 the time of Canynge's first mayoralty, in 1431, Rowley 
 was settled as parish-priest of St. John's ; and from
 
 48 CRATTERTON. 
 
 that time forward, for a period of thirty or forty years, 
 the two men continued on terms of the most friendly 
 and cordial intimacy — Canynge, the wealthiest man 
 in the west of England, and the civic soul of Bristol, 
 living as a liberal merchant-prince in a noble residence, 
 and Eowley, the man of books and literature, in a 
 modest priest's habitation, made comfortable by his 
 patron's munificence. These two men, with a few 
 others of minor activity — Carpenter, Bishop of Bristol ; 
 Sir Tibbot Gorges, a country gentleman of the neigh- 
 bourhood ; Sir Charles Baldwin, a brave knight of the 
 Lancastrian faction ; Iscam, another priest of Bristol ; 
 'Ladgate, a monk of London, &c. &c. — constituted, in 
 fact, an enlightened little club in Chatterton's ideal 
 Bristol of 1430-60, enlivening that city by their 
 amateur theatricals and other relaxations from more 
 severe business, and rendering it more distinguished 
 for culture than any other town in England, except 
 Oxford and London. The fine old merchant himself 
 occasionally uses his pen to some purpose ; as in his 
 epigram on the imaginary John k Dalbenie, a hot 
 politician of the town — 
 
 " John makes a jar 'bout Lancaster and York. 
 Be still, good man, and learn to mind thy work ! " 
 
 Generally, however, he abstains from literature himself, 
 and prefers reading or hearing the productions of his
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 49 
 
 friends Iscain and Rowley, but especially those of 
 Itowley, who is his poet-laureate. 
 
 Had Chatterton put forth this coinage of his brain 
 in the shape of a professed historical romance, all 
 would have been well. But, from working so lovingly 
 in the matter of antiquity, he had contracted also a 
 preference for the antique in fo7'm. As Scott, in the 
 very process of realizing the Queutiu Durwards, the 
 Mause Headriggs, and the Jedediah Cleishbothams of 
 his fictions, acquired in his own person an antique way 
 of thinking, and a mastery over the antique glossary, 
 if not a positive affection for it, so it became natural 
 to Chatterton, revelling as he did in conceptions 
 of the antique, to draw on an ancient-fashioned suit of 
 thought, and make use of antique forms of language. 
 Hence, when, prompted by his literary impulse, he 
 sought to embody in verse any of those traditions or 
 fictions relative to the past time of England Mhich 
 his enthusiasm for the antique had led him to fix 
 upon — as, for example, the story of the Danish in- 
 vasions of England, the story of the Battle of Hast- 
 ings, or the story of a tournament in the reign of 
 Edw^ard I. — he found himself obliged by a kind of 
 artistic necessity to impart a quaintness to his style 
 by the use of old vocables and idioms. Persisted 
 in for the mere pleasure of the exercise, the habit 
 M'ould become exaggerated, till at last it would 
 c. s
 
 50 CBATTERTON. 
 
 amount to an ungovernable disposition to riot in the 
 obsolete. 
 
 Even so far, however, there was nothing blame- 
 worthy. In thus selecting a style artificially antique 
 for the conveyance of his historic fancies, Chatterton, 
 it might be affirmed, had but obeyed the proper 
 instinct of his genius, and chosen that element in 
 which he found he could work best. Every man has 
 his mode, or set of intellectual conditions, most favour- 
 able for the production and development of what is 
 best in him ; and in Chatterton's case this mode, this 
 set of conditions, consisted in an affectation of the 
 antique. For let anyone compare the Eowley Poems 
 of Chatterton with his own acknowledged productions, 
 and the conclusion will be inevitable that his forte was 
 the antique, and that here alone lay any preternatural 
 power he possessed. There are, indeed, in his acknow- 
 ledged poems, felicities of expression and gleams of 
 genius, showing that even as a modern poet he would 
 certainly in time have taken a high rank ; but, to do 
 justice to his astonishing abilities, one must read his 
 antique compositions. In the element of the antique 
 Chatterton rules like a master ; in his modern effusions 
 he is but a clever boy beginning to handle with some 
 effect the language of Pope and Dryden. Moreover, 
 there is a perceptible moral difference between the two 
 classes of his performances. In his antique poems
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. r>l 
 
 there is freshness, enthusiasm, and a fine sense of the 
 becoming ; throughout the modern ones we are offended 
 hy irreverence, malevolence, and a kind of vicious, 
 boyish pruriency. And, conscious as Chatterton must 
 have been of this difference, aware as he must have 
 been that it was when he wrote in his artificially- 
 antique style that his invention worked most power- 
 fully, his heart beat most nobly, and the poetic shiver 
 ran most keenly through his veins, we cannot wonder 
 that he should have given himself up to this kind of 
 literary recreation rather than to any other. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, meaner causes were all this 
 while at work. There was maliciousness towards 
 individuals ; there was craving for notoriety ; there 
 was delight in misleading people ; and, above all, there 
 was want of money. Moreover, for this unhappy com- 
 bination of moral states and dispositions it so happened 
 that the Grandfather of Lies had a very suitable 
 temptation ready, in the shape of that most successful 
 literary deceit, the Ossian Poems, then in the first 
 blush of their contested celebrity. Yielding to the 
 temptation, Chatterton resolved to turn what was best 
 and most original in his genius, his enthusiasm for the 
 antique, into the service of his worst propensities. In 
 other words, he resolved to adopt, with certain varia- 
 tions and adaptations to his own case, the trick of 
 Macpherson. That this was the act of one express and 
 
 E 2
 
 52 CHATTERTON. 
 
 distinct determination of his will — a solemn and secret 
 compact with himself, made at_ a very early period 
 indeed, probably before the conclusion of his fifteenth 
 year — there can be no doubt. The elaboration of his 
 scheme of imposture, however, was gradual. The first 
 exhibition of it, and probably that which suggested 
 much that followed, was the Burgum Hoax, with its 
 after-thought of the old English poet, John de Bergham. 
 Of this original trick the Eowley device was but a 
 gigantic expansion. To invent a poet of the past, on 
 whom to father all his own compositions in the antique 
 style, and to give this poet a probable and fixed foot- 
 ing in history, was the essential form of the scheme. 
 That the poet thus invented should be a native of 
 Bristol, and that his date should be in the times of the 
 merchant Canynge, were special accidents determined by 
 Chatterton's position and peculiar opportunities. And 
 thus the two processes of invention, the legitimate and 
 the illegitimate, worked into each other's hands, — Chat- 
 terton's previous conceptions of the life and times of 
 Canynge providing him with a proper chronological 
 and topographical environment for his required poet ; 
 and his device of the poet giving richness and interest 
 to his romance of Canynge. And, once begun, there 
 were powerful reasons why the deceit should be 
 persevered in. There was the pleasure of the jest itself ; 
 there was the secret sense of superiority it gave him ;
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPBENTICE OF BRISTOL. 53 
 
 there was its advantage as a means of hooking half- 
 crowns out of people's pockets; and last, though not 
 least, there was the impossibility of retracting, without 
 being knocked down by Barrett for damaging his 
 history, or kicked by the Catcotts for having made fools 
 of them. Hence, by little and little, the whole organiza- 
 tion of the imposture, from the first rumour of old 
 manuscripts, uj) to the use of ochre, black lead, and 
 smoke, in preparing specimens of them. 
 
 But Chatterton, as we have already hinted, was not 
 a literary monomaniac, a creature of one faculty. His 
 enthusiasm for the antique, although the most remark- 
 able part of him, was not the whole of him. The 
 Eowley habit of thought and expression, though he 
 liked to put it on, was also a thing that he could at 
 pleasure throw off. Though an antiquarian, and a 
 midnight reader of Speght's Chaucer and other black 
 letter volumes, he was also an attorney's apprentice, 
 accustomed to small flirtations, accustomed to debate 
 and have brawls with other attorneys' apprentices, to 
 read the newspapers and magazines, to be present 
 at street mobs and public meetings, and in every 
 other way to take an apprentice's interest in the on- 
 goings of the day. In short, besides being an anti- 
 quarian, and a creative genius in the element of the 
 English antique, Chatterton was also, in the year 
 17G9-70, a complete and very characteristic specimen
 
 54 CHATTERTON. 
 
 of that long-extiuct phenomenon, a thinking young 
 Englishman of the early part of the reign of George III, 
 In other words, reader, besides being, by the special 
 charter of his genius, a poet in the Kowley vein, he was 
 also, by the- more general right of his life at that time, 
 very much such a young fellow as your own unmarried 
 great-wreat -grandfather was. 
 
 And what was that ? Wliy, reader, your unmarried 
 great-great-grandfather, besides wearing a wig (which 
 Chatterton did not), a coat with lapels and flaps, 
 knee-breeches, buckles, and a cocked hat, was also, 
 probably, a wild young dog of a free-thinker, fond of 
 Churchill and Wilkes's "Essay on Woman," addicted 
 to horrible slang against Bute and the whole Scottish 
 nation, and raving mad about a thing he called Liberty. 
 He read and repeated Junius, made jokes against 
 parsons, and talked Deism and very improper doctrine 
 on the subject of the sexes. Now Chatterton, to his 
 capacities as a youth of seventeen, was all this. He 
 repudiated orthodoxy, refused to be called a Christian, 
 and held the whole clerical profession in unbounded 
 contempt. He drew up articles of faith on a slip 
 of paper (still to be seen in the British Museum) 
 which he carried in his pocket ; which articles of 
 faith were very much what Pope believed before 
 him, and what Burns, Byron, and others have be- 
 lieved since. In short, he was recognised in Bristol
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 5rj 
 
 circles as an avowed free-thinker. His politics were 
 to correspond. He sneered at Samuel Johnson, and 
 thought him an old Tory bigot, who had got a 
 pension for political partizanship ; he delighted in 
 the scandal about Bute and the King's mother; he 
 thought the King himself an obstinate dolt ; he 
 denounced Grafton and the ministry to small Bristol 
 audiences ; and he desired the nation to rally round 
 Wilkes. 
 
 One remark more, and we end our Interleaf. As 
 Chatterton was this dual phenomenon that we have 
 described — as he was composed of two parts, a mania 
 for the antique, and that general assemblage of more 
 ordinary qualities and prejudices which constituted the 
 able young Englishman of his era, — so, it appears to us, 
 the latter part of his character began, about his seven- 
 teenth year, to gain upon him. Abandoning the 
 antique vein, wherein he had, as it were, a native gift, 
 ready fashioned from the first, and all but independent 
 of culture, he began to court his more general faculties 
 of thought and observation, and to give himself more 
 willingly up to that species of literature in which, 
 equally with other able young men, he could hope to 
 attain ease and perfection only by the ordinary processes 
 of assiduity and culture. Had he lived, there was an 
 amount of general vigour and acquisition in him that 
 would have secured him eminence even in tliis field
 
 56 CHATTERTON. 
 
 and liave made him one of the conspicuous writers 
 of the eighteenth century; but, dying as he did so 
 early, the only bequest of real value he has left to the 
 world is that more specific and unaccountable product 
 of his genius, the Eowley antiques. 
 
 To a provincial attorney's apprentice, full of literary 
 aspirations, disgusted with his position in life, yet with 
 no immediate prospect of a better, there was but one 
 outlook of any reasonable hope or promise. It was the 
 chance of being able, in the meantime, to form some 
 connexion with London periodicals or publishers. 
 Accordingly, this was the scheme which Chatterton, 
 whose highest printed venture hitherto had been in 
 the columns of Felix Farley s Bristol Journal, set him- 
 self to realize. 
 
 His first attempt was upon Dodsley, the publisher 
 of Pall Mall, the brother and successor in business of 
 the more celebrated Eobert Dodsley, the author of the 
 " Muse in Livery," and other trifles of some note in 
 their day, and the projector, along with Burke, of the 
 Annual Register. The Dodsleys, it should be men- 
 tioned, had published a standard collection of ancient 
 and modern English poetry, to which, it was under- 
 stood, additions would be made in subsequent volumes. 
 This fact; the notoriety of the Annual Fi,cgister, then 
 in the tenth year of its existence ; probably, also, the
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 57 
 
 circumstance, not likely to be overlooked by a young 
 litterateur, that in that periodical there was a depart- 
 ment for literary contributions and poetry : all pointed 
 Dodsley out to Chatterton as a likely person for 
 his purpose. Accordingly, one morning towards the 
 Christmas of 1768, the worthy publisher, entering his 
 shop in Pall JNIall, finds among his letters one from 
 Bristol, addressed in a neat small hand, and worded 
 as follows : — 
 
 "BRiSTOh, Decc7nler21sf,l76S. ' 
 
 " Sir, — I take this method to acquaint you that I can 
 procure copies of several ancient poems, and an inter- 
 lude, perhaps the oldest dramatic piece extant, wrote by 
 one Eowley, a priest of Bristol, who lived in the reigns 
 of Henry VI. and Edward lY. If these pieces will be 
 of service to you, at your command copies shall be sent 
 to you by your most obedient servant, 
 
 "D. B. 
 
 " Please to direct to D. B., to be left with ]\Ir. Thomas 
 Chatterton, Kedcliffe Hill, Bristol." 
 
 In reply to this, Dodsley probably sent an intimation 
 to the effect that he would be glad to see the poems 
 in question, particularly the interlude ; for the follow- 
 ing letter, turned up long afterwards, witli the fore- 
 going, among the loose papers in Dodsley's counting- 
 house, looks as if Chatterton had at least received a 
 reply to his note : —
 
 5S CUATTERTON. 
 
 "Bristol, Feb. 15, 1769. 
 " SiK, — Having iutelligence that the tragedy of JElla 
 was in being, after a long and laborious search I was so 
 happy as to attain a sight of it. I endeavoured to 
 obtain a copy of it to send you ; but the present 
 possessor absolutely denies to give me one, unless I give 
 him one guinea for a consideration. As I am unable 
 to procure such a sum, I made a search for anotlier 
 coj)y, but unsuccessfully. Unwilling such a beauteous 
 piece should be lost, I have made bold to apply to you. 
 Several gentlemen of learning who have seen it join 
 with me in praising it. I am far from having any mer- 
 cenary views for myself in the affair; and, was I able, 
 would print it at my own risk. It is a perfect tragedy 
 — the plot clear ; the language spirited ; and the songs 
 (interspersed in it) flowing, poetical, and elegantly 
 simple; the similes judiciously applied, and, though 
 wrote in the age of Henry VI., not inferior to many 
 of the present age. If I can procure a copy, with or 
 without the gratification, it shall be immediately sent 
 to you. The motive that actuates me to do this is to 
 convince the world that the monks (of whom some 
 have so despicable an opinion) were not such block- 
 heads as generally thought, and that good poetry might 
 be wrote in the dark days of superstition, as well as 
 in these more enlightened ages. An immediate answer 
 will oblige. I shall not receive your favour as for 
 myself, but as your agent. 
 
 " I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 "Thomas Chatterton. 
 
 "P.S. — My reason for concealing my name was lest 
 my master (who is now out of town) should see my
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 59 
 
 letters, iiml think I neglected his business. Direct for 
 me on Ivedcliffe Hill. 
 
 [Here followed an extract from the tragedy, as a 
 specimen of the style.] 
 
 " The whole contains about one thousand lines. If it 
 should not suit you, I should be obliged to you if you 
 would calculate the expenses of printing it, as I will 
 endeavour to publish it l)y subscription on my own 
 account. 
 
 •' To- Mil. James Dodsley, Bookseller, Fall Moll, London." 
 
 This clumsy attempt to extract a guinea from the 
 publisher (Chatterton had probably just finished his 
 own manuscript of u^lla, and did not like the notion 
 of copying out so long a poem on mere chance) very 
 naturally failed. Mr. Dodsley did nut think the 
 speculation worth risking a guinea on ; and " jElla, a 
 Tragycal Enteiiude, or Discoorseynge Tragedie, wrottcn 
 ly Thomas Bowllie ; plaiedd before Piastre Canynge, atte 
 hys Hawse, ncmpte the Rodde Lodge" remained useless 
 among Chatterton's papers. 
 
 Chatterton was not daunted. Among the notabilities 
 of the time with whose names his own excursions in 
 the field of literature necessarily made him acquainted 
 there was one towards whom, for many reasons, he felt 
 specially attracted — the ingenious Horace Walpole, then 
 a gentleman of fifty-two, leading his life of luxuri- 
 ous gossip and literary ease between his town house 
 in Arlington Street, Piccadilly, and his country seat at
 
 60 CEATTERTON. 
 
 Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. Known in the M'orld 
 of letters by his Castle of Otranto, his tragedy of The 
 Mysterious Mother, his Catalogue of Royal and NoUe 
 Authors, and other various productions, Walpole was at 
 that time busy in collecting additional materials for his 
 Anecdotes of Painting in England, the publication of 
 which he had begun in 1761. It is on this circum- 
 stance that Chatterton fastens. One evening in March, 
 1769, Mr. Walpole, sitting, we will suppose, by his 
 librar}^ fire in Arlington Street, has a packet brought 
 him by his bookseller, Mr. Bathoe, of the Strand (the 
 first man, by-the-bye, that kept a circulating library 
 in London). Opening the packet, he finds, first of all, 
 the followins note : — 
 
 ^o 
 
 " SiPt, — Being versed a little in antiquities, I have 
 met with several curious manuscripts, among which 
 the following may be of service to you in any future 
 edition of your truly entertaining Anecdotes of Paint- 
 ing. In correcting the mistakes (if any) in the notes, 
 you will greatly oblige your most humble servant, 
 
 " Thqmas Chatterton. 
 
 "Bristol, March 2b; Corn Street." 
 
 Appended to this short note were several pages of 
 antique writing, entitled " The Ryse of Peyncteyne in 
 Englande, v^roten hy T. Rowlie, 1409, for Mastre 
 Canynge," and commencing as follows : — " Peynctynge 
 ynn England haveth of ould tyme bin yn use ; for,
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. CI 
 
 saieth the Rumaii wryters, the Brytoniies dyd depycte 
 themselves, yn soundrie wyse, of the fuuniies of the 
 Sonne and moone, wyth the heerbe woade : albeytte I 
 doubte theie were no skylled carvellers." After whicli 
 introduction, the document went on to give biograplii- 
 cal notices of certain distinguished painters that 
 flourished in England during Saxon times and in the 
 early Norman reigns. Attached to the document were 
 explanatory notes in Chatterton's own name. One of 
 these notes informed Walpole who Eowley, the reputed 
 author of the jNIS., was : — " His merit as a biographer 
 and historiographer is great ; as a poet still gi-eater : 
 some of his pieces would do honour to Pope ; and the 
 person under whose patronage they may appear to the 
 world will lay the Englishman, the antiquary, and the 
 poet, under eternal obligation." Another note per- 
 formed the like biographical office for Canynge, that 
 " jNIajcenas of his time ; " and a third conveyed the 
 information tliat one John, the second Abbot of Saint 
 Austni's, in Bristol, mentioned in the text as " the 
 fyrste Englyshe paynstere in oyles," was also the 
 greatest poet of his age (a.d. 118G), and gave, as a 
 specimen of his poetry, three stanzas on Eichard I. 
 Finally, Chatterton offered to put AValpole in posses- 
 sion of still other particulars from the same source. 
 
 Whether from the suddenness and naivete of the 
 attack, or from the stupefying effects of the warm air
 
 62 CHATTERTON. 
 
 of his library on a March evening, Walpole was com- 
 pletely taken in. He can hardly have glanced over 
 the whole letter, when, really interested by its con- 
 tents, he takes his pen and writes the following 
 
 reply :— 
 
 "Arlington St., March 28, 1769. 
 
 " Sir, — I cannot but think myself singularly obliged 
 by a gentleman with whom I have not the pleasure of 
 being acquainted, when I read your very curious and 
 kind letter, wliich I have this minute received. T give 
 you a thousand thanks for it, and for the very obliging 
 offer you make of communicating your manuscript to me. 
 What you have already sent me is valuable, and full 
 of information ; but, instead of correcting you, Sir, you 
 are far more able to correct me. I have not the happi- 
 ness of understanding the Saxon language, and, without 
 your learned notes, should not have been able to com- 
 prehend Eowley's text. 
 
 " As a second edition of my Anecdotes was published 
 last year, I must not flatter myself that a third will be 
 wanted soon ; but I shall be happy to lay up any 
 notices you will be so good as to extract for me, and 
 send me at your leisure ; for, as it is uncertain when I 
 may use them, I would by no means borrow or detain 
 your MSS. 
 
 " Give me leave to ask you where Eowley's poems 
 are to be found. I should not be sorry to print them, 
 or at least a specimen of them, if they have never been 
 printed. 
 
 " The Abbot John's verses that you have given me 
 are wonderful for their harmony and spirit, though 
 there are some words that I do not understand. You
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 03 
 
 do not point out exactly the time when he lived, which 
 I wish to know, as I suppose it was long before Jolm 
 van Eyck's discovery of oil-painting ; if so, it confirms 
 what I have guessed, and hinted in my Anecdotes, that 
 oil-painting was known here much earlier than tliat 
 discovery or revival. 
 
 " I will not trouble you with more questions now. 
 Sir; but ilatter myself, from the urbanity and polite- 
 ness you have already shown me, that you will give 
 me leave to consult you. I hope, too, you will forgive 
 the simplicity of my direction, as you have favoured 
 me with none other. 
 
 " I am, Sir, your much obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 " HoitACE Walpole. 
 
 "P.S. — Be so good as to direct to Mr. Walpole, 
 Arlington Street." 
 
 Chatterton was highly elated. lie had received a 
 letter from the great Horace Walpole, written as from 
 an equal to an equal ! How differently men of that 
 stamp treated one from the Catcotts, the Barretts, and 
 other local persons ! Tu liaste to acknowledge such 
 politeness, he sends off a supplementary "Historic of 
 Feyncters yn England, lie T. Rowlic;" containing also 
 sketches of two new poets — Ecca, a Saxon bishop of 
 the year 557, and Elman, a Saxon bishop of the same 
 epoch — with specimens of their verses, translated from 
 the original Saxon by Eowley. He adds some more 
 verses of the Abbot John's, and promises a complete 
 transcript of Ifowley's works as soon as he shall have
 
 G4 CEATTERTON. 
 
 had time to make one. At the same time he gives 
 AValpole a confidential account of himself and his 
 prospects. This part of the letter is lost ; but Walpole 
 thus states his recollections of its tenor : — " He in- 
 " formed nie that he was the son of a poor widow, 
 " who supported him with great difficulty ; that he was 
 " a clerk or apprentice to an attorney, hut had a taste 
 " and turn fot more elegant studies ; and hinted a wish 
 " that I would assist him with my interest in emerging 
 " out of so dull a profession, by procuring him some 
 " place in which he could pursue his natural bent." 
 
 Clearly Chatterton was never so near telling the 
 whole truth as when, touched by Walpole's politeness, 
 he thus addressed him as his only available friend. 
 One is sorry that he did not try the effect of a full 
 confession. Had Walpole received a letter from his 
 unknown correspondent, conveying, in addition to the 
 foregoing particulars, this farther acknowledgment, that 
 what he (Chatterton) had sent to him (Walpole) was 
 not a real extract from a MS., but a forgery ; that, for 
 more than a year, he had been palming off similar 
 forgeries on various persons in Bristol, but that now 
 he was heartily tired of the cheat and would fain be 
 out of it ; and that, if he (Walpole), with such speci- 
 mens before him of his (Chatterton's) powers as those 
 pretended antiques afforded, should be disposed to add 
 the kindness of his practical assistance to that of his
 
 THE A TTORNETS APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. Of, 
 
 forgiveness for tlie trick attempted on liim, he would 
 thereby earn the waiter's lasting gratitude, and save 
 a life not wholly irretrievable : — one wonders greatly 
 what, in such circumstances, Horace Walpole would 
 have done. Would the reflection in the library in 
 Arlington Street have been "The impudent young 
 scoundrel ! I will write to his master ; " or would it 
 have been " Poor young fellow ! he throws himself 
 upon me, and I must do something for him " ? 
 
 Unfortunately, Chatterton did not put it in AVal- 
 pole's option whether he would be thus generous. He 
 left the virtuoso to discover the fact of the imposture 
 for himself. Nor was it difficult to do so. On the 
 very second reading of the communication, to which, 
 in a moment of credulity, he had returned so polite 
 » a reply, Walpole, sufficiently alive, one would think, 
 to the possibility of a literaiy trick (his own Castle of 
 Otranto had been published as a pretended translation 
 from a black-letter book printed at Naples in 1529, and 
 he had but recently been implicated in the Ossian 
 business), must have begun to suspect that all was not 
 right. A series of Anglo-Saxon painters till then un- 
 heard of ; a new poet of the twelfth century writing a 
 poem on Eichard I, in perfectly modern metre ; and a 
 new poet of the fifteenth, advertised as having left 
 numerous poems and other writings still extant in 
 Bristol : all this in one letter was too much ; and little 
 C. P
 
 66 CHATTERTON. 
 
 wonder if, as he afterwards said, his reflection was that 
 "somebody, having met. his Anecdotes of Painting, had 
 a mind to laugh at him." But, when the second letter 
 came, bringing with it a batch of new painters, and 
 specimens of two Saxon poets of the sixth century, and 
 when in this letter the writer explained that he was a 
 poor widow's son with a turn for literature, there could 
 be no longer any doubt in the matter. His friends, 
 Gray and Mason, to whom he showed the documents, 
 concurred with him in thinking them forgeries, and 
 "recommended the returning them without farther 
 notice." But Walpole, with an amount of good- 
 nature for which he does not get credit, did not 
 act so summarily. He took the trouble, he says, to 
 write to a relation of his, an old lady residing at Bath, 
 desiring her to make inquiries about Chatterton. The 
 reply was a confirmation of Chatterton's story about 
 himself, but "nothing was returned about his charac- 
 ter." In these circumstances, Walpole discharges the 
 whole matter from his mind thus : — 
 
 " Being satisfied with my intelligence about Chat- 
 terton, I wrote him a letter with as much kindness 
 and tenderness as if I had been his guardian ; for, 
 though I had no doubt of his impositions, such a spirit 
 of poetry breathed in his coinage as interested me for 
 him ; nor was it a grave crime in a young bard to have 
 forged false notes of hand that were to pass current , 
 only in the parish of Parnassus. I undeceived him
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 07 
 
 about my being a person of any interest, and urged 
 to him that, in duty and gratitude to his motlier, who 
 had straitened herself to breed him up to a profession, 
 he ought to labour in it, that in her old age he might 
 absolve his filial debt ; and I told him that, when he 
 should have made his fortune, he might unbend himself 
 with the studies consonant to his inclinations. I told 
 him also that I had communicated his transcripts to 
 much better judges, and that they were by no means 
 satisfied with tlie authenticity of his supposed MSS." 
 
 In fancying the impatient " Bah, old gentleman ! 
 don't I know all that myself ? " with which the dis- 
 appointed boy, reading this letter, must have received 
 its advice, the question is apt to recur to us, how is it 
 that, with such evidence of the uselessness of advice 
 before their eyes, people are so stupid as to persist in 
 "ivincc it. But the remark of an eminent living statis- 
 tician comes to mind. " Advice," said he, " probably 
 saves a percentage." And certainly this puts the matter 
 on its right basis. 
 
 Chatterton sent two letters in reply to that of Wal- 
 pole. In the first, the tone of which is somewhat 
 downcast, he professes himself imable to dispute with 
 a person of such literary distinction respecting the 
 age of a MS., thanks him for his advice, and expresses 
 his resolution to follow it. " Though I am but sixteen 
 years old," he says, " I have lived long enough to see 
 that poverty attends literature." The second letter, 
 
 F 2
 
 68 CUATTERTON. 
 
 wliicli is dated April 14th, is more abrupt. Here he 
 expresses his conviction that the papers of Eowley 
 are genuine, and requests Walpole, unless he should 
 be inclined to publish the transcripts, to return them, 
 as he -wished to give them to "Mr. Barrett, an able 
 antiquary, now writing the History of Bristol," and 
 had no other copy. 
 
 "When this second note reached Arlington Street, 
 "Walpole was on the eve of a journey to Paris ; and, in 
 the hurry, the request to return the MSS. was not at- 
 tended to. Again Chatterton wrote ; but, as the virtuoso 
 was absent, he received no answer. It was not till after 
 six weeks that Walpole returned to London ; and then 
 so insignificant a matter was not likely to be re- 
 membered. Towards the close of July, however, and 
 when he had been again in town five or six weeks, he 
 was reminded of his Bristol correspondent by the receipt 
 of what he thought " a singularly impertinent note" : — 
 
 " Sir, — I cannot reconcile your behaviour to me with 
 the notions I once entertained of you. I think myself 
 injured, Sir ; and, did you not know my circumstances, 
 you would not dare to treat me thus. I have sent twice 
 for a copy of the MSS.; no answer from you. An 
 explanation or excuse for your silence would oblige 
 
 " Thomas Chatterton. 
 
 "July 24." 
 
 Walpole's conduct, on the receipt of this note, we will 
 let himself relate : —
 
 TEE ATTORNEY'S ArFTiENTICE OF BRISTOL. (J9 
 
 " jNIy heart did not accuse me of insolence to him. I 
 wrote uu answer, expostulating with him on his in- 
 justice, and renewing good advice ; but, upon second 
 thouglits, reflecting that so wrong-headed a young man, 
 of whom I knew nothing, and whom I had never seen, 
 might be absurd enough to print my letter, I flung it 
 into the fire ; and, snapping up both his poems and 
 letters, without taking a copy of either (for which I am 
 now sorry), I returned both to him, and thought no 
 more of him or them." 
 
 Thus ended the correspondence between Walpole and 
 Chatterton, Walpole soon forgetting the whole affair, 
 and Chatterton persisting in his belief that, had he not 
 committed the blunder of letting his aristocratic corre- 
 spondent know that he was " a poor widow's son," he 
 would have fared better at his hands. Xo doubt there 
 was something in this. But, of all the unreasonable 
 things ever done by a misjudging public, certainly that 
 of condemning Wulpule to infamy for his conduct in 
 this affair, and charging on him ail the tragic sequel of 
 Chatterton's life, is one of the most unreasonable. Why, 
 the probability is that Walpole behaved better than 
 most people would have done in the circumstances ! 
 Let anyone in the present day fancy how lie would act 
 if some one utterly unknown to him were to try to im- 
 pose on him, in a similar way, through the post-office. 
 Would the mere cleverness of the cheat take away the 
 instinctive frown of resentment, and change it into
 
 70 CHATTERTON. 
 
 admiring enthusiasm ? That there may possibly have 
 been in London at that time persons of rare goodness, 
 of overflowing tolerance and compassion, that would 
 have acted differently from the virtuoso of Arlington 
 Street — persons who, saying to themselves, " Here is a 
 poor young man of abilities in a bad way," would have 
 immediately called for their carpet-bags, and set off for 
 Bristol by coach, to dig out the culprit, and lecture him 
 soundly, and make a man of him — we will not deny. 
 If that time was like the present, however, such men, 
 we fear, must have been very thinly scattered, and very 
 hard to find. Looking back now, we must, of course, 
 feel that it was a pity the correspondence did not lead 
 to a better issue ; and Walpole himself lived to know 
 this. But, as Burke has said, " Men are wise with little 
 reflection, and good with little self-denial, in the busi- 
 ness of all times except their own." Let, therefore, 
 such as are disposed to blame Walpole in this affair lay 
 the whole story to heart in the form of a maxim for 
 their own guidance. 
 
 AVhile the correspondence with Walpole had been 
 going on, Chatterton had not been idle. In the month 
 of January, 17G9, there appeared in London the first 
 number of a new periodical, called the Tovju and 
 Country Magazine, somewhat on the model of the 
 Gentleman's Magazine, and those other curious monthly
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 71 
 
 coUectious of scraps with which our ancestors, strangers 
 to tlie more ehiborate entertainment of modern peri- 
 odicals, used to regale their leisure. Here was an 
 opportunity for the young litterateur of Bristol. Ac- 
 cordingly, in the February number (magazines were 
 then published retrospectively, i.e., at the close of the 
 month whose name they bore), there appeared two 
 contriliutions from the pen of Chatterton : one a prose 
 account of the costume of Saxon heralds, signed " D. B." ; 
 the other a little complimentary poem addressed to 
 " Mr. Alcock, the miniature painter of Bristol," and 
 signed " Asaphides." Under these signatures he con- 
 tinued to contribute to the magazine ; and effusions of 
 his, chiefly Ossianic prose-poems, purporting to be from 
 the Saxon or ancient British, appeared in all the sub- 
 sequent numbers for the year 1769, except those of 
 June, September, and October. In the number for ]\Iay 
 appeared one of the finest of his minor Kowley poems. 
 In short, at the publishing office of the Toum and 
 Country, in London, the handwriting of "D. B.," of 
 Bristol, must have been recognised, in 1769, as that of 
 one of the established correspondents of the magazine ; 
 and in Bristol it must have been a fact known and 
 enviously commented on among the Carys, the Smiths, 
 the Kators, and other young men of Chatterton's 
 acquaintance, that he could have his pieces printed as 
 often as he liked in a London periodical. Chatterton
 
 72 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 felt the immensity of the honour ; and there is extant 
 a somewhat unveracious letter of his to a distant rela- 
 tive, " a breeches-maker in Salisbury," in which he brags 
 of it. He tells the breeches-maker, at the same time, of 
 his correspondence with Walpole. " It ended," he says, 
 " as most such do. I differed from him in the age of 
 " a MS, ; he insists upon his superior talents, which is 
 " no proof of that superiority. We possibly may engage 
 " publicly in some one of the periodical publications, 
 " though I know not who will give the onset." 
 
 The Toum and Country Magazine seems to have been 
 the only metropolitan print to which Chatterton was a 
 contributor during the year 1769. But in the beginning 
 of 1770 he succeeded in another venture, and became the 
 correspondent also of a London newspaper. 
 
 The newspapers of that day were by no means such 
 as we now see. The largest of them consisted of but a 
 single sheet, corresponding in size with our small even- 
 ing papers. Their contents, too, were neither so various 
 nor so elaborately prepared as those of our present 
 newspapers. Advertisements, paragraphs of political 
 gossip picked up outside the Houses of Parliament, and 
 scraps of miscellaneous town, country, and foreign news, 
 constituted nearly all that the newspaper then offered 
 to its readers. Wliat we now call " leading articles " 
 were hardly known. Tt was enough for even a metro- 
 politan journal to have one editorial hand to assist the
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 73 
 
 piiLlisher; mid the notion of employing a staff of 
 educated men to write comments on the proceedings 
 of tlie day was but in its infancy. The pkxce, how- 
 ever, of leading articles by paid attaches of the news- 
 paper was in part supplied by the voluntary letters 
 of numerous anonymous correspondents, interested in 
 politics, and glad to see their lucubrations in print. 
 Men of political note sometimes took this mode of 
 serving the ends of their party; but the majority of 
 the correspondents of newspapers were literary clients 
 of official men, or private individuals scattered up and 
 down the country. Chief of these unpaid journalists, 
 king among the numberless Brutuses, Publicolas, and 
 Catos, that told the nation its grievances through the 
 columns of the newspapers, was the terrible Junius 
 of the Puhlic Advertiser. The boldest of his letters 
 was perhaps that containing his "Address to the 
 King," which was published on the 19th December, 
 1769. The excitement that followed this letter, and 
 above all the report that the publisher, Mr. H. J. 
 Woodfall, was to be brought to account for it before 
 the public tribunals, produced a crisis — some called 
 it a panic, some a jubilee — in the newspaper world. 
 
 The other newspapers were, of course, anxious to 
 obtain a share of the renown which the threatened 
 prosecution conferred on the Puhlic Advertiser. Ac- 
 cordingly, to re-assure its correspondents, and to
 
 74 CHATTERTON. 
 
 convince its subscribers of its unHincliin;? liberalism 
 in the midst of danger, the Middlesex Journal, a bi- 
 M'eekly newspaper of the day, not far behind the 
 Advertiser in credit, hastened to put forth the follow- 
 ing manifesto : — 
 
 "William George Edmnnds, of Shoe Lane, in the 
 parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, Gent., maketh oath 
 and saith, that he will not at any time declare the 
 name of any person or persons who shall send any 
 papers to the Middlesex Journal or Chronicle of 
 Liberty, or any other publication in which he shall 
 be concerned, without the express consent and direc- 
 tion of the author of such paper ; and that he will not 
 make any discovery by which any of his authors can 
 be found out ; and that he will give to the public, in 
 the fairest and fullest manner, all such essays, dis- 
 sertations, and other writings, without any alteration, 
 so far as he can or ought, consistently with the duty of 
 an honest man, a good member of society, a friend to 
 his country, and a loyal subject. — W. G. Edmunds. 
 
 " Sworn at the Mansion House, Loudon, January 1st, 
 1770, before me, 
 
 " W. Beckfoed, Mayor." 
 
 " N.B. — Mr. E. makes it a general rule to destroy all 
 MSS. as soon as they are composed for the press. If 
 any gentleman, however, is desirous of having his MSS. 
 returned to him, Mr. E. begs that the words 'to be 
 returned,' may be in large letters at the end of the 
 originals. In that case they shall be preserved and 
 delivered up to any person 'who shall bring an order
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 7i 
 
 for tliat purpose in the so.me handwriting as the 
 original." 
 
 This manifesto of ]\Ir. Edmunds, copied by ns from 
 the Middlesex Journal for February 6th, 1770, and 
 which was repeated in succeeding numbers, probably 
 caught Chatterton's eye in Bristol, and determined his 
 already cherished intention of trying his hand at a 
 newspaper article. Accordingly, he plunges at once 
 in medias res. There had just been a change of 
 Ministry. The Duke of Grafton, the favourite victim 
 of Junius, had resigned, and given place, for some 
 secret Court reason, to the goggle-eyed Lord Xorth. 
 Chatterton, hearing much talk about this affair, thinks 
 it a good tojuc for his purpose, and, stealing a forenoon 
 from his office-work, pens, in a style mimicked after 
 
 that of Junius, a " Letter to the Duke of G n," 
 
 in which he informs that illustrious personage that 
 his resignation has " caused more speculation than any 
 harlequinade he has already acted," and tells him that, 
 as he had been all along the tool of Bute, to whom 
 he was at first recommended by his " happy vacuity 
 of invention," so now it is Bute's influence that 
 has dismissed him. This missive he dates " Bristol, 
 February 16," and signs "Decimus." INIr. Edmunds, 
 receiving it in his sanctum in Shoe Lane, glances over 
 it, thinks it tolerably smart, and prints it. AVhether 
 the Duke of Grafton ever saw it, poor man, we do
 
 CHATTEETON. 
 
 not know. If he did, " One \vasp more " would be his 
 very natural reflection ; and he would go on sipping 
 his chocolate. 
 
 Chatterton's next contribution to the Middlesex 
 Journcd, or at least the next that Mr. Edmunds 
 thought proper to print, was one with the same 
 signature, dated "Bristol, April 10, 1770," and ad- 
 dressed to that nnich-abused lady, the Princess 
 Dowager of Wales, the mother, and, as people said, 
 manager of the king. Here is a specimen — Junius, 
 it will be observed, to the A-ery cadence : — 
 
 " By you men of no principles were thrust into 
 ofhces they did not know how to discharge, and 
 honoured with trusts they accepted only to violate ; 
 being made more conspicuously mean by communi- 
 cating error and often vice to the character of the 
 person who promoted them. None but a sovereign 
 power can make little villains dangerous; the nobly 
 vicious, the daringly ambitious, only rise from them- 
 selves, AVithout the influence of ministerial authority, 
 Mansfield had been a pettifogging attorney, and War- 
 burton a bustling country curate. The first had not 
 lived to bury the substance of our laws in the shadows 
 of his explanations; nor would the latter have con- 
 founded religion with deism, and proved of no use to 
 either. . . . The state of affairs very much resembles 
 the eve of the troubles' of Charles I. Unhappy 
 monarch, thou hast a claim, a dear-bought claim, to 
 our pity ; nothing but thy death could purchase it. 
 Hadst thou died quietly and in peace, thou hadst
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 77 
 
 died infamous ; tliy misfortunes were tlie only happy 
 means of saving thee from the book of shame. What a 
 parallel could the freedom of an English pen strike out I" 
 
 This letter was written on a Tuesday. On the 
 Saturday, or, more probably, on the ]\[onday follow- 
 ing, a tremendous denouement occurred. 
 
 Chatterton, among his other eccentricities, had often 
 been heard to talk familiarly of suicide. One evening, 
 for example, pulling out a pistol in the presence of 
 some of his companions, he had placed it to his 
 forehead, saying, " Now, if one had but courage to 
 draw the trigger ! " Nor was this mere juvenile 
 affectation. Hateful from the first, Chatterton's posi- 
 tion in Bristol had by this time become unendurable 
 to him. All his literary honours, as contributor to 
 a London magazine and a coiTespondent of a London 
 newspaper, were as nothing when put in the balance 
 against his present servitude. If there were seasons 
 when, sanguine in his hopes of a better future, he 
 was able to keep liis disgust within bounds, there 
 were others when it rose to a perfect frenzy. 
 
 Such a season seems to have been the week in which 
 the foregoinfj letter was written for the Middlesex 
 Journal. By some circumstance or other Chatterton was 
 that week reduced to the necessity of asking Burgum 
 for a loan of money ; which Burgum, at the last moment, 
 refused. Chatterton has thus perpetuated the ftict : —
 
 78 , CHATTERTON. 
 
 " When wildly squandering everything I got, 
 On books and learning, and the Lord knows what, 
 Could Burguni then — my critic, patron, friend — 
 "Without security attempt to lend ? 
 No, that would be imprudent in the man : 
 Accuse him of imprudence if you can ! " 
 
 This disappointment throws him into a humour border- 
 ing on the suicidal ; and, left alone in his master's 
 office on the Saturday forenoon following, he displays 
 it by penning a kind of satirical will or suicide's fare- 
 well to the world. This extraordinary document, 
 which is still extant, is headed thus: "All this wrote 
 between 11 and 2 o'clock, Saturday, in the utmost dis- 
 tress of mind, April 14, 1 770 ; " and, after some fifty 
 lines of verse addressed to Burgum, the Eev. Mr. 
 Catcott, and Barrett, it proceeds as follows : — 
 
 " This is the last will and testament of me, Thomas 
 Chatterton, of the city Bristol ; being sound in body, 
 or it is the fault of my last surgeon : the soundness 
 of my mind the coroner and jury are to be judges of — 
 desiring them to take notice that the most perfect 
 masters of human nature in Bristol distinguish me by 
 the title of ' the mad genius ' ; therefore, if I do a mad 
 action, it is conformable to every action of my life, 
 which all savoured of insanity. 
 
 "Item. — If, after my death, which will happen to- 
 morrow night before eight o'clock, being the Feast of 
 the Eesurrection, the coroner and jviry bring it in 
 lunacy, I will and direct that Paul Farr, Esq., and Mr.
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APrRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 79 
 
 John Flower, at their joint expense, cause my body to 
 be interred iii the tomb of my fatliers, and raise the 
 monument over my body to the height of four feet five 
 inches, placing the present flat stone on the top, and 
 adding six tablets. 
 
 [" Here follow directions for certain engravings 
 to be placed on the six tablets : viz., on two of them, 
 fronting each other, certain heraldic achievements ; on 
 another, an inscription, in old English characters, to his 
 ancestor, Guatevine Chatterton, A.D. 1210; on another, 
 an inscription, in the same character, to another ances- 
 tor, Alanus Chatterton, A.D. 1415 ; on another, an 
 inscription, in lioman letters, to the memory of his 
 father; and on the remaining one this epitaph to 
 himself : — 
 
 "TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 " THOMAS CHATTEIITON. 
 
 "Reader, judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe 
 that he shall be judged by a supreme power : to that 
 power alone is he now answerable."] 
 
 " And I will and direct that, if the coroner's inquest 
 bring it in felo dc se, the said monument shall be, not- 
 withstanding, erected. Aud, if the said Paul Farr and 
 John Flower have souls so Bristolish as to refuse this 
 my request, they will transmit a copy of my will to the 
 Society for supporting the liill of Rights, whom I 
 hereby empower to build the said monument accord- 
 ing to the aforesaid directions. And, if they, the said 
 Paul Farr and John Flower, should build the said 
 monument, I will and direct that the second edition of 
 my Kao Gardens shall be dedicated to them in the
 
 80 CHATTERTON. 
 
 follo\ring dedication : ' To Paul Farr and John Flower, 
 Esqrs., tliis book is most humbly dedicated by the 
 Author's Ghost.' 
 
 "Item. — I give all my vigour and fire of youth to 
 Mr. George Catcott, being sensible he is most in 
 want of it. 
 
 "Item. — From the same charitable motive, I give 
 and bequeath unto the Eev. Mr. Camplin, sen., all 
 my humility. To Mr. Burgum all my prosody and 
 grammar, likewise one moiety of my modesty ; the 
 other moiety to any young lady who can prove, 
 without blushing, that she wants that valuable com- 
 modity. To Bristol all my spirit and disinterestedness, 
 parcels of goods unknown on her quays since the days 
 of Canning and Rowley. ('Tis true, a charitable gentle- 
 man, one Mr. Colston, smuggled a considerable quantity 
 of it; but, it being proved that he was a Papist, the 
 worshipful society of aldermen endeavoured to throttle 
 him with the oath of allegiance.) I leave also my religion 
 to Dr. Cutts Barton, Dean of Bristol, hereby empower- 
 ing the sub-sacrist to strike him on the head when he 
 goes to sleep in church. My powers of utterance I give 
 to the Eev. Mr. Broughton, hoping he will employ them 
 to a better purpose than reading lectures on the immor- 
 tality of the soul. I leave the Rev. Mr. Catcott some 
 little of my free-thinking, that he may put on spectacles 
 of reason, and see how vilely he is duped in believing 
 the Scriptures literally. (I wish he and his brother 
 George would know how far I am their real enemy : 
 but I have an unlucky way of raillery ; and, when the 
 strong fit of satire is upon me, I spare neither friend 
 nor foe. This is my excuse for what I have said of 
 them elsewhere.) I leave Mr. Clayfield the sincerest
 
 THE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 81 
 
 thanks my gratitude can give ; and I will and direct 
 that, whatever any person may think the pleasure of 
 reading my works worth, they immediately pay their 
 own valuation to liim, since it is then become a lawful 
 debt to me, and to him as my executor in this case. 
 
 " I leave my moderation to the politicians on both 
 sides of the question. I leave my generosity to our 
 present right worshipful mayor, Thomas Harris, Esq. 
 I give my abstinence to the company at the Sheriff's 
 annual feast in general, more particularly the aldermen. 
 
 "Item. — I give and bequeath to Mr. jMatthew INIease 
 a mourning ring with this motto, 'Alas, poor Cliat- 
 terton ! ' provided he pays' for it himself. Item. — I 
 leave the young ladies all the letters they have had 
 from me, assuring them that they need be under no 
 apprehensions from the appearance of my ghost, for 
 I die for none of them. Item. — I leave all my debts, 
 the whole not live pounds, to the payment of the 
 charitable and generous Chamber of Bristol, on penalty, 
 if refused, to hinder every member from a good dinner 
 by appearing in the form of a bailiff. If, in defiance of 
 this terrible spectre, they obstinately persist in refusing 
 to discharge my debts, let my two creditors apply to 
 the supporters of the Bill of Bights. Item. — I leave 
 my mother and sister to the protection of my friends, 
 if I have any. 
 
 " Executed, in the presence of Omniscience, this 14th 
 
 of April, 1770. 
 
 " Thomas Ciiattekton." 
 
 Whether this dreadful document got immediately 
 abroad among Chatterton's friends does not appear. 
 Another document, however, written at the same time 
 
 c. a
 
 82 CEATTERTON. 
 
 and in the same mad mood, was sufficiently alai'miug 
 to produce a catastrophe. The jNIr. Clayfield men- 
 tioned with such peculiar respect in the preceding paper, 
 a distiller of means and respectability, and a friend 
 of ]Mr. Lambert's, seems to have been a person of more 
 1 iian usual consideration in the eyes of Islw Lambert's 
 apprentice. To him, accordingly, rather than to any 
 other person in Bristol, he chose to indite a letter 
 conveying his rash intention of suicide. This letter — 
 not actually sent to Mr. Clayfield by Chatterton, but 
 inadvertently left about, it would appear, with that 
 gentleman's address upon it— was prematurely deli- 
 vered to him. Startled by its contents, he lost no time 
 in communicating them to j\Ir. Lambert. There was 
 an immediate consultation amomr Chatterton's friends, 
 and Mr. Barrett undertook to see the insane lad, and 
 reason with him on the folly and crindnality of his 
 conduct. Accordingly, a long conversation took place 
 between them, in which, to use his own words, he took 
 Chatterton to task for the " bad company and prin- 
 ciples he had adopted," and lectured him seriously 
 " on the horrible crime of self-murder, however glossed 
 over by present libertines." Chatterton was affected, 
 and shed tears. The next day, however, he sent Mr. 
 Barrett the following letter, the original of which may 
 be seen in the British Museum : — 
 
 " Sii!, — Upon recollection I don't know how Mr.
 
 TIJE ATTORNEY'S APPRENTICE OF BRISTOL. 83 
 
 Clayfield could come by his letter, as I intended to give 
 him a letter, but did not. In regard to my motives for 
 the supposed rashness, I shall observe tliat 1 keep no 
 worse company than myself : I never drink to excess, 
 and have, without vanity, too much sense to be attached 
 to the mercenary retailers of iniquity. No, it is my 
 PRIDE, my damn'd native unconquerable pride, that 
 plunges me into distraction. You must know that 
 nineteen-twentieths of my composition is pride. I 
 must either live a slave, a servant, to have no will of 
 my own, which I may freely declare as such, or die. 
 Perplexing alternative ! but it distracts me to think of 
 it ! I will endeavour to learn humility, but it cannot 
 be here, "\^'hat it may cost me in the trial Heaven 
 knows. 
 
 " I am your much obliged unhappy humble servant, 
 " Thursday Evening." " T. C. 
 
 Before this letter had been written by Chatterton, 
 one thing had been fully determined with regard to liim. 
 Mr. Lambert was no longer to keep him in his service. 
 Even had the lawyer himself been willing to make the 
 attempt, his mother, who kept house for him — an cild 
 lady between whom and Chatterton there had never, 
 we have reason to think, been any kind of cordiality — 
 would certainly not have listened to such a thincr. 
 AYhat ! sleep under the same roof with a violent 
 young fellow that had threatened to make away with 
 himself? Find the garret in a welter some n;ornin2: 
 with the young rascal's blood, and have a coroner's 
 
 G 2
 
 84 CHATTERTON. 
 
 inquest in the house ? Better at once give hiui up 
 his indentures, and be rid of him ! With this 
 advice of the old lady even the calmer deliberations 
 of Chatterton's own friends, Barrett, Catcott, and the 
 rest, could not but agree. So, on or about Monday, the 
 16th of April, 1770, it was intimated to Chatterton that 
 he was no longer in the employment of J\lr. Lambert. 
 
 Tuesday, the 17th, it will be remembered, was the 
 day of Wilkes's release from prison; and on Thursday, 
 the 19th — the very day, as we guess, on which the 
 forejcoino; letter to Mr. Barrett was written — there took 
 place in Bristol that dinner, in honour of the patriot, 
 at which, according to the announcement in the Public 
 Advertiser, the more prominent Liberals of the town 
 were to assemble at "the Crown, in the passage from 
 Broad Street to Tower Lane," to eat their forty-five 
 pounds of meat, drink their forty-five tankards of ale 
 and their forty-five bowls of punch, and smoke their 
 forty-five pipes of tobacco. Were we wrong in fancy- 
 ing that, while those Bristol Wilkesites were making 
 merry in the tavern, Chatterton may have been moodily 
 perambulating the adjacent streets ? Shall we be wrong 
 if we fancy, farther, that the story of Mr. Lambert's 
 apprentice and his intended suicide may have been 
 talked over by the happy gentlemen, when, having 
 finished their toasts, they sat down at leisure to their 
 pipes and their remaining punch?
 
 CHArTER III. 
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. 
 
 Cast out of all chance of a livelihood in his native 
 town, there was hut one course open to Chatterton: 
 to bid farewell to Bristol and attorneyship, and try 
 what he could do in the ureat literary mart of London. 
 Sanguine as were his hopes of success, it can have cost 
 him but little thought to make up his mind to this 
 course, if indeed he did not secretly congratulate him- 
 self that his recent escapade had ended so agreeably. 
 Probably there was but one thing that stood in the 
 way of an immediate declaration by himself, after the 
 fracas was over, that this was the resolution he had 
 come to — the want, namely, of a little money to serve 
 as outfit. No sooner, therefore, was this obstacle re- 
 moved by the charitable determination of his friends, 
 Mr. Barrett, Mr. Clayfield, the Catcotts, &c., to make a 
 little subscription for him, so as to present him with 
 the parting gift of a few pounds, than the tide of
 
 86 CHA TTEETON. 
 
 feeling was turned, and from a state of despondency 
 Chatterton gave way to raptures of unbounded joy. 
 London ! London ! A few days, and he should have 
 left the dingy quays of abominable Bristol, and should 
 be treading, in the very footsteps of Goldsmith, Garrick, 
 and Johnson, the liberal London streets ! 
 
 Chatterton remained exactly a week in Bristol after 
 his dismissal from Mr. Lambert's; i.e. from the 16th to 
 the 24th of April. A busy week we may suppose that 
 to have been for Mrs. Chatterton and her daughter: 
 stitching and sewing to be got through, so that all 
 Thomas's wardrobe might be properly in order against 
 his departure. Poor fellow! notwithstanding all that 
 idle people say of him, ilicy know better : he has a 
 proud spirit, but a good heart, and he will make his 
 way yet Avith the best of them ! And so, in their 
 humble apartments, the widow and her daughter ply 
 their needles, talking of Thomas and his prospects as 
 only a mother and a sister can. 
 
 The subject of their conversation, meanwhile, is 
 generally out, going from street to street, and taking 
 leave of his friends. Barrett, the two Catcotts, Mr. 
 Alcock, ]Mr. Clayfield, Burgum, Matthew Mease, and 
 his younger friends, the Carys, Smiths, and Kators 
 ■ — lie makes the round of them all, receiving their 
 good wishes, and making arrangements to correspond 
 with them. To less intimate acquaintances, too, met
 
 ROUND FOR LONDON. 87 
 
 aocidentally in tlie streets, he has to bid a frioiully 
 good-bye. jNIoreover, there are his numerous female 
 fi-iends— the Miss WebV)s, tlie Miss Thatchers, the Miss 
 Hills, &c., not to omit the " female Machiavel," Miss 
 Rumsey — who have all licard, with more or less con- 
 cern, that they are about to lose their poet, and are, 
 of course, anxious to see him before he goes. Of some 
 acquaintances of this class, probably the more humble 
 of them, he appears to have taken a kind of col- 
 lective farewell. Long afterwards, at least, a ]Mrs. 
 Stephens, the wife of a cabinet-maker in Bristol, used 
 to tell that she remembered, as an incident of her 
 girlhood, Chatterton's "taking leave of her and some 
 others, on the steps of Redcliffe Church, very cheer- 
 fully," before his going to London. "At parting, he 
 said he would give them some gingerbread, and went 
 over the way to Mr. Freeling's, to buy some." In con- 
 nexion with which little anecdote we have a mysterious 
 little scrap of document to produce. 
 
 A great deal of nonsense has been written on the 
 question of Chatterton's moral character. Was he a 
 libertine, as some have represented — a precocious young 
 blackguard, indebted for his bad end to his own habits 
 of profligacy ; or was he at least no worse in this respect 
 than his neighbours ? Naturally resenting the harsh 
 way in which Chalmers and other earlier biographers
 
 88 CHATTERTON. 
 
 of Cliatterton handled his memory, the writers of more 
 recent notices have certainly made out, in favour of 
 " the marvellous boy/' a certificate of good behaviour 
 to M'hich he was not entitled, and for which he would 
 not have thanked them. The evidence on which they 
 have laid most stress in connexion with this point is 
 that of Chatterton's sister, as given by her in her 
 letter to the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, eight years after 
 Chatterton's death, and published by that gentleman 
 in his singular book. Love and Madness. The following 
 is a passage from that touching and simple epistle, 
 spelt as in the original : — 
 
 " He wrote one letter to Sir Horace Warlpool ; and, 
 except his corrispondence with Miss Eumsey, the girl 
 I have mentioned, I know of no other. He would 
 frequently walk the Colledge green with the young 
 girls that statedly paraded there to shew their finery. 
 But I realy beleive he was no debauchee (tlio some 
 have reported it), the dear unhappy boy had faults 
 enough I saw with concern, he was proud and ex- 
 ceedingly iinpetious, but that of venality " [poor Mrs. 
 N. thinks this a fine word for licentiousness'] " he could 
 not be justly accused with. Mrs, Lambert informed 
 me not 2 months before he left Bristol, be had never 
 been once found out of the office in the stated hours, 
 as they frequently sent the footman and other servants 
 to see Nor but once stayed out till^ll o'clock; then he 
 had leave, as we entertained some friends at our house 
 at Christmas."
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. 89 
 
 This very distinct piece of evidence in favour of 
 Chatterton's punctual conduct as an apprentice has 
 been strained into a testimony to his moral reproach- 
 lessness. A fruitless attempt, we fear ! The worth 
 of a sister's assurance that her deceased brother could 
 not be justly accused of " venality " it is not difficult 
 to estimate ; besides that it is accompanied with the 
 information that the common report was to the con- 
 trary, and with the allusion to the habit of " walking 
 with the girls on the College-green," whatever that 
 may mean. Then, again, we have the fact that Mr. 
 Barrett, in his remonstrance with him respecting his 
 alarming letter to Mr. Clayfield, attributed his bad 
 state of mind to liis keeping immoral company. His 
 own allusions, too, scattered through his writings, are 
 quite decisive, even were we not to take into account 
 the almost constant tone which runs throuuh all that 
 part of his writings that is not antique — evidently the 
 productions as those modern pieces are of a clever 
 boy too conscious of forbidden things, and eager (as 
 boys are till some real experience of the heart has 
 made them earnest and silent) to assert his manhood 
 among his compeers by constant and irreverent talk 
 ou certain topics. And, after all, have we not the 
 native probabilities of the case itself? Are young 
 men in general, and attorneys' apprentices in parti- 
 cular, so immaculately moral that it becomes necessary
 
 90 CHATTEETON. 
 
 to argue out something like a perfectly virtuous cha- 
 racter for Cliatterton before venturiiifr to introduce- him 
 to the admirers of genius and literature? Should we 
 fail in doing this for liiui, will Byron, Burns, and the 
 rest, 7'efuse to shake hands with him? It is a pity, 
 certainly, that we should have to say so. Young men 
 of genius may take warning. A convenient theory 
 of " wild oats " has been provided and put in cir- 
 culation for their use by the thoim-htless and the 
 interested ; Ijut better for themselves in the end if 
 they decidedly reject it. Were Byron and Burns, or 
 were Chatterton himself, to speak now, they would 
 say so. Happiest is he who, needing no benefit from 
 the theory, yet can weigh it, and know how to be 
 charitable ! 
 
 And now for our document. If the reader were to 
 go to the reading-room of the British Museum, and 
 ask for the Chatterton MSS. (a considerable portion 
 of all the surviving MSS. of Chatterton is in the 
 Museum, the remainder being in Bristol and else- 
 where), he would have three volumes brought to him, 
 containing papers and parchments of various shapes and 
 sizes, some stained, smoked, and written like antiques, 
 others undisguisedly modern. If, aftc-r overcoming the 
 strange feeling that here in his hands are the very 
 sheets over which so many years ago Chatterton bent, 
 tracing with nimble fingers the black characters over
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. 01 
 
 tlie wliite pages, the reader should examine tlie papers 
 successively and individually, ho would come upon 
 one that would puzzle liiiu much. It is a dingy piece 
 of letter-paper, once folded as a letter, and containing 
 a very ugly scrawl in ;iii \ineducated female hand. 
 Here it is, printed for the first time : — 
 
 " Sir, I send my Love to you and Tell you This if 
 you prove Constant I not miss but if you frown and 
 Torn away 1 can make oart of battered Hay pray excep 
 of me Love Hartley an send me word Cartingley. Tell 
 me How maney ouncs of Green Gingerbread Can Sho 
 the baker of Honiste. 
 
 " My House is not belt with Stavis. I not be Coarted 
 by Boys nor navis. I Halve a man and a man Shall 
 Halve me, if I whaint a fool I Send for Thee. 
 
 " H" you are going to the D I wish you a good 
 
 Gouery." 
 
 What in all the woi'ld have we here ? Exercising 
 our utmost ingenuity for the purpose of determining, 
 if possible, what petty, and perhaps not very reput- 
 able Bristol occurrence of the year 1770, this mystic 
 piece of ill-written doggrel (the reader will observe that 
 part of the letter is in a kind of cripple rhyme) has 
 come down to us to perpetuate and represent, we can 
 honestly arrive but at one conclusion — that it is the 
 spiteful epistle of some obscure female, avenging her- 
 self, with all the energy of feminine malice, for the 
 sjrretce injuria formcv or some other fancied wrong.
 
 92 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Did we dare to copy the version of the letter, or 
 rather jocular answer to it, written in Chatterton's 
 own hand on the back of the sheet, in the shape of 
 a few extremely impolite and not at all quoteable 
 Hudibrastic lines, the hypothesis would appear inevit' 
 able. In short, we explain the matter thus : — Among 
 the various acquaintances of Chatterton interested in 
 the news of his approaching departure is some one of 
 the other sex, labouring under the provocation of some 
 injury, or fancied injury, not now ascertainable. This 
 Bristol Juno sees, with pangs incredible, her faithless 
 Jove dispensing the gingerbread he has bought at 
 " ]\Ir. Freeling's over the way " among the nymphs 
 waiting for it on the steps of Eedcliffe Church ; she 
 goes home, and discharges all her malevolence in one 
 fell epistle, into which, with vast literary effort, she 
 contrives to introduce an allusion to the gingerbread; 
 this epistle, intended to pierce her Jove's heart like 
 a poisoned arrow, she sends to him anonymously ; 
 and he, reading it, and recognising the hand of the 
 distempered donor, enjoys the joke amazingly, and 
 expresses his opinion of it and her by scribbling his 
 wicked answer on the other side. Strange bit of 
 defunct real life thus to be dug up again into the 
 light ! The departure of poor Chatterton for London 
 from his native place was not, it would tlius appear, 
 an event which all Bristol viewed with indifference.
 
 BOUXD FOR LONDON. 93 
 
 Whether the Clayfields, the Barretts, and the Catcotts 
 of his acquaintance cared much about the matter or 
 not, whether Miss liumsey slied tears or not, we can- 
 not say; hut here, at least, was one skittish denizen 
 of some mean Bristol street in whose breast Chatterton 
 left a rankling sense of wrong or jealousy, and who 
 was powerfully enough excited by the news of his 
 departure to immortalise her concern therein by pen- 
 ning a spiteful letter, in which slie told him he was 
 
 reported to be " going to the D ," and wished him 
 
 a good journey. 
 
 Chatterton was not going to the D directly : he 
 
 was only going to London, to follow the professional 
 walk of literature. Persons going on that journey from 
 the provinces now-a-days (and it must have been the 
 same in Chatterton's time) usually carry three things 
 with them, in addition to the mere essentials of luggage 
 — a little money, a small bundle of MSS., and a few 
 letters of introduction. How was Chatterton furnished 
 in these several respects? 
 
 As regards money, the most essential of the three, 
 but very poorly, we fear. It would throw more light 
 than a hundred disquisitions on the real truth of 
 Chatterton's London career were we al)lc to calculate 
 to the precise shilling the sum of money which lie 
 took with him from Bristol. Unfortunately, there are
 
 94 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 no data for such a calculation. All that remains in the 
 shape of information on this point is a vague tradition, 
 the exact worth of which we. do not know, that the 
 understood arrangement among the charitable persons 
 who had agreed to get up a little subscription for 
 him against his departure was that they should sub- 
 scribe a guinea each. Subjecting this tradition to a 
 strict act of judgment, directed by a knowledge of the 
 laws of human nature in general, and the circumstances 
 of Chatterton's Bristol position in particular, we should 
 say that the entire sum that could possibly be in 
 Chatterton's purse in the week before he left Bristol 
 did not (any contrilmtion his motlier could make in- 
 cluded) exceed ten guineas. Take a more probable 
 estimate still, and deduct the expenses of the out lit 
 and journey, and we may say Chatterton was elated 
 with the prospect of invading London with a pecuniary 
 force of exactly five guineas. 
 
 But he had plenty of manuscripts. In one bundle 
 he had the whole of the Eowley Poems and other 
 antiques — ^lla, The Bristoiue Tragedie, Goddwyn, The 
 Tournament, The Battle of Hastings, The Parliamente 
 of Sxjrytes, &c. &c. : all written and finished at least 
 twelve months before, and forming matter enough to 
 fill, if printed, one considerable volume. These, if he 
 could either dispose of them in the mass or sell them 
 individually, would form a sufficient stock to begin
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. 95 
 
 with. On jElla^ in particular, 1il' luilurally set great 
 value. It was his masterpiece : worth a great deal of 
 money, even as an imitation of the antique; and 
 worth ten times more if he could succeed in getting 
 it accepted as a genuine English poem of the fifteenth 
 century. If he should not be able to part with it 
 advantageously under either guise, he would at any 
 rate have it by him, to be printed some day or other 
 at his own expense, and to make his fame as a poet 
 and antiquarian ! Then, in another bundle, he had his 
 miscellaneous modern pieces in prose and verse — his Kew 
 Gardens, his Consuliad, and other such satires after the 
 manner of Pope and Churchill ; numerous songs, elegies, 
 and ulhcr poetical trifles ; and an assortment of odds 
 and ends bearing on English antiquities. For these he 
 cared far less himself than for his Eowley poems ; but 
 he had already ascertained that they were more dis- 
 posable as literary ware, and accordingly he had of late 
 almost abandoned the antique vein in their favour. 
 They might be of use to liini in his dealings with the 
 magazines and newspapers ; and, if they should turn 
 out not to be exactly suitable, he had a ready pen, and 
 a head full of all kinds of historical knowledge, and 
 should find no difficulty — especially after his sister had 
 forwarded to him his little collection of books — in 
 throwing off such papers by the dozen ! 
 
 Lastly, as regards the matter of introductions. It
 
 96 CHATTERTON. 
 
 may seem strange to such as are accustomed to think 
 such things essential to a young man migrating from 
 his native place, but we positively cannot find that 
 Chatterton took one letter of introduction from Bristol 
 with him. That Matthew Mease may have told him 
 of some vintner of his acquaintance, living somewhere 
 in Whitechapel, that would be glad to see him if he 
 told him he knew ]\Iat Mease of Bristol ; that Mr. Clay- 
 field, or Mr. Barrett, or even .his master, Mr. Lambert, 
 may have recommended him to call, at his leisure, on 
 certain well-to-do Smiths or Robinsons they had dealings 
 wdth ; that his younger friends, the Mr. Carys and Mr. 
 Eudhalls, the Miss Eumseys and Miss Webbs, may have 
 given him commissions and instructions destined to 
 bring him into connexion with metropolitan aunts 
 living in Camden Town, and long-forgotten cousins 
 that had situations in the Custom House ; nay, that 
 Mrs. Chatterton herself, taxing, with the grandmother's 
 help, her genealogical memory, may have excogitated 
 for the occasion a stray relative or two in London, that 
 it might be well to visit : all this is, of course, ex- 
 tremely probable. But (and the reason, in all like- 
 lihood, was that his whole circle of acquaintance could 
 not muster such a thing) not a single letter to a literary 
 notability did this " Mad Genius " of Bristol, going on 
 his expedition to set the Thames on fire, take in his 
 portmanteau to be of use to him. Two things only
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. 
 
 seem to have been decided : first, tliat, on arriving in 
 London, lie should go to lodge at the house of a IMr. 
 "SViilmsley, a plasterer, in Shoreditch, where a Mrs. 
 Ballance, a distant relative of his mother's, and who 
 had already been written to on the subject, resided ; and, 
 secondly, that his care on his arrival should be to seek 
 out Mr. Edmunds, at the Middlesex Joicrnal office in 
 Shoe Lane, and beat up the editorial quarters of tlie 
 Toim and Country Magazine. These were to be his 
 foci in London ; and thence, by the force of his genius, 
 he was to weave out new acquaintanceships, and spread 
 himself in all directions ! Nor, on the whole, was this 
 plan perhaps the worst. Young authors coming to 
 London to set the Thames on fire are by no means 
 always welcome visitors to those more elderly prac- 
 titioners of the same craft who, having become con- 
 vinced by experience of the incombustibility of the 
 river, have settled down on its banks with chastened 
 hopes and more practical intentions; and it is better, 
 in the long run, for young authors themselves tu 
 purchase every inch of way they make into people's 
 good graces by some equivalent addition of new work 
 done and tendered. And yet who will say that intro- 
 ductions are of no use ? The kind word of encourage- 
 ment spoken now and then by the veteran litUratenr 
 to his younger brother, the business note written now 
 and then in his service when anything in the shape 
 of work turns up, the friendly invitation now and 
 C. H
 
 98 GHATTERTON. 
 
 then when a few of the same craft are to meet : 
 these courtesies, which it is in the power of intro- 
 ductions, in the proportion perhaps of one effective to 
 ten given, to procure, how much wear and tear of heart 
 may they not save, how many paths through poverty 
 to a rank London churchyard may they not make 
 smoother ! These, a little extended and adjusted, would 
 of themselves constitute in these days, and while more 
 systematic promises are in abeyance, a very good 
 organization of literature. Nor, thank God, are these 
 wanting. That hard, austere man of letters, young 
 poet, who receives you so grimly, is so severe on your 
 fallacies and commonplaces, says not a word to flatter 
 you, and would almost drive you from literature to 
 making shoes, let but an opportunity really to serve 
 you present itself, and you shall find that man as true 
 as steel and as kind as a woman ! That other man of 
 letters, with the flashing wit and the impetuosity that 
 stuns and blasts you, I could tell you of generous 
 actions done by him ! And him, again, the broad, 
 sagacious man of abundant humour and encyclopaedic 
 lore, or him on whose silver hairs the honours of a loner 
 celebrity sit so gracefully — what debts of gratitude, were 
 they reckoned up, would be found owing by contem- 
 jwraries to them ! Such men there are in London in 
 Mur own days, each cordial and assisting after his own 
 method and in his own sphere ; nor was London want- 
 ing in such in the days of Chatterton. TJemembering
 
 BOUND FOR LONDON. !,<j 
 
 this, and tliinking which special man out of the 700.000 
 and odd souls then inhabiting London it miglit have 
 been best for Chatterton to have come into connexion 
 witli, one cainiot but speculate what might have been 
 the result had Chatterton taken with him from Biistol 
 but one letter of introduction, addressed to Oliver Gold- 
 smith. " To Dr. Goldsmith, at No. 2, Brick Court, :Middle 
 Temple, favoured by Mr. Chatterton" — one lingers in 
 fancy over the probable consequences of a letter bear- 
 ing that superscription. But it did not so happen. 
 
 It was on Tuesday, the 24th of April, and, as near 
 as we can guess, between eight and nine in the evening, 
 that Chatterton, who had probably never been a single 
 whole day out of Bristol before, took his final farewell 
 of it. By the help of the Gentleman's Magaziiie for 
 April, 1771, which contains a register of the weather 
 for the same month in the previous year, we are able 
 to tell pretty exactly the state of the weather at the 
 time. Monday, the 23rd, had been " a cloudy day, very 
 cold, with some little hail and a strong north-west 
 wind ; " and on Tuesday, the 24th, though the wind 
 had veered round to the south-west, it was still " cold 
 and cloudy." On the evening of that cloudy day, when 
 it is already almost dark, and the streets are damp witli 
 approaching rain, three figures stand at an inn-duor iu 
 Bristol, waiting for the starting of the London coacii.. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 CHATTERTON. 
 
 They are — Cliattertou, wrapped up for his journey, a 
 tight, well-built youth, of middle size; his sister, a 
 grown young woman, two years older than himself; 
 and his mother, a sad-looking elderly person, in a 
 cloak. Eound about the coach, and greatly in the way 
 of the porters who are putting on the luggage, are one 
 or two young men that have gone there to bid Chat- 
 terton once more good-bye. They stand and talk for a 
 few minutes in the midst of the bustle, while the 
 passengers are hurrying backwards and forwards be- 
 tween the coach and the lighted passage of the inn. 
 At last all is ready; the luggage is put up, and the 
 other passengers have taken their seats. " Good-bye, 
 Tom ; God bless you ; and mind to write as soon as 
 you get to London," falters the widow for the last time. 
 Tom hears her ; bids her good-bye, his sister good-bye^ 
 the rest good-bye ; and springs into his place in what 
 was then called "the basket" of the coach, i.e., an 
 exterior accommodation slung low down to the body. 
 " All right," cries the guard, and blows his horn ; the 
 coachman cracks his whip, the horses' hoofs clatter; 
 and away along the iU-lit streets goes the clumsy 
 vehicle, out towards the suburbs of Bristol, Chatterton 
 slung in the basket. The widow stands at the inn- 
 door watching it till it disappears ; then, taking her 
 daughter's arm, and gathering her cloak around her, 
 walks home with a heavy heart through the drizzle.
 
 PAET II. 
 LONDON
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 SHOREDITCa. 
 
 Header, were you ever in Shoreditch ? If you are 
 an inhabitant of London, you may know all about it ; 
 if not, get a map of London, and you will see that the 
 locality named Shoreditch forms part of one of the 
 great highways leading northwards from the centre 
 of the city towards the suburbs. The part of this 
 highway nearest the city, including about half a mile 
 of houses on both sides, is called Bishopsgate Street, 
 from the fact that here stood one of the ancient gates 
 of the city, erected by a Saxon bishop of some early 
 century ; beyond that, for about a quarter of a mile, 
 the thoroughfare is called Norton Folgate, or, as it was 
 originally pronounced, the Northern Foldgate ; after 
 which, extending for another quarter of a mile, and 
 terminating in Hackney, is Shoreditch proper, the 
 principal street of a populous parish of the same name. 
 Tradition ascribes the origin of the name to the
 
 104 CHATTERTON. 
 
 circumstance that Jane Shore, the mistress of Edward 
 
 IV., ended her life here, 
 
 " Within a ditch of loathsome scent, 
 Which carrion dogs did much frequent," 
 
 as the ballad says: but old Stow settles that matter 
 by saying, he could prove by record that as early as 
 four hundred years before his time the place had been 
 called Soersditch. However this may be, the place 
 deserves its name. There is, indeed, no vestige of a 
 ditch now perceptible to one passing through the 
 locality, whatever a more strict investigation might 
 disclose; but the neighbourhood has not a very pleasant 
 or wholesome look. The aspect which Shoreditch 
 I)roper now presents is that of a broad, bustling street 
 of old-fronted houses, full of heterogeneous shops, 
 some of them exhibiting considerable displays of cheap 
 hats, haberdashery, shoes, ready-made clothes, groceries, 
 and the like ; but others belonging rather to the coster- 
 monger species. Narrower streets, of more mean 
 appearance, branch out from it on both sides. Alto- 
 gether, Shoreditch is not the part of London where 
 a literary man of the present day would voluntarily 
 seek lodgings ; and the case was probably much the 
 same in Chatterton's time. Indeed, long before that, 
 Shoreditch, partly perhaps on account of the peculiar 
 suggestiveness of its name, had obtained an unenviable 
 reputation as a low neighbourhood. " To die in
 
 SHOREDITCn. 105 
 
 Shoreditch " was synonymous, in tlie writings of the 
 wits of Dryden's time, with dying like a profligate 
 and having hags for one's nurses. 
 
 It was here, however, that Chatterton lodged when 
 he first came to London. We have already mentioned 
 that the only definite arrangement he seems to have 
 made for his sojourn in London, before leaving Bristol, 
 consisted in his having written to Mrs. Ballance, a 
 distant relative of his mother, who lived in the house 
 of a Mr. Walmsley, a plasterer, in Shoreditch, asking 
 her to secm^e a lodging for him against his arrival. 
 Mrs. Ballance, whom we picture as an elderly female, 
 the widow of some seafaring man, living in London 
 in a meagre, eleemosynary way, appears to have replied 
 to this letter by writing to Mrs. Chatterton that 
 Thomas had better come at once to Mr. Walmsley's, 
 where he coidd be accommodated in the meantime at 
 least, and where she would do her best to make him 
 comfortable. 
 
 Accordingly, it was to Mr. Walmsley's, in Shoreditch, 
 that Chatterton, on his arrival in London, on the 
 evening of Wednesday, the 25th of April, 1770, con- 
 trived to make his way. Where the Bristol coach 
 of that day stopped we do not know, though even that 
 might be ascertained if we were very anxious about it ; 
 but, as it must have been in the yard of some inn near 
 the heart of the city, Chatterton had not far to go
 
 106 CEATTERTON. 
 
 before introducing himself to' Mrs. Ballauce, if, indeed, 
 the good woman did not make her appearance at 
 the coach to meet her young relative. It shows the 
 impatience and the spirit of the young stranger, thus 
 deposited in the streets of London, that, late as it 
 was when he arrived at Mr. Walmsley's (it must have 
 been between five and six o'clock in the evening), 
 and tired as he must have been with his twenty 
 hours' journey, he did not remain within doors any 
 time, but, having seen his boxes safe, and escaped 
 the assiduities of Mrs. Ballance, sallied out for a 
 ramble, and to make calls on the persons through 
 whose patronage he hoped to gain a footing in literary 
 circles. So much, at least, we infer from the follow- 
 ing letter to his mother, written on the morning of 
 the 26th, after he had slept his first night at Mr. 
 Walmsley's, and giving an account of his journey and 
 his first proceedings in London : — 
 
 " London, April 26th, 1770. 
 "Dear Mother, — Here I am, safe and in high 
 spirits. To give you a journal of my tour would not 
 be unnecessary. After riding in the basket to Brisling- 
 ton, I mounted the top of the coach, and rid easy, 
 and was agreeably entertained with the conversation 
 of a Quaker in dress, but little so in personals and 
 behaviour. This laughing Friend, who is a carver, 
 lamented his having sent his tools to Worcester, as 
 otherwise he would have accompanied me to London.
 
 SnOREDITCH. 107 
 
 1 left him at Bath ; when, finding it rained pretty 
 fast, I entered an inside passenger to Speenhamland, 
 the half-way stage, paying seven shillings. 'Twas 
 lucky I did so, for it snowed all night, and on Marl- 
 liorough Downs the snow was near a foot high. 
 
 " At seven in the morning I breakfasted at Speen- 
 hamland, and then mounted the coach-box for the 
 remainder of the day, which was a remarkable fine 
 one. Honest Gee-ho complimented me with assuring 
 me that I sat bolder and tighter than any person who 
 ever rid with him. Dined at Stroud most luxuriously 
 with a young gentleman, who had slept all the pre- 
 ceding night in the machine, and an old mercantile 
 genius, whose school-boy son had a great deal of wit, 
 as the father thought, in remarking that Windsor was 
 as old as 02ir Saviour's time. 
 
 " Got into London about five o'clock in the evening. 
 Called upon Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Fell, Mr. Hamilton, 
 and Mr. Dodsley. Great encouragement from them ; 
 all a])proved of my design. Shall soon be settled. 
 Call upon Mr. Lambert ; show him this ; or tell him, 
 if I deserve a recommendation, he would oblige me to 
 give me one: if I do not, it will be beneath him to 
 take notice of me. Seen all aunts, cousins — all well — 
 and I am welcome. Mr. T. Wensley is alive, and com- 
 ing home. Sister, grandmother, &c. &c. &c., remember. 
 
 " I remain your dutiful son, 
 
 " T. ClIATTEKTON." 
 
 It is a curious corroboration of Chatterton's account 
 of the weather during his journey that, in the meteoro- 
 logical registers of the Gentl&man's Magazine, Wednes-
 
 108 GHATTERTON. 
 
 day, the 25tli of April, 1770 — the day on which 
 Chatterton sat beside the driver of the Bristol coach 
 all the way from Speenhamlaud to London — is entered 
 as a day of " smart frost, very bright and very cold," 
 snow having fallen in some parts of the country during 
 the previous night. It was on the evening of this 
 bright, cold day, therefore (or, notwithstanding the word- 
 ing of his letter, was it not rather next morniDg ?), that 
 Chatterton, setting out from Mr. Walmsley's, contrived, 
 by inquiring his way of people he met, to pilot himself 
 along Shoreditch, Norton Folgate, and Bishopsgate 
 Street, towards the city, bent as he was on calling 
 without delay on the four gentlemen mentioned in his 
 letter — Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Fell, Mr. Hamilton, and 
 Mr. Dodsley. Let us see if we can make out anything 
 respecting those gentlemen. They were the first persons 
 Chatterton visited in London, and some of them had 
 not a little to do with his subsequent fate. 
 
 Mr. Edmunds has been already introduced to the 
 reader. He was the proprietor, editor, and publisher of 
 the Middlesex Journal, a bi-weekly newspaper, to which, 
 we have seen, Chatterton had sent several communi- 
 cations from BristoL His ofl&ces were in Shoe Lane, 
 
 Holborn. Of Mr. Hamilton we learn something 
 
 from that interesting collection of scraps, " Nichols's 
 Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century." He 
 was the printer and proprietor of The Town and
 
 SnOREDITCn. 109 
 
 CovMry Magazine ; in which capacity Chatterton had, 
 as we know, for some time corresponded with him. 
 He was the son of one Archibald Hamilton, a Scotch- 
 man ; who, having been obliged to quit Edinburgh in 
 1736 for ha\'ing been actively concerned in the 
 Porteous Eiot, had settled in London as a printer, and 
 had made a considerable fortune there. The son 
 Archibald, enjoying the benefit of his father's con- 
 nexion, had also set up as a printer. He had, says 
 Nichols, two printing-offices, one "in the country, on 
 the road between Highgate and Finchley," the other 
 in town, " near St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell ; " and 
 it was probably in allusion to this circumstance that, 
 when he started a new magazine, in the beginning of 
 1769, he named it TJic Toicn and Country Magazine. 
 The magazine, Nichols informs us, had " a prodigious 
 sale." Nichols also gives us some particulars respect- 
 ing Dodsley, in addition to those already communicated 
 to the reader. Having succeeded his brother Robert, 
 whose junior he was by twenty-two years, in the year 
 1759, James Dodsley had carried on the bookselling 
 business in Pall Mall so profitably as to be already a 
 wealthy man, AVhen he died in 1797, he left a fortune 
 of 70,000/. ; and a good part of this sum must have 
 been accumulated before 1770, when he was forty-five 
 years of age. " By a habit of excluding himself from 
 the world," says Nichols, " ]\Ir. James Dodsley, who
 
 110 CHATTERTON. 
 
 certainly possessed a liberal heart and a strong under- 
 standing, had acquired many peculiarities." One of 
 these is mentioned as specially characteristic. " He 
 kept a carriage many years, but studiously wished his 
 friends should not know it ; nor did he ever use it 
 on the eastern side of Temple Bar." The inscription 
 on the tablet erected to the memory of the bookseller 
 in St. James's Church, Westminster, where he was 
 buried, is to the same effect. " He was a man," says 
 the epitaph, " of a retired and contemplative turn of 
 mind, though engaged in a very extensive line of public 
 business ; he was upright and liberal in his dealings, 
 a friend to the afflicted in general, and to the poor 
 of this parish in particular," — in fact, an eccentric, shy, 
 
 good sort of man. Finally, what of Mr, Fell? From 
 
 what Chatterton says of him, we learn that he was 
 printer,' publisher, and editor of the Freeliolder's Maga- 
 zine, a periodical conducted in the interest of Wilkes, 
 and to which, as well as to the Tovm and Country, 
 Chatterton had recently sent articles for insertion. We 
 imagine him, on some shadow of authority, to have 
 been a needy, nondescript kind of publisher, with a 
 place of business in Paternoster Eow, and not nearly 
 so respectable as either Edmunds or Hamilton, not to 
 speak of Dodsley. 
 
 Such were the four persons upon whom we are to 
 imagine the impetuous young fellow who had just
 
 SnOREDITCE. Ill' 
 
 come off the Bristol coach dropping in unexpectedly 
 long, long ago. His hopes from Edmunds were, of 
 course, chiefly in connexion with the Middlesex Journal, 
 for which he could furnish poems and paragraphs. 
 Through Fell he might obtain a footing in the Free- 
 Iwlders Magazine, and whatever else of a literary 
 kind might be going on under the auspices of Wilkes. 
 From Hamilton he looked for some definite and paying 
 engagement on the Toivn and Country. From Dodsley 
 his expectations were probably still higher. Besides 
 being the publisher of the Annual Register, and the 
 friend of Burke and other notable political men, 
 Dodsley was a bookseller on a large scale, and a 
 publisher of poetry ; it was to him that Chatterton 
 had applied by letter sixteen months before as a likely 
 person to publish his ^//a/ one or two letters had 
 probably passed between them since ; and, in resolving 
 to introduce himself personally to this magnate of 
 books, Chatterton had, doubtless, dreams not only of 
 the opening of the Annual Register to liis lucubrations, 
 but also of the appearance of his Eowley performances 
 some day or other in the form of one or more well- 
 printed volumes, the wonder of all the critics. It 
 was witli these views on the persons severally con- 
 cerned, that Chatterton made his four rapid calls. 
 The enterprise was certainly less Quixotic tlian if a 
 young literary provincial, uow-a-days, were, on the
 
 112 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 first day of his being in London, to resolve at once 
 to call on Murray or Longman, then to beat up the 
 office of the Daily News in search of the editor, 
 after that to knock at Mr. Parker's door to seek an 
 engagement on Fraser, and finally to go and See what 
 could be done on Dickens s Household Words. Still, 
 with all allowance for the difference between that 
 day and this, the idea of achieving interviews with 
 four different editors and publishers in one ramble 
 was somewhat bold. As regards mere time and dis- 
 tance, to compass calls, in such circumstances, on four 
 different individuals — one of them living in Shoe Lane, 
 another at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, a third in 
 Pall Mall, and the fourth somewhere else — can have 
 been no easy task. Put Chatterton was a resolute 
 youth, with plenty of the faculty of self-assertion, and 
 capable, as we imagine, not only of making four calls 
 in one walk, but also of going through each without 
 any unnecessary degree of bashfulness. We have no 
 doubt that he saw Hamilton, Pell, Edmunds, and 
 Dodsley himself, with the most perfect self-assurance ; 
 that he explained his case to them, and stated what 
 he wanted from them, very distinctly ; and that, with 
 the advantage he had in having corresponded with 
 all of them before, he came off from the interviews 
 in a very satisfactory manner. As to how they received 
 him, and what they said to him, we have but his own
 
 SnOREDITCIL 113 
 
 words to his mother : " Great encouragement from 
 them ; all approved of my design." The meaning of 
 this is somewhat problematical. Dodsley, we imagine, 
 nervous and shy person as he was, may have been 
 a little discomposed by the talk of the impetuous 
 young visitor who had so unceremoniously burst in 
 upon him, and, while listening with tolerable courtesy 
 to what he said, may have been mentally resolving 
 to have nothing more to do with that odd Bristol lad, if 
 once he could get him out. Hamilton and Edmunds, 
 we fancy, were civil and general, with perhaps an 
 intention to let the lad write for them, if he chose 
 to do so. Fell, as a needier man, and more ready to 
 catch at a promising literary recruit, was probably the 
 most cordial of all. 
 
 And so, tired and yet happy, the young stranger bent 
 his steps homewards in the direction of Shoreditch. 
 Ah ! one wonders whether, in passing along Shoe Lane 
 after his interview with Edmunds, brushing with his 
 shoulder the ugly black wall of that workhouse bury- 
 ing-ground on the site of which Farringdon jNlarket 
 now stands, any presentiment occurred to him of a 
 spectacle which, four short months afterwards, that 
 very spot was to witness — those young limbs of his, 
 now so full of life, then closed up stark and unclaimed 
 in a workhouse shell, and borne carelesslv and irre- 
 verently by one or two men along that very wall to ' 
 
 c. I
 
 114 CHATTERTON. 
 
 a pauper's hasty grave ! No, he paces all unwittingly, 
 poor young heart, that spot of his London doom, 
 where even now, remembering him, one shudders as 
 one walks .God, in his mercy, hangs the veil. 
 
 In what precise part of Shoreditch that house of 
 Mr. Walmsley was where Chatterton lodged when he 
 first came to London, and to which, on that memorable 
 day, he returned through many dark and strange 
 streets, we do not know. London Directories of the 
 year 1770 are not things easy to be found ; and, 
 could we find one, we should not be very certain to 
 find Mr. Walmsley's name in it. In these circum- 
 stances, the literary antiquary, as he walks along Shore- 
 ditch, may be allowed to single out, as the object of 
 his curiosity, any old-looking house he pleases along 
 the whole length of the thoroughfare on either side, 
 it being stipulated only that the house so selected shall 
 be conceivable as having once been the abode of a 
 plasterer. For our part, we have an incommunicable 
 impression as if the house were to fee sought in the 
 close vicinity of the present terminus of the Eastern 
 Counties Eailway, or where Shoreditch passes into 
 Norton Folgate. Let that fancy stand, therefore, in 
 lieu of a better. 
 
 Here, then, Chatterton slept his first night in 
 London. Here, on the following morning, he break-
 
 SUOREDITCH. 115 
 
 fasted ia the company of his relative, Airs. Ballauce, 
 giving her the news of Bristol, and receiving from her 
 such bits of news in return as she had to communi- 
 cate, including the intelligence that Mr. T. Wensley — 
 a seaman or petty officer, as we learn from a subse- 
 quent allusion, on board a King's ship, but a native 
 of Bristol, and on that account known to Mrs. Chat- 
 terton and his sister — was alive, and on his way home. 
 Hence also he sets out to visit those aunts and cousins 
 mentioned in the letter as being all well and glad to 
 see him, and who, it is to be hoped, did not live far 
 from Shoreditch. Here, some time or other in the 
 course of the day — Thursday, the 26th, his first real 
 day in London, and "a very coarse, wet, cold day" 
 it was, says the Gentleman's Magazine — he writes his 
 letter home, so as to send it by that day's post. And 
 here, during the remaining days of that month, — 
 Friday, the 27th, " a very coarse wet day, but not 
 so cold ; " Saturday, the 28th, " a heavy morning 
 bright afternoon, cold wind ; " Sunday the 29th, " 
 very bright day, hot sun, cold wind;" and Monday 
 the 30th, " chieily bright, flying clouds, no rain 
 and warm;" — he soon finds himself faiiiy domi- 
 ciled, becoming more familiar with the Walmsleys 
 and Mrs. Ballancc, whom he sees iu the mornings, 
 and starting oil every forenoon for a wulk along 
 
 Noilon Folgate and Bishopsgate Street, towards those 
 
 I 2
 
 IIG CHATTERTON. 
 
 quarters of the metropolis where the chief attrac- 
 tions lay. 
 
 Chattertou lived in Mr, Walmsley's house in Shore- 
 ditch about six weeks in all, or from the 24th of April 
 to the beginning of June. We are fortunately able 
 to give a somewhat particular account of the economj 
 of Mr. "Walmsley's family, and of the kind of accom- 
 modation which Chatterton had there, and the impres- 
 sion he produced on the various members of it during 
 his stay. The Kev. Sir Herbert Croft, already men- 
 tioned as one who took much jDains — more pains, in 
 fact, than anybody else from that time to this — to 
 inform himself of the real particulars of Chatterton's 
 life, hunted out the AValmsley family in Shoreditch 
 while the memory of Chatterton was still fresh, and 
 ascertained all he could from them regarding the habits 
 of the singular being whose brief stay among them had 
 been an event of such consequence in the history of 
 their humble household. The following is an extract 
 from Sir Herbert's Love and Madness, embodying all he 
 could gather about Chatterton from this source : — 
 
 " The man and woman where he first lodged are still 
 (1780) living in the same house. He is a plasterer. 
 They, and their nephew and niece (the latter about as 
 old as Chatterton would be now, the former three years 
 younger), and Mrs. Ballance — who lodged in the house 
 and desired them to let Chatterton, her relation, live
 
 HHOllEDITCH. 1 1 7 
 
 there also — have been seen. The little collected from 
 them you shall have in their own words . . . 
 
 " Mrs. Ballance says he was as proud as Lucifer. 
 He very soon quarrelled with her for calling him 
 ' Cousin Tommy,' and asked her if she ever heard of a 
 poet's being called Tommy ; but she assured him that 
 she knew nothing of poets, and only wished he would 
 not set up for a gentleman. Upon her recommending 
 it to him to get into some office, when he had been in 
 town two or three weeks, he stormed about the room 
 like a madman, and frightened her not a little by tell- 
 ing her that he hoped, with the blessing of God, very 
 soon to be sent prisoner to the Tower, which would 
 make his fortune. He would often look steadfastly in 
 a person's face, without speaking, or seeming to see the 
 person, for a quarter of an hour or more, till it was 
 quite frightful ; during all which time (she supposes 
 from what she has since heard) his thoughts were gone 
 about something else. ... He frequently declared that 
 he should settle the nation before he had done : but 
 how could she think that her poor cousin Tommy was 
 so great a man as she now finds he was ? His mother 
 should have written word of his greatness, and then, 
 to be sure, she would have humoured the gentleman 
 accordingly. 
 
 " Mr. Walmsley observed little in him, but that there 
 was something manly and pleasing about him, and that 
 he did not dislike the wenches. 
 
 " Mrs. Wabnsley's account is, that she never saw any 
 harm of him — that he never' mislisted her, but was 
 always very civil whenever they met in the house by 
 accident; that he would never suffer the room in which
 
 118 CRATTERTON. 
 
 lie used to read and write to be swept, because, he said, 
 poets bated brooms ; tbat she told him she did not 
 know anything poet-folks w^ere good for, but to sit in a 
 dirty cap and gown in a garret, and at last to be 
 starved ; that, during the nine (?) weeks he was at her 
 house, he never stayed out after the family hours except 
 once, when he did not come home all night, and had 
 been, she heard, pocting a song about the streets. (This 
 night, Mrs. Ballance says, she knows he lodged at a 
 relation's, because Mr. Walmsley's house was shut up 
 when he came home.) 
 
 " The Niece says, for her part, she always took him 
 more for a mad boy than anything else, he would have 
 such flights and vagaries ; that, but for his face, and her 
 knowledge of his age, she should never have thought 
 him a boy, he was so manly, and so much himself; that 
 no women came after him, nor did she know of any 
 connexion — but still that he was a sad rake, and terribly 
 fond of women, and would sometimes be saucy to her ; 
 that he ate what he chose to have, with his relation 
 Mrs. Ballance, who lodged in the house; but that he 
 never touched meat, and drank only water, and seemed 
 to live on the air. , . . The Niece adds that he was 
 good-tempered, and agreeable, and obliging, but sadly 
 proud and haughty : nothing was too good for him ; 
 nor was anything to be too good for his grandmother, 
 mother, and sister, hereafter. . , . That he used to sit 
 up almost all night, reading and writing ; and that her 
 brother said he was afraid to lie with him — for, to be 
 sure, he w^as a spirit, and never slept; for he never 
 came to bed till it was morning, and then, for what he 
 saw, never closed his eyes.
 
 SHOREDITCn. 119 
 
 " The Nephew (Chatterton's bed-fellow during tlie 
 first six weeks he lodged there) says that, notwithstand- 
 ing his pride and haughtiness, it was impossible to help 
 liking him; that he lived chielly upon a bit of bread, or 
 a tart, and some water — but he once or twice saw him 
 take a sheep's tongue out of his pocket ; that Chatterton, 
 to his knowledge, never slept while they lay together ; 
 that he never came to bed till very late, sometimes three 
 or four o'clock, and was always awake when he (the 
 nephew) waked, and got up at the same time, about 
 five or six; that almost every morning the floor was 
 covered with pieces of paper not so big as sixpences, 
 into which he had torn what he had been writing 
 before he came to bed." 
 
 Bating some spitefulness in the recollection of Chat- 
 terton's haughty airs, apparent in the evidence of Mrs. 
 Ballance and the niece, and a sKght tendency to the 
 marvellous apparent in that of the nephew (who was 
 but a boy of fourteen when Chatterton shared the room 
 with him), the above presents, we believe, a picture of 
 Chatterton, as he appeared in the narrow Walmsley 
 circle, as accurate as it is vivid. Walmsley himself 
 one rather likes. One fancies him an easy sort of 
 fellow, not troubling himself much about domestic 
 matters, going out to his work in the morning, an(i 
 leaving his lodger to the care of the women-folks 
 After he is gone, we are to suppose, Chatterton spends the 
 morning in reading and writing, while ]\Irs. "Walmsley
 
 120 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Mrs. Ballance, and the niece are slatterning about the 
 house; and generally, as the forenoon advances, he goes out 
 for his walk towards the places of London resort. Along 
 Xorton Folgate and Bishopsgate Street, passing crowds 
 of people and hackney-coaches, and glancing, with the 
 eye of an antiquarian and a connoisseur in architecture, 
 at such buildings of antique aspect as were and are 
 conspicuous in that thoroughfare — the old church of 
 St. Helen's, the old church of St. Ethelburga, and that 
 much-adniu'ed remnant of the civic architecture of the 
 fifteenth century, Crosby Hall, or Crosby Place, men- 
 tioned in Shakespeare's Pdchard III. : so the metro- 
 politan reader, if he desires to be exact, may follow 
 Chatterton in his daily walks from Mr, Walmsley's in 
 Shoreditch. For the rest, his wanderings may be 
 various ; frequently, of course, along the main line of 
 Cornhill, past the Bank, as it then was, and the then 
 new Mansion House, into Cheapside; thence slowly 
 along the purlieus of St. Paul's, with a peculiar lin- 
 gering among the book-shops of Paternoster Ptow; 
 and further, down Ludgate Hill, and up Fleet Street, 
 towards Temple Bar and the Strand. Visits of busi- 
 ness were, we may be sure, not neglected; and, in 
 achieving his transits from one place to another, Chat- 
 terton, like the rest of us, may have been guilty of the 
 folly of attempting short cuts, and so have bewildered 
 himself in mazes of mean streets, proving their popu-
 
 SnOliEDITCH. 121 
 
 lousness by swarms of cliildren, yet never to be seen by 
 him, or by anybody else, more than once. 
 
 Oil ! the weariness of those aimless walks of a 
 young literary adventurer, without a purse or a friend, 
 in the streets of London ! The perpetual and anxious 
 thought within, which scarcely any street-distraction 
 can amuse ; the listlessness with which, on coming to 
 the parting 'of two ways, one suffers the least accident 
 to determine wliich way one will take, both being in- 
 different ; the vain castle-building in sanguine moments, 
 when thousands of pounds seem possible and near; 
 the litter prostration of spirit at other moments, when 
 one inspects the shivering beggar that passes with new 
 interest as but another form of one's self, and when 
 every glimpse of a damp, grassless churchyard through 
 a railing acts as a horrible premonition of what may 
 be the end ; the curious and habitual examination of 
 physiognomies met as one goes along ; the occasional 
 magic of a bright eye, or a lovely form, shooting a 
 X)ang through the heart, and calling up, it may be, 
 the image of a peerless one, distant, denied, but im- 
 forgotten, till the soul melts in very tenderness, and 
 all the past is around one again; the sudden start 
 from such a mood, the flush, the clenched hand, the 
 set teeth, the resolve, the manly hope, the dream of a 
 home quiet and blest after all with one sweet presence ; 
 and then, after that, the more composed gait, and
 
 122 CHATTERTON. 
 
 the saunter towards the spots one prefers, till the 
 waning day, or the need to work and eat, brings one 
 back fatigued to the lonely room ! And so from day 
 to day a repetition of the same process. Ah, London, 
 London ! thou perpetual home of a shifting multitude, 
 how many a soul there is within thee at this hour, 
 who, listening to that peculiar roar of thine, which 
 shows the concourse of myriads in thee, and yet feeling 
 excluded, like an unclaimed atom, from the midst of 
 thy bustle, might cry aloud to thee, " I, too, am strong ; 
 I am young ; I am willing ; I can do something ; leave 
 me not out ; attend to me; make room for me; devise 
 the means of absorbing me, and such as me, within thy 
 just activity; and defer not tiU I and they make 
 thee hearken with our shrieks ! " But London rolls on; 
 and men, young and old, do demand impossible things. 
 If it is impossible to make the medium without con- 
 form, some power is at least left to shape and rule the 
 spirit within. 
 
 Chatterton, we believe, came to London with as prac- 
 tical and resolute a spirit as any literary adventurer 
 before or since. His excitement with his change of 
 position, his confidence in being able to make his way, 
 and his activity in availing himself of every means of 
 doing so, seem to have been really prodigious. Hence, 
 probably, his first walks in London were as little listless 
 as was possible in the circumstances. Instead of idle
 
 SnOREDITCn. 123 
 
 and aimless saunterings, such as we have described, 
 many of liis London walks during the first week or 
 two of his stay at Slioreditch must have been direct 
 visits from spot to spot, and from person to person. By 
 no means diffident or bashful, and, so far as we can see, 
 perfectly heart-whole in respect of all the Bristol beauties 
 he had left, he probably wasted less time than many 
 others with less genius would have wasted in useless 
 regrets and pointless reveries. Compared with his life 
 at Bristol, where he had been the miserable drudge of a 
 lawyer's office, his present life, now that he was a rover 
 in London, appeared to him, doubtless, all but para- 
 disaic. To work in the morning in his lodging in 
 Slioreditch, with sometimes a saucy word for his land- 
 lady's niece ; then to go out to make calls, and see sights 
 in various quarters, buymg a tart at a pastrycook's 
 for his dinner, spending a shilling or two in other 
 little indulgences, and quite alive always to the distrac- 
 tion of a pretty face wherever he chanced to be ; then 
 to come home again at an earlier or a later hour, and 
 to sit up half the night writing and tearing papers, 
 greatly to the bewilderment and alarm of that very 
 iU-used boy. Master Walmsley : — here was happiness, 
 here was liberty, here was a set of conditions in which 
 to begin the process of setting fire to the Thames ! 
 So, at least, it seemed to Chatterton himself during 
 his first fortnight in London ; for, when Mrs. Ballance,
 
 124 CHATTEETON. 
 
 at the end of that period, ventured to suggest that he 
 should try to get into some office, we have seen what 
 thanks the poor woman got. To be sure, had Mrs. 
 Chatterton sent her word beforehand what a great man 
 Cousin Tommy was, she would have humoured the 
 gentleman accordingly ! But how was she to know ? 
 Ah ! how indeed ?
 
 CHAPTEPt IL 
 
 TOWN TALK LONG AGO. 
 
 In coming to London, Cliatterton, of course, came 
 into tlic midst of all tlie politics and current talk of 
 the day. Bristol, indeed, as a bustling and mercantile 
 place, had had its share of interest in the general 
 on-goings of the nation ; and regularly, as the coach 
 had brought down the last new materials of gossip 
 from London, the politicians of Bristol had gone 
 through the budget, and given the Bristol imprimatur, 
 or the reverse, to the opinions pronounced by the 
 metropolitan authorities. Sometimes, too, Bristol, from 
 its western position and its extensive shipping con- 
 nexions, might have the start even of London in a bit 
 of American news. On tlie whole, however, going 
 from Bristol to London was like going fix)ni darkness 
 into light, from the suburbs to the centre, from the 
 shilling gallery to the pit-stalls. Let us see what were 
 the pieces (small enough they seem now) in course of
 
 126 CHATTEETON. 
 
 performance on the stage of British life when Chatterton 
 had thus just shifted his place in the theatre — in other 
 •words, what were the topics which afforded matter of 
 talk to that insatiable gossip, the Town, towards the end 
 of April and during the whole of May, 1770, 
 
 First, monopolising nearly the whole ground of the 
 domestic politics of the time, was the everlasting case 
 of Wilkes and Liberty, begun seven years before, when 
 Chatterton was a boy at Colston's school, but still 
 apparently far from a conclusion. There had been a 
 change, however, in the relative situations of the 
 parties. 
 
 Among the most earnest defenders of Wilkes and 
 advocates of the right of free election were the authori- 
 ties of the Corporation of the City of London, then 
 under the mayoralty of the celebrated Beckford. With 
 other corporations and public bodies, they had sent in 
 ^^etitions to the King on the subject. These petitions 
 having been ungraciously received, Beckford and his 
 colleagues had had the boldness to wait on the Kinsr 
 (March 14th) and address a personal remonstrance to 
 him. The King's reply was as follows : — 
 
 " I shall always be ready to receive the requests and 
 to listen to the complaints of my subjects ; but it gives 
 me great concern to find that any of them should have 
 been so far misled as to offer me an address and re-
 
 TOWN TALK LONG AGO. 127 
 
 monstrance the contents of wliich I cannot but consider 
 as disrespectful to me, injurious to my parliament, and 
 in-econcilable to the principles of the constitution." 
 
 Having read this speech, the King gave the Lord 
 Mayor and others of the deputation his hand to kiss ; 
 after which, as they were withdrawing, he turned 
 round to his courtiers and laughed. " Nero fiddled 
 whilst Eome was burning " was the grandiloquent 
 remark of Parson Home on the occasion ; and, thoucrh 
 this was a little too strong, it is certain that tlie City 
 people were very angry. So, out of revenge, and 
 partly as a compensation to Wilkes for his exclusion 
 from the House of Commons, they made Wilkes an 
 alderman. The patriot had hardly been out of prison 
 a week when, on 24th of April — the day on which 
 Chatterton left Bristol — he was sworn in as alderman 
 for the ward of Farringdon Without and received a 
 magnificent banquet on the occasion. This accession of 
 Wilkes to the Corporation of the City of London was 
 not only a defiance to the Court and the ruling party ; 
 it was also intended to increase the power of the City 
 to annoy these enemies in future. With such a man 
 as Beckford for mayor, and with such men as Wilkes, 
 Sawbridge, fTownshend, and Crosby, on the bench 
 of aldermen — all popular men and of strong liberal 
 opinions — what might the Corporation not do ? 
 
 The same part which was being acted in the City
 
 128 CHATTERTON. 
 
 by the Lord Mayor Beckford and his colleagues was 
 acted, within the more important sphere of Parliament, 
 by the Opposition in both Houses. The ParKament 
 of that session had been opened on the 9th of January, 
 and it was to be prorogued on the 19tli of May. 
 The case of Wilkes had been before it from first to 
 last, so that it had discussed little else. Uniting in 
 this case, and making it the ground of a common 
 antagonism to the Court and the Ministry, the various 
 elements of the Opposition had constituted themselves 
 into a powerful phalanx, the leaders of which, in the 
 one House, were Lord Chatham, the Marquis of Eock- 
 ingham, the Dukes of Eichmond, Portland, and Devon- 
 shire, and Lords Shelburne and Temple, and, in the 
 other House, Edmund Burke, Colonel Barre, George 
 Grenville, and others. It was " Wilkes, Wilkes," with 
 those men every day of the session; whenever, in 
 short, they wished to have a wrestling-match with the 
 ministers. Thus, on the very first day of the session, 
 Chatham had made a motion on the subject in the 
 House of Lords ; on which occasion, to the surprise of 
 everybody, the Lord Chancellor Camden seceded from 
 his colleagues, and expressed his disapprobation of 
 their policy. He was forthwith deprived of the seals^ 
 and the Lord Chancellorship went a-begging. Then 
 followed, as we know, the resignation of tlie premier- 
 ship by the Duke of Grafton, and the formation of a
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. 129 
 
 second edition of the same cabinet under Lord North. 
 It was in this unpopular North administration of 1770 
 that young Cliarles Fox, then tlie greatest rake and 
 gambler about town, first took office as a junior lord 
 of the Admiralty ; and the earliest parliamentary dis- 
 plays of this future chief of the Whigs "were in the 
 cause of that very policy to the denunciation and 
 destruction of which he afterwards devoted his life. 
 Many were the gibes against this young orator of the 
 North party, whose abilities were already recognised, 
 and whose swarthy complexion and premature corpu- 
 lence (he was only twenty-one when the wits nicknamed 
 him Niger Fox the Fat) made him a good butt for 
 personal attacks ; and a caricature of the day is still 
 extant, with the title of "The Death of the Foxes," 
 in which Lord Holland, as the old fox, and his son 
 Charles, as the young one, are represented hanging 
 from a gallows, while Farmer Bull and his wife are 
 rejoicing over their emancipated poultry. Fox was, of 
 course, no friend to Wilkes ; and, in the lower house, 
 it devolved on him to resist the motions of Burke and 
 Barre in Wilkes's case. It was in the House of Lords, 
 however, that the agitation on that case was chiefly 
 kept up. Among the most decisive measures of the 
 Opposition was a renewed motion of Chatham's in 
 that house on the 1st of May — that is, some days 
 after Wilkes's release and promotion to the dignity of 
 c. K
 
 130 CHATTERTON. 
 
 alderman — " to repeal and rescind the resolutions of 
 the House of Commons in regard to the expulsion and 
 incapacitation of Mr. Wilkes." There was a stormy- 
 debate, in which the principal speakers were, on the 
 one side, the Duke of llichmond, Lord Chatham, Lord 
 Lyttelton, Lord Camden, Lord Shelburne, and Lord 
 Stanhope, and, on the other, the Duke of Grafton, 
 Lord Denbigh, Lord ]\Iansfield, Lord Egmont, Lord 
 Pomfret, Lord "Weymouth, and Lord Gower. The 
 motion was lost by a majority of eighty-nine against 
 forty-three votes. If one may judge from the following 
 paragraph in the London Evening Neivs of May the 
 8th, the excitement in town, in the week following 
 this motion, must have been even greater than 
 usual : — 
 
 " Tuesday, May Sth. — Yesterday a great number of 
 people assembled in the lobby of the House of Commons 
 and the avenues adjoining, in consequence of a report 
 which had been spread that Mr. Alderman Wilkes 
 intended to go thither that day to claim a seat. The 
 crowd was so great that members were hindered from 
 passing and repassing ; whereupon the gallery was 
 ordered to be locked and the lobby to be cleared. But 
 Mr. Wilkes did not go to the House." 
 
 As Parliament was prorogued on the 19th of jMay, 
 there was an end, for that season, to all parliamentary 
 discussion of the case of W^ilkes. Members, to use
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. 131 
 
 tlie words of Junius, " retired into summer quarters to 
 rest from the disgraceful labours of tlie campaign " ; 
 and "Wilkes had to be content with sitting on the 
 bench as an alderman, and organizing, with Beckford, 
 Sawbridge, and the rest of the City-folk, a new 
 deputation to gall the King. One of the most lUnious 
 incidents of the time was the interview of this depu- 
 tation with the King on the 23d of May, an interview 
 which was not procured without difficulty. The 
 deputation having been introduced into the royal 
 presence, the Lord IMayor, Beckford, read a " humble 
 remonstrance" to his Majesty — with as much spice in 
 it, however, as the form of such documents allowed — 
 on tiie decisive terms in which he had been pleased 
 to characterize their address and petition of the 14tli 
 of March. The King was implored to " break through 
 all the secret and visible machinations to which the 
 City of London had owed its late severe repulse," and 
 to " disclaim the malignant and pernicious advice " 
 which had induced him to meet the former deputation 
 with so sharp an answer : " an advice of most dan- 
 gerous tendency, inasmuch as thereby the exercise of 
 the clearest rights of the subject — namely, to petition 
 the King for redress of grievances, to complain of the 
 violation of the freedom of election, to pray dissolu- 
 tion of parliament, to point out malpractices in ad- 
 ministration, and to urge the removal of evil ministers 
 
 K 2
 
 132 ClIATTERTON. 
 
 — hath, by the generality of one compendious word, 
 been indiscriminately checked with reprimand." No 
 sooner had the King heard this than, facing Beckford 
 in a way to show his natural obstinacy, he read the 
 following answer: — 
 
 " I should have been wanting to the public, as well 
 as to myself, if I had not expressed my dissatisfaction 
 at the late address. My sentiments on that subject 
 continue the same; and I should ill deserve to be 
 considered as the Father of my people if I should 
 suffer myself to be prevailed upon to make such an 
 use of my prerogative as I cannot but think incon- 
 sistent with the interest, and dangerous to the con- 
 stitution, of the kingdom." 
 
 Whereupon Beckford, excited beyond all regard for the 
 usual formalities of royal audiences, is said to have 
 burst forth in an extempore speech: — 
 
 " iSIost gracious Sovereign, will your Majesty be 
 pleased so far to condescend as to permit the mayor 
 of your loyal City of London to declare in your royal 
 presence, on behalf of his fellow-citizens, how much 
 the bare apprehension of your Majesty's displeasure 
 would at all times affect their minds. The declaration 
 of that displeasure has already filled them with in- 
 expressible anxiety, and with the deepest affliction. 
 Permit me, sire, to assure your Majesty, that your 
 Majesty has not, in all your dominions, any subjects 
 more faithful, more dutiful, or more affectionate to your
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. 133 
 
 Majesty's person and family, or more ready to sacrifice 
 their lives and fortunes in the maintenance of the true 
 honour and dignity of your crown. 
 
 " We do, tlierefore, with the greatest humility and 
 submission, most earnestly supplicate your Majesty 
 that you will not dismiss us from your presence 
 without expressing a more favourable opinion of your 
 faithful citizens, and without some comfort, without 
 some prospect at least of redress. 
 
 " Permit me, sire, furthei- to observe, that whoever 
 has already dared, or shall hereafter endeavour, by false 
 insinuations and suggestions, to alienate your Majesty's 
 affections from your loyal subjects in general, and from 
 the City of London in particular, and to withdraw your 
 confidence in and regard for your people, is an enemy 
 to your Majesty's person and family, a violator of the 
 public peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution 
 as it was established at the glorious llevolution." 
 
 This bold harangue, so contrary to all rules of etiquette, 
 caused a consternation among the courtiers ; the King, 
 who had been trapped into hearing it by the surprise 
 of the moment, resented it as an insult; and the 
 deputation retired with the consciousness that the 
 breach between the City of London and the King had 
 been made wider than ever. Beckford, however, gained 
 great credit by his conduct ; the speech that he had 
 made to the King (or the above improved edition of it) 
 was in everybody's lips ; and, for the time, he rose to 
 as high a popularity as Wilkes.
 
 134 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 While the case of Wilkes, with tlie numerous 
 questions that had grown out of it, thus formed the 
 chief matter of controversy in the politics of the day, 
 there was another question — fraught, as the issue 
 proved, with still more remarkable consequences — 
 which, after having been a topic of occasional discussion 
 for several years, began, about the time of Chatterton's 
 arrival in London, to assume a more pressing and 
 public aspect. This was the question of the disaffec- 
 tion of the American Colonies. 
 
 In the year 1764-5, as all readers of History know, 
 the Parliament of Great Britain gave the first deadly 
 shock to the allegiance of the American Colonies to 
 the British crown by decreeing the imposition on these 
 Colonies of a general stamp tax. The Colonies, severally 
 and conjointly, had protested and j^etitioned against 
 this act of authority; and in 1767 the stamp tax had 
 been exchanged for a duty on j)aper, glass, painters' 
 colours, and teas. This, however, had not satisfied the 
 Americans. From year to year the topic had been 
 brought up in Parliament, along with that of Wilkes 
 — the politicians and writers who took the side of 
 Wilkes generally also sympathising with the resistance 
 of the American colonists to the Home Government, 
 while tlie Court party, who opposed Wilkes, were also 
 eager for maintaining the prerogative of Britain over the 
 Colonies. Things had come to such a pass that many
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. \:ir> 
 
 shrewd persons foresaw a war with the Colonies, and 
 prophesied their separation from tlie niotlier-country. 
 It was the fear of this result that prompted the 
 administration of Lord Xorth, in the beginning of 
 1770, to repeal so much of the Act of 17G7 as imposed 
 duties on glass, paper, and painters' colours, retaining 
 only the duty on tea. As, by such an arrangement, 
 tlie obnoxious principle, to which the Americans were 
 repugnant, was still maintained and asserted, there was 
 little doubt that it would prove of no avail. But, 
 before news could arrive of the manner in which tlie 
 Americans had received it, a piece of intelligence 
 crossed the Atlantic which increased the bitterness of 
 the ministerial feeling against the intractable folk on 
 the other side of the water. On the l^iith uf April, 
 Chattertun's lirat day in Loudon, there appeared in the 
 London evening papers paragraphs conveying the news 
 of a serious riot which had occurred in the streets of 
 Boston on the 13th of March. The riot had oi'iginated 
 in a quarrel between some of the soldiers who had 
 been quartered in the town, greatly against the wishes 
 of the inhabitants, and the men at a rope-manufactory, 
 belonging to a Mr. Gray. The people of Boston, 
 highly incensed against the military, both on account 
 of their insolent behaviour, and because they had been 
 sent among them to enforce the odious Tax Act, took 
 part with the rojie-makers. There was a violciit dis-
 
 136 CHATTERTON. 
 
 turbance of the peace ; the troops fired on the people, 
 and some unoffending persons were killed ; the whole 
 town rose; and, to prevent still worse results, the 
 military commander had to withdraw the soldiers to 
 some distance. " Had they not been withdrawn," said 
 a private letter from Boston, which appeared in the 
 London Morning Post, " tlie Bostonians would have set 
 fire to their beacon, a tar-barrel stuck on tlie top of a 
 mast on a high hill, and raised the country for eighty 
 miles round." 
 
 Such was the news which the American post brought 
 to London on the day when Chatterton l^egan his 
 residence in Shorediteh. For a week, or more, the 
 town was full of it, the Wilkes party rejoicing over it 
 as a new embarrassment to Ministers, and the Ministers 
 themselves not knowing very well what to say or 
 think about it. From that time a war with the 
 Colonies seemed a probable event. 
 
 In addition to the protracted Wilkes controversy, 
 and to this matter of the Boston riot and its connexion 
 with colonial policy, there were, of course, a variety 
 of minor incidents, of more or less interest, affording 
 materials for gossip to the town during the first five 
 or six weeks of Chatterton's sojourn in it. At that 
 time, as in this, there were balls, horse-races, theatrical 
 performances, murders, robberies, marriages in high life.
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. ]:i 
 
 fires, &c. &c., all duly announced in the puMic papers, 
 and all excellent 2^(^^ubim for the conversation of the 
 idle and tlie curious. By way of sample, and that our 
 readers may the more easily fill out the picture for 
 tliemselves, we shall string together a few of those 
 defunct minuticc, as we gather them quite miscel- 
 laneously from tlie columns of the contemporary news- 
 papers : — 
 
 Wednesday, April 25 (day of Cliatterton's arrival in 
 Loudon). — " Eanelagh House will be opened this even- 
 ing with the usual entertainments. Admittance, 2s. 6d. 
 each person ; colTee and tea included. The house will 
 continue to be open on IMondays, Wednesdays, and 
 Fridays till farther notice. N.B. — There will be an 
 armed guard on horseback to patrol the roads." — 
 Advertisement in Public Advertiser of that day. 
 
 Same evening. — At Drury-laue, the following per- 
 formances : — The Clandestine Marriage. Lord Ogleby, 
 by Mr. Dibdin ; Miss Sterling, by Miss Pope. After 
 which, Tlie Padlock, a musical piece. Benefit of 
 Mr. Dibdin. 
 
 Same day. — A levee at St, James's. 
 
 Thursday, Ajn-il 26 (Chatterton's first day in London, 
 and day of the arrival of the news of the Boston riot). — 
 A masquerade at the Opera House, given by the club 
 at Arthur's: present more than 1,200 nobility, am- 
 bassadors, &c. 
 
 Sai7ie day. — A bill of indictment found at Hicks's 
 Hall against the author or editor of the Whisperer, one
 
 138 CHA TTERTON. 
 
 of the fiercest of the anti-ministerial periodicals. 
 "Warrant for his apprehension issued on the 28th. 
 
 Same evening, — At Drury-lane, The Beggar's Opera, 
 with The Minor. Mr. Bannister's benefit. 
 
 Monday, April 30 (fifth day of Chatterton in 
 London). — At Co vent-garden, Addison's tragedy of Cato 
 revived, with The Rape of Proserpine, 
 
 Wednesday, May 2 (Chatterton a weelv in London). 
 — At Drury-lane, Hamlet — the part of Hamlet by 
 Garrick ; after which. Queen Mah. Benefit night of 
 Signer Grimaldi, Mr. Messenk, and Signer Gioroi. 
 
 Monday, May 7 (the day on which, as above stated, 
 a crowd gathered at the door of the House of Commons 
 on the false idea that Wilkes was to go to the House 
 and claim his seat). — " Eumour that a lady of high 
 quality would appear that evening at the Soho Mas- 
 querade in the character of an Indian princess, most 
 superbly dressed, and with pearls and diamonds to the 
 price of 100,000/. ; her train to be supported by three 
 black young female slaves, and a canopy to be held over 
 her head by two black^male slaves. To be a fine sight." 
 
 Wednesday, May 16. — "Thirteen convicts executed 
 together at Tyburn, conveyed in five carts ; mostly 
 boys, the eldest not being more than twenty-two years 
 of age. Some of them were greatly affected, others 
 appeared hardened." 
 
 Saturday, May 19. — Parliament prorogued, as stated 
 above. 
 
 Wednesday, May 2.3. — The famous interview of the 
 City deputation with the King, at which Beckford 
 made the speech quoted above. 
 
 Saturday, May 26. — Drury-laue season closed.
 
 TOWN-TALK LONG AGO. V.V.) 
 
 Monday, May 28. — Covent-g.arden Theatre closed for 
 the season. 
 
 Same day. — " At two o'clocl-:, A.M., a fire at the house 
 of IVIessrs. AVebb and Iny, paper-stainers, Holborn-liill, 
 near the end of Shoe-lane : four persons burnt to deatli." 
 
 Same day. — One of " Junius's " letters in the FuUic 
 Advertiser, containing a view of the state of the 
 country, and a cutting criticism of the conduct of 
 Ministers during the session just closed. Only two 
 acknowledged letters of " Junius " appeared during the 
 period of Chatterton's residence in London, and this 
 was one of them. 
 
 Wednesday, May 30. — "News arrived that a Frencli 
 East Indian ship had reached Toulon, bringing word 
 of a dreadful earthquake at St. Helena, which had 
 entirely sunk the island in the sea." — Gentlemans 
 Mayazine. 
 
 Thursday, May 31. — Foundation-stone of XeM'gate 
 prison laid by the Lord Mayor Beckford. 
 
 A U April and May. — Advertisements of goods, sales, 
 quack medicines, and new books, in the newspapers ; 
 also paragraphs innumerable on the case of ]\latthew 
 and Patrick Kennedy, two brothers, tried and con- 
 demned to death for the murder of John Bigby, a 
 M'atchman, but who had obtained a free pardon through 
 the influence of their sister Miss Kennedy, a celebrated 
 woman of the town, in intimate relations with several 
 high men at Court. An appeal was laid against this 
 settlement of the matter, and a new trial appointed, 
 much to the gratification of the anti-Court party; but, 
 Bigby's widow having got 380^. to keep out of the way, 
 the trial fell to the ground, and the brothers escaped.
 
 140 CHATTERTON. 
 
 It was into the midst of such incidents as these, 
 episodic as they were to the two great topics of Wilkes 
 and the Constitution and the growing disaffection of 
 the American Colonies, that Chatterton transferred 
 himself by his removal from Bristol to London. "With 
 some of the little incidents mentioned he may even 
 have come into direct personal contact. If he did not 
 go to see Addison's tragedy of Cato at Covent Garden 
 on the 30th of April, it is not likely that he missed 
 the opportunity of seeing Garrick in Hamlet at Drury 
 Lane on the 2d of May. If the " fine sight " of the lady 
 of high quality with the hundred thousand pounds' 
 worth of jewels about her, and the three young negresses 
 supporting her train, did not tempt him to the vicinity 
 of the Soho Masquerade on the evening of the 7th of 
 May, it is not at all improbable that he formed one of 
 the crowd that gathered round the door of the House 
 of Commons that evening on the false expectation of 
 seeing Wilkes come to make a scene and get himself 
 committed to custody by the Speaker. Even at the 
 distance of Shoreditch the rumour of the thirteen boys 
 hanged at Tyburn on the morning of the 16th of May 
 must have reached him ; for, common as hangings were 
 then, such an occurrence was sufficiently unusual to 
 make some commotion through all London. The pro- 
 rogation of Parliament on the 19th of the same month 
 would be a matter to interest him: much more the
 
 TO WN-TA LK LONG AGO. ill 
 
 royal audience given to the City deputation on tlie 
 23d, and Beckford's famous speecli. Shoe Lane being 
 one of his haunts, the charred ruins of the premises of 
 a^^ess^s. Webb and Fry may very possibly have at- 
 tracted his notice on the 28th or 29th of May as he 
 passed along Holborn ; and, a daily frequenter as he 
 was of the coffee-houses where the newspapers were 
 to be seen, he is sure to have been one of the earliest 
 and niost eager readers of the Public Advertiser con- 
 taining Junius's powerful letter of IMay the 28th, 
 
 Nor is all this mere conjecture. Not only do we 
 know it as a fact that it was part of Chatterton's 
 ambition in coming to London to work himself into 
 connexion with the prominent men and interests of the 
 day, and, above all, with the notable personages of tlie 
 Wilkes party ; we also know it as a fact that, to some 
 small extent at least, he succeeded in doing so. The 
 evidence of tliis we shall produce in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 
 
 Chatteeton's London life forms the subject of a brief 
 French romance from the pen of Alfred de Vigny, 
 
 In that writer's iDleasing volume of fiction entitled 
 " Stello " Chatterton is introduced as the real hero in 
 the story of the so-called Kitty Bell. Kitty Bell is a 
 young married woman who keeps a pastrycook's shop 
 in the neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament. 
 Her cakes and confections are celebrated far and wide ; 
 and, partly from this cause, partly from Kitty's own 
 attractiveness, her shop has become a habitual lounge 
 of the legislators of Great Britain as they pass to and 
 from their duties in St. Stephen's. Kitty, however, is 
 as virtuous as she is pretty ; and, though her husband 
 is a sulky brute, and the young lords and members of 
 Parliament are very assiduous in buying cakes from 
 her fair fingers, nothing amiss can be said of her. 
 There is one figure, indeed, occasionally seen hovering
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 143 
 
 about the shop, the apparition of which invariahly 
 discomposes her, especially when her husband is near. 
 This turns out to be Chatterton, who, having come to 
 London to push his fortune, has, in order to be near 
 the Houses of Parliament, taken a lodging in Kitty 
 Bell's house. Kitty, with her womanly tact, has con- 
 trived to dive into her mysterious lodger's secret. She 
 has ascertained that lie is a young man of genius, 
 engaged in the hopeless task of establishing a con- 
 nexion with the public men of the day by means of 
 literary service, and in the meantime without a penny 
 in his pocket. She does all, in the circumstances, that 
 fear of her brute of a husband will permit. She sup- 
 plies her lodger furtively \vith tarts ; she screens from 
 her husbantl the fact that he is unable to pay his rent 
 for the garret he occupies ; and, in short, through pity 
 and interest, she falls most foolishly in love with him. 
 Sustained by her kindness and encouragement, Chat- 
 terton perseveres in his enterprise ; he gets acquainted 
 with the Lord Mayor Beckford, and is led to conceive 
 great hopes from promise of his patronage. Beckford, 
 accordingly, calls one day at Kitty Bell's shop, and, by 
 way of fulfilling his promise, offers to make Chatterton 
 his — footman ! Then comes the catastrophe. Chat- 
 terton, in despair, commits suicide ; and poor Kitty Bell 
 is left to serve out cakes and comfits to the British 
 Legislature with a heart no more.
 
 144 CHATTERTON. 
 
 A very pretty story this ; with, unfortunately, but 
 one objection to it — that it is not true ! The true story 
 of Chatterton's London life, one would suppose, is to be 
 preferred to a false one ; and, as the materials for the 
 true story were accessible to Alfred de Vigny in Chat- 
 terton's own letters, it is a pity that he was so fond of 
 fiction as not to pay attention to them. Instead of 
 going to lodge at Kitty Bell's, or at any other con- 
 ceivable pastrycook's in Westminster, Chatterton, as we 
 know, had gone to lodge at a plasterer's in Shoreditch ; 
 and, if Providence was so kind as to supply him with 
 a fair consoler living under the same roof, this, as we 
 also know, can possibly, in the first stage of his London 
 career, have been no otlier than the motherly Mrs. Bal- 
 lance, or, at best, that hussy, the landlady's niece, to 
 whom he " used sometimes to be saucy." And so with 
 the rest of the facts. The real progress of Chatterton's 
 endeavours to make liimself known — the real extent 
 of his success in working himself, from his centre in 
 Shoreditch, into connexion with the metropolitan men 
 and interests of the day, as they have been summarily 
 described in the last chapter — are to be gathered, so 
 far as they can be gathered at all, from his own 
 letters. 
 
 Chatterton's second letter to his mother was written 
 on the 6th of May, or after he had been exactly 
 ten days in London. It is as follows : —
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 145 
 
 " SiioREDiTcii, LoNDO.v, May G, 1770. 
 
 " Dear jMotheu, — I am surprised that no letter has 
 heen sent in answer to my last. I am settled, and in 
 such a settlement as I would desire. I get four guineas 
 a month by one magazine ; shall engage to write a His- 
 tory of England and other pieces, which will more than 
 double that sum. Occasional essays for the daily papers 
 would more tlian support me. Wliat a glorious pros- 
 pect ; Mr. AVilkes knew me by my writings since I 
 first corresponded with the booksellers here. I shall 
 visit him next w eek, and by his interest will ensure Mrs. 
 Ballance the Trinity House. He affirmed that what 
 Mr. Fell had of mine could not be the writings of a 
 youth, and expressed a desire to know the author. By 
 the means of another bookseller, I shall be introduced 
 to Townshend and Sawbridge. I am quite familiar at 
 the Chapter Coffee-house, and know all the geniuses 
 there. A character is now unnecessary ; an author 
 carries his character in his pen. My sister will im- 
 prove herself in drawing. ]\Iy grandmother is, I hope, 
 well. Bristol's mercenary walls were never destined to 
 hold rae ; there I was out of my element; now I am in 
 it. London ! — good God ! how superior is London to 
 that despicable place Bristol ! Here is none of your 
 little meannesses, none of your mercenary securities, 
 which disgrace that miserable hamlet. Dress, which is 
 in Bristol an eternal fund of scandal, is here only in- 
 troduced as a subject of praise : if a man dresses well, 
 he has taste ; if careless, he has his own reasons for 
 so doing, and is prudent. Need I remind you of the 
 contrast ? The poverty of authors is a common observa- 
 tion, but not always a true one. No author can be 
 poor who understands the arts of booksellers : without 
 c. L
 
 14(5 CHATTERTON. 
 
 tins necessary knowledge the greatest genius may starve, 
 and with it the greatest dunce live in splendour. This 
 knowledge I have pretty well dipped into. — The Le- 
 vant man-of-war, in which T. Wensley went out, is at 
 Portsmoutli ; hut no news of him yet. I lodge in one 
 of Mr. Walmsley's best rooms. Let Mr. Gary copy the 
 letters on the other side, and give them to the persons 
 for whom they are designed, if not too much labour 
 for him. 
 
 " I remain yours, &c. 
 
 " T. Chatterton. 
 " P.S. — I have some trifling presents for my mother, 
 sister, Thorne, &c." 
 
 [Here follow the letters to various Bristol acquaint- 
 ances, which Mr, Cary was to copy out and give 
 them] : — 
 
 " Mr. T. Cary. — I have sent you a task — I hope no 
 unpleasing one. Tell all your acquaintances for the 
 future to read the Freeholder >i Magazine. When you 
 have anything for publication, send it to me, and it 
 shall most certainly appear in some periodical com- 
 pilation. Yonr last piece was, l)y the ignorance of a 
 corrector, jumbled under the 'considerations' in the 
 acknowledgements ; but I rescued it, and insisted on 
 its appearance. Your friend, 
 
 " T. C. 
 
 " Direct for me, to be left at the Chapter Coffee- 
 house, Paternoster-row." 
 
 " Mr. Henry Kator. — If you have not forgot Lady 
 Betty, any complaint, rebus, or enigma, on the dear 
 charmer, directed for me, to be left at the Chapter
 
 SETTING TfTE THAMES ON FIHE. 147 
 
 Coffee-house, Paternoster-row, shall find a place in 
 some magazine or other, as I am engaged in many. 
 Your friend, 
 
 " T. ClIATTERTOX." 
 
 " Mr. Wm. Smith. — When you have any poetry for 
 publication, send it to me, to be left at the Chapter 
 Coffee-house, Paternoster-row, and it sliall most cer- 
 tainly appear. Your friend, 
 
 '•T. C." 
 
 " Mrs. Baker. — The sooner I see you the better. Send 
 me, as soon as possible, Eymsdyk's address. (Mv. Cary 
 will leave this at ]\Ir. Flower's, Small-street.)" 
 
 "Mr. Mason. — (Jive nie a short prose description of 
 the situation of Nash ; and the poetic addition shall 
 appear in some magazine. Send me also whatever you 
 would have published, and direct for me, to be left 
 at the Chapter Coffee-house, Paternoster-row. Your 
 friend, 
 
 " T. ClIATTEETOX." 
 
 " Mr. Matthew Mease. — Begging Mr. INIease's pardon 
 for making public use of his name lately, I hope he 
 Avill remember me, and tell all his acquaintances to read 
 the Freeholder's Magazine for the future. 
 
 " T. ClIATTERTON." 
 
 "Tell Mr. Thaire, Mr. Gaster, Mr. A. Broughton, :\Ir. 
 J. Broughton, ^Ir. "Williams, 31 r. Pudhall, ]\Ir. Thomas, 
 Mr. Carty, Mr. Hanmor, Mr, Vaiighan, Mr. Ward, INIr. 
 Kalo, j\Ir. Smith, &c. &c., to read the Freeholders 
 Magaziney 
 
 L 2
 
 148 CRATTERTON. 
 
 Tliis is certainly pretty well after only ten days in 
 London. We fear, indeed, that there is a good deal 
 of bragging in the letter, intended to convey to his 
 Bristol acquaintances a more favourable impression of 
 the progress he had already made in the great metro- 
 polis than the facts, as known to himself, exactly 
 warranted. Still it is evident that Chatterton, when 
 he wrote the letter, was in high spirits. Eeducing the 
 expressions of the letter to the real substance of fact 
 on which they may have been founded, we should be 
 inclined to say that the information here given respect- 
 ing the extent of Chatterton's success in introducing 
 liimself to notice during his first ten days in London 
 amounts to something like this : — 
 
 Being a young fellow of prepossessing appearance 
 and address, and having, as we know, a sufficiently 
 good opinion of himself to prevent any of that awk- 
 wardness in meeting strangers which arises from 
 excessive modestv, he had made the best use he 
 could of the slight hold he had on Fell, Hamilton, 
 Edmunds, and Dodsley. He had gone to their places 
 of business, perhaps oftener than they cared to see 
 him; he had talked with them, made proposals of 
 literary assistance to them, compelled them into saying 
 sometliing that could be construed as encouragement ; 
 he had got from them hints as to other quarters in 
 which he could apply; he had, probably by their
 
 SETTING THE THAMES OiV FIRE. 149 
 
 advice, turned his hopes towards the great book-mart 
 of Paternoster Row, where all sorts of speculations lie 
 mi<dit help in were going on ; and he had thus at last 
 found himself referred to that celebrated place of 
 resort for the booksellers of the day and their literary 
 workmen, the Chapter Coffee-house. Mr. Peter Cun- 
 ningham, in his Handbook of London, has provided us 
 with an extract relating to this once famous rendez- 
 vous, which will serve to give us a more distinct idea 
 of it as it was in Chatterton's time. 
 
 " And here my publisher would not forgive me, was 
 I to leave the neighbourhood without taking notice of 
 the Chapter Coffee-house, which is frequented by those 
 encouragers of literature and (as they are styled by an 
 eminent critic) 'not the worst judges of merit,' the 
 booksellers. The conversation here naturally turns 
 upon the newest publications ; but their criticisms are 
 somewhat singular. When they say a good book, they 
 do not mean to praise the style or sentiment, but the 
 quick and extensive sale of it. That book is best which 
 sells must ; and, if the demand for Quarles should be 
 greater than for Pope, he would have the highest 
 place on the rubric-post." — The Connoisscicr, No. 1, 
 Jan, 31st, 1754. 
 
 Here, then, among the talking groups of booksellers we 
 are to fancy Chatterton a daily visitor during the first 
 week or two of his stay in town — reading the news- 
 paj)ers, listening to the conversation, getting acquainted
 
 150 CHATTEETON. 
 
 with " the geniuses " of tlie place, and giving very 
 small orders to the waiters. The Chapter Coffee-house 
 was evidently a great place in his eyes, and every 
 shilling spent in it he probably regarded as a good 
 investment. All his Bristol friends were to address their 
 letters to him there, and not to Shoreditch, 
 
 More particularly, however, Chatterton's hopes at the 
 period of his first settlement in London seem to have 
 rested on the intimacy he had struck up with Mr. Fell. 
 We have already given our impression of this personage, 
 as a gentleman in pecuniary difficulties, connected in 
 some way with Wilkes, and employing his own broken 
 energies, and the capital of other people, in the publica- 
 tion of the Freeholder s Magazine. His reception of 
 Chatterton, we said, appears to have been, and probably 
 from the state of his own circumstances, more frank 
 and cordial than that of any other of the booksellers 
 Chatterton called upon. A kind of understanding 
 seems, indeed, to have been at once established between 
 them. On the one hand, Chatterton was to have the 
 pages of the Freeholder's Magazine thrown open to him ; 
 on the other hand, Fell, to whom the service of a clever 
 contributor on any other terms than those of hard cash 
 was probably a convenience, was willing to remunerate 
 his young friend with plenty of promises, and in the 
 meantime with the benefits of his advice and counte- 
 nance, and as much praise as he liked. Tlie prospect of
 
 SETTI^'d THE THAMES ON FIRE. \:>[ 
 
 beiuir introduced to Wilkes was the most attractive bait 
 that could be held out to Chatterton ; and we greatly 
 fear Fell made the most of the fact. " I assure you, 
 Mr. Chatterton, INlr. Wilkes has a high opinion of you ; 
 lie has more than once asked me about wiitings of 
 yours ; and, when I told him that you were not eighteen, 
 ' Upon my soul I don't believe it, Mr. Fell,' said he ; 'so 
 young a man could not write like that : ' these were 
 his very words." Such, as we infer from Chatterton's 
 own account, was the substance of much of his conver- 
 sation with Fell. 
 
 How much of sincerity there was in Fell's farther 
 promise, that he would introduce Chatterton to AVilkes, 
 we can hardly say. There is, certainly, some bragging 
 in the manner in which Chatterton announces the 
 promised introduction to his mother : " I shall visit 
 him (Wilkes) next week, and, by his interest, will 
 ensure Mrs. Jjallance the Trinity House " (i.e. the 
 charitable allowance granted out of the funds of this 
 foundation to the widows of deserving seamen). Chat- 
 terton had shrewdness enough, with all his inexperience 
 and his good opinion of himself, to know that he was 
 putting a little strain on the truth here. So also, prob- 
 ably, in the matter of the other proposed introduction 
 to the two popular aldermen, Townshend and Sawbridge. 
 Still, it is evident that he had some trust in FA\. To 
 read the Freeholder s Magazine, and to address letters to
 
 152 CHATTERTON. 
 
 liini at the Chapter Coffee-house in Paternoster liow, 
 were his two injunctions to his friends at home after he 
 had been ten days in London. 
 
 What came of the connexion so rapidly formed with 
 Fell and the Freeholder s Magazine will he seen fnan 
 Chatterton's next letter. It is to his mother : — 
 
 "King's Bench, for the present, Mmj 14, 1770. 
 " Deae Madam, — Don't be surprised at the name of 
 the place. I am not here as a prisoner. Matters go on 
 swimmingly. Mr. Fell having offended certain persons, 
 they have set his creditors upon him, and he is safe in 
 the King's Bench. I have been bettered by this 
 accident : his successors in the Freeholders Magazine, 
 knowing nothing of the matter, will be glad to engage 
 me on my own terms. Mr. Edmunds has been tried 
 before the House of Lords, sentenced to pay a fine, and 
 thrown into Newgate. His misfortunes will be to me 
 of no little service. Last week, being in the pit of 
 Drury Lane Theatre [it might have been to see Garrick 
 again], I contracted an immediate acquaintance (which 
 you know is no hard task to me) with a young gentleman 
 in Cheapside, partner in a music-shop, the greatest in 
 the city. Hearing I could write, he desired me to 
 write a few songs for him : this I did the same night, 
 and conveyed them to him the next morning. These 
 he showed to a Doctor in music, and I am invited to 
 treat with the Doctor, on the footing of a composer for 
 Eanelagh and the gardens. ' Bravo, hey hoys, ^q) we go!' 
 Besides the advantage of visiting these expensive and 
 polite places gratis, my vanity will be fed with the 
 sight of my name in copper-plate, and my sister will
 
 SETTING THE THAMES OX FIRE. 153 
 
 receive a bundle of printed songs, the words hy her 
 brother. These are not all my acquisitions. A gentle- 
 man who knows me at the 'Chapter' as an author 
 would have introduced me as a companion to the young 
 Duke of Northumberland in his intended general tour. 
 But alas ! I speak no tongue but my own. But to 
 return once more to a place I am sickened to write of, 
 Bristol. [Here follow some references to Mr. Lambert 
 and a 'clearance 'from the apprenticeship to be obtained 
 from him.] I will get some patterns worth your accept- 
 ance, and wish you and my sister would improve 
 yourselves in drawing, as it is here a valuable and 
 never-failing acquisition. My box shall be attended to ; 
 I hope my books are in it. If not, Send them, and par- 
 ticularly Catcott's llutchinsonian jargon on the Deluge, 
 and the MS. glossary, composed of one small book 
 annexed to a larger. My sister will remember me to 
 Miss Sandfoi-d. I have not quite forgot her ; though 
 there are so many pretty milliners, &c., that 1 have 
 almost forgot myself. 
 
 [There are similar remembrances and messages to 
 IVlr. Gary ; to Miss Eumsey, who seems to be intending 
 a journey to London, and is requested to send Chattertou 
 her address, if she does come, as ' Loudon is not Bristol,' 
 and they 'may patrol the town for a day without 
 raising one whisper or nod of scandal ; ' to Miss Baker, 
 Miss Porter, Miss Singer, ]\Iiss Webb, and Miss 
 Thatcher, who is assured that, ' if he is not in love ^^■ilh 
 her, he is in love with nobody else ; ' to ^Miss Love, on 
 whose name he is going to write a song ; to jMiss 
 Cotton, ' begging her pardon for whatever has happened 
 to offend her, and telling her he did not give her this 
 assurance when in Bristol lest it should seem like an
 
 154 CBATTEBTON. 
 
 attempt to avoid the anger of her furious iDrother ; ' 
 finally, to Miss Watkins, assuring her ' that the letter 
 slie has made herself ridiculous by was never intended 
 for her, but for another young lady in the same neigh- 
 bourhood, of the same name.' Chatterton also asks 
 his sister to send him 'a journal of all the trans- 
 actions of the females within the circle of their ac- 
 quaintance.'] 
 
 " I promised, before my departure, to w^rite to some 
 hundreds, I believe ; but, what with writing for publica- 
 tions and going to places of public diversion, which is 
 as absolutely necessary to me as food, I find but little 
 time to WTite to you. As to Mr. Barrett, Mr. Catcott, 
 ]\Ir. Burgum, &c. &c., they rate literary lumber so low 
 that I believe an author in their estimation must 
 be poor indeed. But here matters are otherwise : had 
 Eowley been a Londoner, instead of a Bristowyan, I could 
 have lived by copying his works. . . . My youthful 
 acquaintances will not take in dudgeon that I do not 
 write oftener to them ; but, as I had the happy art of 
 pleasing in conversation, my company was often liked 
 where I did not like; and to continue a correspondence 
 under such circumstances would be ridiculous. Let my 
 sister improve in copying music, drawing, and everything 
 which requires genius : in Bristol's mercantile style 
 those things may be useless, if not a detriment to her ; 
 but here they are highly profitable. 
 
 [A few additional messages to Bristol friends follow, 
 together witli a hope that his grandmother ' enjoys the 
 state of health he left her in,' and an intimation, ap- 
 parently in connexion witli IVIrs. Ballance's business, 
 that he had 'intended waiting on the Duke of Bedford
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. ir,:, 
 
 relative to the Trinity House, but liis (Jrace is dan- 
 gerously ill.'] 
 
 " Thomas Ciiatteuton. 
 " Monday evening. 
 " Direct to me at Mr. Walrasley's, at Slioreditch — 
 onli/." 
 
 To this letter succeeds one written to his sister, dated 
 May the 30th, from Tom's Coffee-house — a house in 
 Devereux Court, Strand, and hardlv inferior to the 
 Chapter Coffee-house as a place of resort for wits and 
 men of letters. 
 
 " Tom's Coffke-iiouse, Loxdon, May 30, 1770. 
 
 " Dear Sister, — There is such a noise of business 
 and politics in the room that any inaccuracy in writ- 
 ing here is highly excusable. ]\Iy present profession 
 obliges me to frequent places of the best resort. To 
 begin with what every female conversation begins 
 with — dress : I employ my money now in fitting myself 
 fashionably, and getting into good company. This 
 last article always brings me in interest. 15ut I have 
 engaged to live with a gentleman, the brother of a 
 lord (a Scotch one, indeed), who is going to advance 
 pretty deeply into the bookselling branches. I shall 
 have board and lodging, genteel and elegant, gratis : 
 this article, in the quarter of the town he lives, with 
 worse accommodations, would be 50/. per annum. I shall 
 have likewise no inconsiderable premium; and assure 
 yourself every month shall end to your advantage. I 
 will send you two silks this summer ; and expect, in 
 answer to tliis, what colours you prefer. }ify mother
 
 156 CHATTERTON. 
 
 shall not be forgotten. My employment will be 
 writing a voluminous History of London, to appear 
 in numbers, the beginning of next winter. As this 
 will not, like writing political essays, oblige me to go 
 to the Coffee-house, I sliall be able to serve you the 
 more by it ; but it will necessitate me to go to Oxford, 
 Cambridge, Lincoln, Coventry, and every collegiate 
 church near — not at all disagreeable journeys, and not 
 to me expensive. The manuscript glossary 1 mentioned 
 in my last must not be omitted. If money flowed 
 as fast upon me as honours, I would give you a 
 portion of 5,000Z. You have, doubtless, heard of the 
 Lord Mayor's remonstrating and addressing the King; 
 but it will be a piece of news to inform you that 
 / have been with the Lord Mayor on the occasion. 
 Having addressed an essay to his Lordship, it was very 
 well received — perhaps better than it deserved ; and I 
 waited on his Lordship to have his approbation to 
 address a second letter to him, on the subject of tlie 
 remonstrance and its reception. His Lordship received 
 me as politely as a citizen could, and warmly invited me 
 
 to call on him again. The rest is a secret. But the 
 
 Devil of the matter is, there is no money to be got on 
 this side of the question. Interest is on the other side. 
 But he is a poor author who cannot write on both sides. 
 I believe I may be introduced (and, if I am not, I'll 
 introduce myself) to a ruling power in the Court party. 
 I miiiht have a reconnnendation to Sir Georsfe Colebrook, 
 an East India Director, as qualified for an office no-ways 
 despicable ; but I shall not take a step to the sea whilst 
 I can continue on land. I went yesterday to Woolwich 
 to see Mr. Wensley : he is paid to-day. The artillery 
 is no unpleasant sight, if we bar reflection, and do not
 
 SETTING THE THAMES OX FIRE. 157 
 
 consider how much mischief it may do. Greenwich 
 Hospital and St. Paul's Cathedral are the only structures 
 which could reconcile me to anything out of the Ckjthic. 
 [Here are some messages to Mr. Carty about ]\Irs. Carty, 
 Avho is ill, advising him to ' leecli her temples plenti- 
 fully, and keep her very low in diet, and as much in 
 the dark as possible ; ' also to Miss Sandford, to Miss 
 Thatcher, and to Miss Eumsey, whom he ' th'anks for 
 her complimentary expression ' iu reply to his last 
 message ; though, as she does not say whether she is 
 coming to London or not, he thinks it ' unsatisfactory.'] 
 Essay-writing has this advantage — you are sure of 
 constant pay ; and, when you have once wrote a piece 
 which makes the author inquired after, you may bring 
 the booksellers to your own terms. Essays on the 
 patriotic side fetch no more than what the copy is sold 
 for. As the patriots themselves are searching for a 
 place, they have no gratuities to spare. So says one of 
 the beggars in a temporary alteration of mine in the 
 Jovial Crew: — 
 
 ' A patriot was my occupation ; 
 It got me a name, but no pelf ; 
 Till, starved for the good of the nation, 
 I begg'd for the good of myself. 
 
 Fal, lal, &c. 
 
 ' I told them, if 'twas not for me, 
 
 Their freedoms would all go to pot ; 
 I promised to set them all free. 
 But never a farthing I got. 
 
 Fal, lal, &c. 
 
 On the other hand, unpopular essays will not even be
 
 158 CEATTERTON. 
 
 accepted, and you must pay to have them printed ; but 
 tlien you seldom lose by it. Courtiers are so sensible 
 of their deficienc}'' in merit that they generally reward 
 all who know how to daub them with the appearance of 
 it. To return to private affairs : Friend Slude may 
 depend upon my endeavouring to find the publications 
 you mention. They publish the Gospd Magazine, here. 
 For a whim, I write for it. I believe there are not any 
 sent to Bristol ; they are hardly worth the carriage — 
 methodistical and unmeaning. "With the usual cere- 
 monies to my mother and grandmother, and sincerely, 
 without ceremony, wishing them both happy — when it 
 is in my power to make them so, it shall be so — and 
 ^vith my kind remembrance to jNIiss Webb and Miss 
 Thorne, I remain, as I ever was, 
 
 "Yours, &c., to the end of the chapter, 
 " Thomas Chatterton. 
 
 " P.S. — I am this moment pierced through the heart 
 by the black eye of a young lady, driving along in a 
 hackney-coach. I am quite in love ; if my love lasts 
 till that time, you skull hear of it in my next." 
 
 After this letter there is a blank in the corre- 
 spondence, so fur as it has been preserved, for three 
 weeks. During those three weeks, we are now able 
 to say, an event of some importance in Chatterton's 
 London life took place — to wit, a change of lodging. 
 
 From the very first, it may be imagined, he regarded 
 Mr. Walmsley's as only a temporary residence, con- 
 venient until he found a better. The economy of
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 159 
 
 Mr. Walmsley's house was probably by no means to 
 bis taste. To have to share a bediodiu witli Master 
 "Walnisley, and to be continually in contact with the 
 various inmates of the plasterer's house, more es- 
 pecially with 'Slvs. Ballance, who would persist in 
 calling him " Cousin Tommy," must have been dis- 
 agreeable to him on more accounts than one. Besides, 
 had there been no other reason for a change, the 
 distance of Shoreditch from tlu; publishing-offices 
 where he had to make his call.'^, and from the coffee- 
 houses and other places of resort which he believed 
 himiself bound to frequent, would have been a sufficient 
 one. Accordingly, as soon as he began to see his way 
 clear to future employment, he determined to seek 
 another lodging. During the first week of June we 
 may fancy him going about on the search through all 
 the likely streets that take his fancy within a moderate 
 range from Paternoster Row. At last, some afternoon, 
 going up Holborn towards the West End, after calling 
 at the office of the Middlesex in Shoe Lane, he is caught 
 by the appearance of Brooke Street, a tidy, quiet- 
 looking street, striking off from Holborn on the right, 
 a little on the City-side of Gray's Inn Lane. He turns 
 aside from Holborn into this street ; sees perhaps various 
 tickets of " Rooms to let " hung up in the windows ; 
 but, on the whole, likes best one particular house so 
 distinguished. The tenant is one Frederick Angell,
 
 ^C'O CHATTERTON. 
 
 of uncertain occupation ; but, if there is any name on 
 the door, it is not his, but his wife's, thus : " Mrs. 
 Angell, Sack-maker." (The term " sack-maker," from 
 " sack " or " sac " — the older naturalized French name of 
 a portion of feminine attire which we now render by 
 a later — was then equivalent, or nearly so, to our term 
 " dress-maker.") At the door of this house, after 
 sufficient inspection of it from the outside, he knocks 
 rather loudly. The knock is answered, probably by 
 Mrs. Angell herself — a pleasant-looking person, we 
 fancy, of between forty and fifty years of age. He 
 states his object ; is shown various rooms of which he 
 may have his choice ; and in the end bargains for one, 
 which is both bed-room and sitting-room, almost at the 
 top of the house, but with the window to the front. 
 Thither, either the same day or within a day or two, 
 he removes his things, alleging no reason either to 
 ]\rrs. Walmsley or to Mrs. Ballance, as they afterwards 
 told Sir Herbert Croft, for his leaving them so suddenly. 
 On cleaning up the room he had occupied, after he 
 was gone, they found the floor " covered with little 
 pieces of paper, the remains of his poetings." It 
 seems, however, that he did not all at once cease 
 his visits at AValmsley's house, but for some time 
 at least continued to call there in. the course of the 
 day. 
 
 T'he house in Brooke Street, Holborn, where Mrs.
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. lOl 
 
 Aiigell lived, and where, after tlie iirst week of June, 
 1770, Chattcrtun liad his lodging, still exists. It is 
 that now numbered 39 in the street, on the west side, 
 i.e. the left-hand side as you go into the street from 
 Holborn. In an upper or garret room in that old 
 house, which any Londoner may see who cares to take 
 the trouble, and which is visible without trouble to 
 the outside passengers of every omnibus going down 
 Holborn to the City, or returning up Holborn from 
 the City, Chatterton had his abode. And a far mure 
 cheerful abode, in external respects, it must have been 
 than the one he had left at Shoreditch — high up 
 indeed, with only the airy heaven al)ove, and a pros- 
 pect of roofs and chimneys round, and yet, if he chose 
 ti) .str(>tch a little over the window, a sight of Brooke 
 Street below and the thoroucrhfare of Holborn to the 
 right. The street was respectable itself, with good 
 enough shops in it; and only at the inner end— where 
 it widened into a little irregular space, and bent olf 
 into alleys, affording room for a small shabby market 
 for meat, vegetables, and the like, known in the neigh- 
 liourhood as Brooke Market — did it lead into shabby 
 [lurlieus.^ 
 
 ^ There is a correction in this paragraph of an error in the first 
 edition of this story of Chatterton's life. Tnisting to general tradition, 
 and especially to the excellent anthoritj- of the late Jlr. Peter Cunning- 
 luuii in his Handbook of London, I there identified the house in Brooke 
 Street in which Chatterton lodgoil with that afterwards nunihered 4 in 
 
 C. M
 
 ]62 CHATTERTON. 
 
 We should not perhaps have been so particular in 
 describing the place, but that in Chatterton's very next 
 letter there is a description of the street in one of its 
 nocturnal aspects, which might not otherwise be so 
 intelligible. This letter, which is dated the 19th of 
 June, has hitherto been necessarily supposed to have 
 been written at Shoreditch ; but it is in itself, if 
 well attended to by those who know the topography 
 of London, an additional proof that he had already 
 quitted that neighbourhood. It was written, we cal- 
 culate, a week or ten days after he had gone to 
 lodge at Mrs. Angell's. 
 
 the street, situated on the east side, or right-hand side of the street as 
 you go from Holborn — which No. 4. at the time I wrote, had been 
 absorbed into one large block of premises at the Holborn end of the 
 street, occupied by a furniture-dealer, whose main door was in Holborn. 
 The mistake was rectified by Mr. W. Moy Thomas, in a letter pub- 
 lished in the Athenceum of Dec. 5, 1857 ; and I hardly know a neater 
 piece of historical incpiiry than that by A\hich this gentleman enabled 
 himself to make the rectification. He found the books for the 
 collection of the poor-rates in 1772 from that part of Brooke Street 
 (nearly the whole) which is in the " Upper Liberty of the parish of St. 
 Andrew's, Holborn ; " he found there the name of " Frederick Angell" 
 as one of the ratepayers ; and, by an ingenious observation of the 
 exact place in which this name occurred in the list of the ratepayers 
 of tlie street upon whom the collector had to call in the order of their 
 liouses, aided by a reference to Holden's Directory of 1802, in which 
 two of these ratepayers appeared as still alive and tenanting houses 
 then definitely numbered, he arrived at the conclusion (all but abso- 
 lutely incontrovertible, I think) that the house of Frederick Angell 
 was the No. 39 of the west side described in the text, and not any 
 house on the opposite side of the street. At the time when Mr. 
 Thomas wrote, the house was occupied by a plumber ; now (1874) 
 the lower part is occupied by a cook-shop, j
 
 f^ETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 103 
 
 ''June 19, 1770. 
 
 " Dear Sister. — I liave an horrid cold. The re- 
 lation of the manner of my catching it may give you 
 more pleasure than the circumstance itself. As I 
 wrote very late Sunday night (or, rather, very early 
 Monday morning), I thought to have gone to bed pretty 
 soon last night ; when, being half undressed, I heard 
 a very doleful voice singing Miss Hill's favourite Bed- 
 lamite song. The humdrum of the voice so struck me- 
 that, though I was obliged to listen a long while before 
 I could hear the words, I found the similitude in the 
 sound. After hearing her, with pleasure, drawl for 
 about half-an-hour, she jumped into a brisker tune, 
 and hol)bled out the ever-famous song in which poor 
 Jack Towler was to have been satirized. ' I jnU my 
 liand into a hiish,' ' 1 23ricked Jiiy finger to the hone,' 
 'I savj a ship sailing along ^ 'I thought the sweetest 
 fioioers to find' and other pretty flowery expressions, 
 were twanged with no inharmonious bray. I now ran 
 to the window, and threw up the sash, resolved to be 
 satisfied whether or no it was the identical Miss Kill 
 in2'>roprid persona. But alas ! it was a person whose 
 twang is very well known when she is awake, but who 
 had drunk so much royal-bob (the gingerbread-baker 
 for that, you know !) that she was now singing herself 
 asleep. This somnifying liquor had made her voice 
 so like the sweet echo of Miss Hill's that, if I had not 
 imagined that she coidd not see her way up to London, 
 I should absolutely have imagined it hers. [Here, for 
 some lines, the letter is hardly legible ; but ChaLterton 
 seems to say that in the street under his window he 
 saw, besides the singer, a fellow loitering about in bad 
 
 M 2
 
 1(54 CHATTERTON. 
 
 female company ; wliicli fellow lie had again, that very 
 morning, on his return from ' JMarybone Gardens,' seen 
 in custody ' at the watch-house in the parish of St. 
 Giles.' He then describes a third figure who completed 
 the picturesque street-group, as follows :] A drunken 
 fisherman, who sells soused mackerel and other de- 
 licious dainties, to the eternal detriment of all two- 
 penny ordinaries — as his best commodity, his salmon, 
 goes off' at three halfpence the piece — this itinerant 
 merchant, this moveable fish-stall, having likewise had 
 his dose of bob-royal, stood still for a while, and then 
 joined chorus in a tone which would hav^e laid half- 
 a-dozen lawyers, pleading for their fees, fast asleep. 
 This naturally reminded me of Mr. Haythorne's 
 song of 
 
 ' Says Plato, who-oy-oy-oy should man be vain ?' 
 
 However, my entertainment, though sweet enough in 
 itself, has a dish of sour sauce served up in it; for 1 
 have a most horrible wdieezing in the throat. But I 
 don't repent that I have this cold ; for there are so 
 many nostrums here that 'tis worth a man's while to 
 get a distemper, he can be cured so cheap." 
 
 Chatterton does not despatch this letter immediately, 
 but keeps it by him for ten days, when he adds a 
 postscript as follows : — 
 
 "June 29fh, 1770. — My cold is over and gone. 
 If the above did not recall to your mind some 
 sense of laughter, you have lost your ideas of risi- 
 bility."
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. HJr) 
 
 The letter may have made his sister laugh, as was 
 intended ; but on us, at this distance of time, the im- 
 pression is very difl'erent. AVe remember a passage in 
 J'epT/ss Diarij which struck us perhaps more than any- 
 thing else in that entertaining boolc. It was a passagt^. 
 describing an excursion ^vhich I'epys and some com- 
 panions belonging to the Xavy-office made down the 
 river Thames. They returned at night, wdien it was 
 pitch dark, making their May slowly and Avith mucli 
 trepidation along the middle of the river as near as 
 they could guess, and hailing the moored craft that they 
 passed, in order to ascertain their whereabouts. Not a 
 soul seemed to be awake on the whole river, to answer 
 their cries ; and the only sound they could hear was 
 that of a dog incessantly barking somewhere, either on 
 the south side of the river, or on board of some vessel 
 left to his charge. The barking of that dog has been in 
 our ears ever since ; intimating with a kind of ghastly 
 vividness, which none of all Pepys's other commemo- 
 rations, though they are vivid enough, can match, that 
 those old days of Pepys really and authentically were, 
 that the black river flowed then at night, and that 
 a world of now defunct life alternately roared and 
 reposed on its banks. And so with this last-quoted 
 letter of Chatterton. As we read it we are in Brooke 
 Street, Holborn, on a summer night more than a 
 hundred years ago. And what do we see ? A wretched,
 
 166 CHATTERTON. 
 
 drunken woman passing from side to side in the faint 
 light, and disturbing the deserted street with snatches 
 of song ; after a while, a male costermonger, also drunk, 
 reeling out from some neighbouring obscurity, and, 
 caught by the mnsic, joining it on his own account with 
 a stentorian bass ; and meantime, standing at a corner, 
 indifferently looking on, a hulking figure of " the dan- 
 gerous class," who completes the trio. And is this all ? 
 Hist ! An upper window in one of the houses, in 
 which the light has not yet been put out, is thrown up, 
 and the head and face of a young man emerge — a 
 wonderful head and face, if we could see them ; the face 
 pale, under dark clustering hair, and the eye a bold 
 and burning grey. He leans out, surveys the street 
 group far below, seems interested ; and, with his face 
 resting on his two hands, and his elbows resting on the 
 window-sill, he remains gazing out half-an-hour or 
 more. month of June, 1770 ! and is this the kind 
 of educating circumstance you provide for Chatterton, 
 solitary in his London lodging, and alert in his solitude 
 for objects to occupy his eyes, and incite him to new 
 trains of thought ? A poor sleeping street, and a 
 serenade of two drunkards ! No, as he gazes, the 
 drunkards reel out of view into other streets, their 
 voices growing fainter as they go ; the hulking fellow 
 at the corner also moves off, destiny guiding him along 
 Holborn to St. Giles's watch-house; the street then,
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 107 
 
 though still the same narrow and poor one, is swept at 
 least of its human degradation ; the mood of the gazer 
 changes also ; and, though he remains still gazing, it 
 is not at the street any longer, but at the soft summer 
 stars r 
 
 One letter more closes the series of those sent by 
 Chatterton to Bristol during his first two months in 
 London. It is addressed to his friend T. Gary, and 
 bears no date. From some allusions in the letter 
 however, we are able to say with tolerable certainty that 
 it was written on June 29th or 30th, the day before 
 the June magazine-day. A considerable part of the 
 letter is taken up with an answer to some objections 
 which Gary had made to a panegyric of Ghattertou's 
 on Mr. Allen, the organist of Bristol, at the expense ot 
 his brother organist Mr. Broderip. The panegyric is 
 undoubtedly that contained in the long poem called 
 Keio Gardens, written before Ghatterton had left Bristol, 
 and then unpublished, but which Gary had, it seems, 
 just been reading in manuscript : — 
 
 " "What charms has music when great Broderip sweats 
 To torture sound to what his brother sets ! 
 With scraps of ballad-tunes, and (juclc Scotch sangs, 
 AVhich god-like liamsay to his bagpipe twangs, 
 AVith tatter'd fragments of forgotten plays, 
 With riayford's melody to Steruliold's lays, 
 This pipe of science, mighty Broderip, comes. 
 And a strange, unconnected jumble thrums.
 
 168 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Eoiised to devotion in a sprightly air, 
 
 Danced into piety, and jigg'd to prayer, 
 
 A modern hornpipe's murder greets our ears. 
 
 The heavenly music of domestic spheres ; 
 
 The flying band in swift transition hops 
 
 Through all the tortured, vile burlesque of stops. 
 
 Sacred to sleep, in superstition's key. 
 
 Dull, doleful diapasons die away ; 
 
 Sleep spreads his silken wings, and, lull'd by sound, 
 
 The vicar slumbers, and the snore goes round. 
 
 Whilst Broderip at his passive organ groans 
 
 Through all his slow variety of tones. 
 
 How unlike Allen! Allen is divine. 
 
 His touch is sentimental, tender, fine ; 
 
 No little affectations e'er disgraced 
 
 His more refined, his sentimental taste ; 
 
 He keeps the passions with the sound in play, 
 
 And the soul trenibles with the trembling key." 
 
 Gary, probably in a letter sent after Chatterton to 
 London, had objected to this as too partial to Allen, 
 and as unfair to Broderip. Chatterton, premising that 
 he believes " there are very few in Bristol who know 
 what music is," defends his comparative estimate of 
 the two organists, and reiterates his praise of Allen in 
 strong terms, and his contempt for his rival. " I am 
 afraid, my dear friend," he says, " you do not understand 
 the merit of a full piece ; if you did, you would 
 confess to me that Allen is the only organist you 
 have in Bristok" He then continues : —
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 1G9 
 
 " A song of mine is a great favonrite witli tlie town, 
 on account of the fulness of the music. It has mucli 
 of Mr. Allen's manner in the aii-. You will see that 
 and twenty more in print after the season is over. I 
 yesterday heard several airs of my Burletta sung to the 
 harpsichord, horns, bassoons, hautboys, violins, &c., and 
 will venture to pronounce, from the excellence of the 
 music, that it will take with the town. Observe, I 
 write in all the magazines. I am surprised you took 
 no notice of the last London. In that and the magazine 
 coming out to-morrow are the only two pieces I have 
 the vanity to call poetry. Alind the Folitical Ber/ister. 
 I am very intimately acquainted with the editor, who 
 is also editor of another publication. You will find not 
 a little of mine in the London Museum, and Town and 
 Country. The printers of the daily publications are 
 all frightened out of their patriotism, and will take 
 nothing unless 'tis moderate or ministerial. I have not 
 had five patriotic essays this fortnight. All must be 
 ministerial or entertaining. I remain yours, &c. 
 
 " T. CllATTERTON." 
 
 We have presented the last four letters in their 
 series, with no other remarks than were necessary to 
 make their meaning clear.^ It is obvious, howevei-, 
 that, if we are to ascertain the real coherent story of 
 (.'hatterton's London life during the two months they 
 include — i.e., during the six or seven weeks of his 
 
 1 All the letters of Chatterton contained in this chapter, with tlie 
 exception of that to Cary, were first collected and printed hv Sir 
 Herbert Croft in his Love and Madness ; from the second edition of 
 which, published in 17b(J, I have takeji them.
 
 170 CHATTERTON. 
 
 residence at Slioreditcli, and the first two or three of 
 his residence in Brooke Street — we must go over the 
 ground for ourselves, weaving the facts together, with 
 others independently known, and allowing for his 
 exaggerations. 
 
 In the first place, then, we repeat, there is abundant 
 evidence that Chatterton's activity during his first two 
 months in London, his perseverance in introducing 
 himself and trying to form connexions, was something 
 unparalleled. Very few young men of his age could 
 have gone through this preliminary part of the business 
 with half the courage and self-assurance which he 
 showed. He seems to have been capable of ringing 
 any number of bells, and sending in his card, known or 
 unknown, to any number of persons, in the course of a 
 forenoon; and one wonders at how many of all the 
 doors in London he did actually present himself during 
 his stay there. Fell, Edmunds, Hamilton, and Dodsley 
 were the persons he had begun witli ; but he soon 
 added others, and still othere, to the circle of those 
 whom he favoured with his calls. That he miyht 
 the more easily carry out his plan of getting acquainted 
 with people likely to be of use to him, he went daily to 
 the Chapter Coffee-house, Toms' Coffee-house, and the 
 like places of resort ; entering, we doubt not, into con- 
 versation with many who gave liim short answers, and
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 171 
 
 wondered who the he was. If we consider how 
 
 those places were frequented, we can easily suppose 
 tliat there were men of note at that time in London 
 who had, in this way, seen CLatterton without knowing 
 it. " I am quite familiar," he says in his letter of the 
 Gth of May, " at the Chapter Coffee-house, and know 
 all the geniuses there." One observes, however, that in 
 his postscript to his next letter, of J\lay 14th, he 
 retracts the direction he had given to his mother and 
 his friends to address to him at the Chapter, and bids 
 them address him '' at Mr. Walmsley's, Shoreditch, 
 only." Had he received any rebuff at the Chapter, 
 which made him discontinue the house ? If so, there 
 were other coffee-houses, besides Toms'. The theatres, 
 too, and other places of amusement, served his purpose. 
 By the 28th of May, indeed, as we have seen, both 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden w^ere closed for the 
 season ; but during the preceding month he had no 
 doubt visited both several times, at once enjoying the 
 play and, as on the occasion he mentions in his letter 
 of the 14th, picking up friends in the pit. After the 
 great theatres were closed, there were still some minor 
 ones, as well as lianelagh Gardens and Marylebone 
 Gardens, furnishing music and other entertainment; 
 and lliere, too, Chatterton occasionally paid his half- 
 crown, flattering himself it was an investment. 
 
 So much for the effort made. "What as to the success ?
 
 172 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Making every allowance for liis own exaggerations, we 
 believe it to have been by no means inconsiderable. 
 
 Evidently, his great object, after his first arrival in 
 London, was to distinguish himself as a political writer 
 on the " jDatriotic " or Opposition side. This was to be 
 his short cut to fame and wealth. To write such letters 
 for tlie Middlesex Journal, the Frccliolders Magazine, 
 and other Opposition papers, as should rival those of 
 Junius, and make him be inquired after by the heads 
 of the party, and so put forward and provided for : this 
 was the immediate form of his ambition. Fell and 
 Edmunds were here his chief reliance ; but, above all, 
 he desired to be introduced to Wilkes. Could that be 
 done, his fortune would be made ! And Fell, as we 
 have seen, was to manage it for him. Unfortunately, 
 when the promised time came. Fell was not in a 
 position to keep his promise, having been laid up in the 
 King's Bench for debt, where Chatterton visited him. 
 Edmunds, too, was put out of reach about the same 
 time, having been made an example of by the Govern- 
 ment, and thrown into Newgate, by way of warning to 
 " patriotic " publishers. The incarceration of these 
 two friends of Chatterton at the very time when he 
 was expecting so much from them must, one would 
 think, have been a misfortune. But he represents it 
 otherwise. The Freeliolder had only gone into otlier 
 hands ; and he should be able to write for it still, and.
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 173 
 
 on better terms than if Fell liad remained editor ! The 
 Middlesex Journal, too, was still to go on (Hamilton of 
 the Tonm and Coiintrj/ Magazine had come to the 
 rescue, and taken it up) ; so that here also he should be 
 no worse off than before ! Xor were these anticipations 
 falsified. For the Freeholder, indeed, he does not appear 
 to have written much after this date ; the only subse- 
 quent contribution to its pages that can with tolerable 
 certainty be traced to him being a letter, in the Junius 
 style, to the Premier, Lord North, which was not 
 published till the August number. But for the 
 Middlesex, under Hamilton, he continued to write 
 busily. At least five letters have been disinterred 
 from the columns of this old newspaper, all printed in 
 the month of May, 1770, which there is good reason 
 to believe were Chatterton's.^ They are all signed 
 " Decimus." Tlie first, published May 10th, is addressed 
 
 to the Earl of H h (Hillsborough, ]\Iinister for the 
 
 American colonies) ; the second, published May loth, 
 
 is to the P I) of AV {i.e. the Princess 
 
 Dowager of Wales) ; the thirrl, published May 22nd, is 
 to the Prime Minister himself; the fourth, published 
 May 26th, is not a letter, but a kind of squib, proposing 
 a series of sultjects fur an exhibitidu of sign-board 
 paintings ; and the last is a letter " To the Freeholders 
 
 ' These lotters were first rrpriiited from the Middlesex Jownal, hy 
 Mr. Dix, in liis Life of Chatti-rtoii.
 
 174 CHATTERTON. 
 
 of the City of Bristol," bidding them shake off their 
 lethargy, and imitate the glorious example of London. 
 We may quote a sample or two of these effusions : — 
 
 From the Letter to tlic Earl of Hillsborough, May 10. — 
 " My Lord, — If a constant exercise of tyranny and 
 cruelty has not steeled your heart against all sensations 
 of compunction and remorse, permit me to remind you 
 of the recent massacre in Boston. It is an infamous 
 attribute of the ministry of the Thane, that what his 
 tools begin in secret fraud and oppression ends in 
 murder and avowed assassination. Not contented to 
 deprive us of our liberty, they rob us of our lives ; 
 knowing, from a sad experience, that the one without 
 the other is an insupportable burden. Your Lordship 
 has bravely distinguished yourself among the ministers 
 of the present reign. Whilst North and the instruments 
 of his royal mistress settled the plan of operation, it 
 was your part to execute ; you were the assassin whose 
 knife was ever ready to finish the crime. If every 
 feeling of humanity is not extinct in you, reflect, for a 
 moment reflect, on the horrid task you undertook and 
 perpetrated. Think of the injury you have done to 
 your country, which nothing but the dissolution of a 
 Parliament not representing the people can erase. . . . 
 Think of the recent murders at Boston. my Lord ! 
 however you may force a smile into your countenance, 
 however you may trifle in the train of dissipation, your 
 conscience must raise a hell within," &c. &c. 
 
 From the Letter to the Princess Dowager of Wales, 
 
 May 15. — "I could wish your E H would 
 
 know how to act worthy your situation in life, and not
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 175 
 
 debase yourself by mingling with a group of ministers 
 the most detestable that ever embroiled a kingdom in 
 discord and commotion. Your consequence in the 
 Council can arise only from your power over his 
 
 M y ; and tliat power you possess but by the 
 
 courtesy of an unaccountable infatuation. Filial duty 
 has nothing to do with the question : a king has no 
 mother, no wife, no friend, considered as a king : his 
 country, his subjects, are the only objects of his public 
 concern." .... 
 
 From the Letter to the Premier, May 22. — " Fly to 
 the Council, Avith your face whitened with fear ; tell 
 them that justice is at the door, and the axe will do 
 its ofhce ; tell them that, whilst the spirit of English 
 freedom exists, vengeance has also an existence ; and, 
 when Britons are denied justice from the powers who 
 have the trust of their rights, the Constitution hath 
 given them a power to do themselves justice." 
 
 From the Squib describing cm Exhibition of Sign-paint- 
 ings, May 26. — "No. 3. ' TJte Union:' An Englishman 
 sleeping and a Scotchman picking his pocket. — ' The 
 
 K ;' a sign for a button-maker. The painter, who 
 
 has not fixed his design to this performance, is cer- 
 tainly a very loyal subject. His ]\I has that inno- 
 cent vacancy of countenance which distinguishes the 
 representation of angels and cherubims ; without guilt, 
 without meaning, without everything but an undesign- 
 ing simplicity." . . , 
 
 From the Letter to the Freeholders of Bristol, May 26. — 
 " Gentlemen, — As a fellow-citizen, I presume to address 
 you on a subject which I hoped would have ani- 
 mated an abler pen. At this critical situation, when
 
 17G CHATTERTON. 
 
 the fate of the Constitution depends upon the exertion 
 of an English spirit, I confess my astonishment at find- 
 ing you silent. The second city in England should not 
 be ashamed to copy the first in any laudable measure. 
 . . . Eemember the speech of the glorious Canynge, in 
 whose repeated mayoralties honour and virtue were not 
 unknown in the corporation. When the unhappy dis- 
 sensions first broke out between the houses of Lancaster 
 and York, he immediately declared himself for the 
 latter. His lady, fearful of the consequences, begged 
 him to desist and not ruin himself and family. ' My 
 family,' replied the brave citizen, 'is dear to me — 
 Heaven can M'itness how dear ! But, when discord and 
 oppressions begin to distract the realm, my country is 
 my family ; and that it is my duty to protect.' " 
 
 These few samples will show how well Chatterton 
 had caught the trick of the Opposition politics of the 
 day, and how expertly he could dress up the popular 
 commonplaces. That his contributions, such as they 
 were, were thought of some value bv the conductors 
 of the Middlesex Journal is proved by the fact that 
 there was one of them in at least every alternate number 
 during the whole month of May, and that two or three 
 of these were printed in what was considered the chief 
 place in the paper. 
 
 But Chatterton was not content with writing only 
 for the Middlesex. He probably tried others of the 
 Opposition newspapers, including even the great Pid>lic 
 Advertiser itself, which Junius had made illustrious.
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 177 
 
 Then, as we sliall see, there were various Magazines 
 or Monthlies, besides the Freeholder, to which he sent 
 more elaborate contributions in the same political 
 strain for publication at the end of the month, or 
 whenever else they appeared. Of these one was the 
 Political Register. " Mind the Political Register" he 
 says to his friend Gary in the end of June : " I am 
 very intimately acquainted with the editor, wbo is also 
 editor of another publication." The acquaintance had 
 probably commenced before the end of May ; and it is 
 with the circumstance of his writing for this periodical 
 that we are disposed to connect the story of his intro- 
 duction to Beckford, as related by himself to his sister 
 in his letter of the oOtli of that month. The facts 
 seem to be as follows: — 
 
 Anxious from the first to get as near the centre of 
 affairs as he could, and disappointed, by Fell's mishap, 
 of his expected introduction to Wilkes, he had con- 
 ceived the idea of making a bold stroke to bring him- 
 self into direct relations with the man who, for the 
 time, was even more of a popular hero than Wilkes — 
 the Lord Mayor Beckford. His plan was to write a 
 letter to his Lordship on affairs in general, and more 
 particularly in praise of his Lordship's conduct as 
 the champion of the City in their struggle with the 
 Government. Such a letter he did write. Here is a 
 specimen of what it said : — 
 
 C. N
 
 178 CHATTERTON. 
 
 " My Lord, — The steps you have hitherto taken in 
 the service of your country demand the warmest 
 thanks the {^ratitude of an Eiifrlishman can give. 
 That you will persevere in the glorious task is the 
 wish of every one who is a friend to the constitution 
 of this country. Your integrity ensures you from 
 falling into the infamy of apostacy; and your under- 
 standing is a sufficient guard against the secret mea- 
 sures of the Ministry', who are vile enough to stick 
 at no villainy to complete their detestable purposes. 
 Nor can your British heart stoop to fear the con- 
 temptible threatenings of a set of hireling wretches 
 who have no power but what they derive from a person 
 who engrosses every power and every vice. ... If 
 the massacre of the Bostonians was not concerted by 
 the Ministry, they were to be enslaved in consequence 
 of a settled plan ; and, as the one was the result of the 
 other, our worthy Ministers were the assassins. Alas ! 
 the unhappy town had not a Beckford ! He would 
 have checked the audacious insolence of the army, and 
 dared, as an Englishman, to make use of his freedom. 
 . . . His INIajesty's behaviour, when he received the 
 complaints of his people (not to redress them indeed, 
 but to get rid of them an easier way) was something 
 particular : it was set, formal, and studied. Should you 
 address him again, my Lord, it would not be amiss to 
 tell his Majesty that you expect his answer, and not 
 the answer of his Mother or Ministers. . . . Your 
 Lordship has proved the goodness of your heart, the 
 soundness of your principles, and the merit of the 
 cause in which you are engaged, by the rectitude of 
 your conduct. Scandal maddens at your name, because
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 179 
 
 she finds nothing to reproach you with ; and the venal 
 hirelings of the Ministry despair of meriting their pay 
 by blackening your character. Illiberal abuse and 
 gross inconsistencies and absurdities recoil upon their 
 author, and only bear testimony of the weakness of his 
 head or the badness of his heart. That man whose 
 enemies can find nothing to lay to his charge may well 
 dispense with the incoherent Billingsgate of a minis- 
 terial writer." 
 
 Tliis letter he intended for the Political Register. But, 
 either before getting it accepted there, or while it was 
 still only in type, he sent a copy of it direct to Beck- 
 ford. He gave his Lordship a day or so to read it, 
 and then ventured on that personal call to which he 
 makes allusion in his letter to his sister of IMay the 
 30th. His Lordship, according to Chatterton's own 
 account, — and we see no reason to doubt it, — received 
 him very politely, and not only expressed approbation 
 of what he had already written, but consented to have 
 a second letter, on the subject of the City Eemon- 
 strance and its reception by the King, publicly 
 addressed to him. This call on Beckford probably 
 took place about the 26th of May, or three days after 
 the great affair of the Eemonstrance, and when the 
 town was still ringing with it. At all events, a letter 
 bearing that date, and addressed to the Lord Mayor, 
 was found in manuscript among Chatterton's papers 
 after his death. This letter, beginning "When the 
 
 N 2
 
 180 CHATTERTON. 
 
 endeavours of a spirited people to tree themselves from 
 an insupportable slavery," &c., was almost certainly 
 the letter he had asked leave to address to Beckford ; 
 and it shows how completely he had succeeded in his 
 object that he was able to make arrangements for its 
 appearing in no less important a periodical than the 
 North Briton. 
 
 The North Brito7i of this date was a resuscitation of 
 Wilkes's celebrated periodical of the same name, which 
 had been stopped in its 4Gth number; and it differed 
 (Xjnsiderably from the ordinary newspapers of the day. 
 It was of small folio size ; and each number usually 
 consisted of one careful essay, and no more, occupying 
 aljout six pages of clear and elegant type, and sold for 
 twopence halfpenny. The editor and proprietor was a 
 person named William Bingley, a ])rinter, whose case 
 was then much before the public. In 1768 he had 
 resumed the publication of the North Briton, after it 
 had been discontinued for some years. In that year, 
 however, having been summoned as a witness in one 
 of the trials between Wilkes and the Government, he 
 had given a singular proof of his obstinacy by making 
 oath in Court that he would answer no interrogatories 
 whatever unless he should be put to the torture. (See 
 Junius, Letter VII.) Committed for contempt to the 
 King's Bench, he had remained there, utterly immove- 
 able either by threats or by promises, for a period of two
 
 SETTING THE THAMES OJV FIliE. 181 
 
 years, publishing his North Briton all the same, and 
 dating it from his prison; till, at last, in the first week 
 of June 1770, Government thought it best to let him 
 out. As soon as he was released, he had started a . 
 second weekly newspaper, called liinglcys Journal, or 
 Hie Universal Gazetteer, of the regular newspaper size 
 and form, the first number of which appeared on the 
 9th of June. The new paper, however, was not to 
 interfere with the North Briton. Both were to be issued 
 every Saturday, at the same price, from Bingley's new 
 premises at the Britannia, No. 31, Xewgate Street. 
 
 A connexion with Bingley must have been thought 
 of some importance by Chatterton ; and it is another 
 proof of his energy that, before Bingley was out of 
 prison a fortnight, he had contrived to obtain such a 
 connexion. Above all, to have his letter to Beckford 
 brought out in large fine type in the North Briton, 
 forming by itself one entire number of that paper, 
 must have seemed to Chatterton a decided step of 
 literary promotion. 
 
 The elation which Chatterton felt at the idea of the 
 publication simultaneously of two letters of his to the 
 Lord Mayor in such important places as the Political 
 Register and the North Briton, and at the prospects of 
 farther recognition which would thus be opened up to 
 him, was doomed to a bitter disappointment. After May 
 he seems to have written next to nothing of a political
 
 182 CHATTERTON. 
 
 character I'ur tlie Middlesex, but to have waited for the 
 appearance of his letters and the ^clat he anticipated 
 from them. One of them did appear — that written 
 first, and sent to the Political Register. It was pub- 
 lished in that periodical in the course of June, and 
 bore the signature of " Probus." But, before the other 
 could appear, an event happened which made it im- 
 possible that it should appear at all. On the 21st of 
 June, 1770, Beckford died. His death was sudden, 
 the consequence of a cold, which an imprudent journey 
 of 100 miles had aggravated into rheumatic fever. 
 The town was thunderstruck, and for some days 
 nothing else was talked of. Only a month before 
 had been that crowning moment of his life, the pre- 
 sentation of the City Eemonstrance to the King: the 
 applauses of that act were still loud ; and London and 
 all England had been expecting no end of similar 
 manifestations of spirit from the bold Lord Mayor. 
 Little wonder that there was excitement over his 
 death. 
 
 Soon the excitement died away. Beckford's only 
 legitimate son, then a boy of nine years, afterwards to 
 be known far and wide as the author of "Vathek," 
 stepped into the inheritance of his father's vast fortune, 
 the wife being amply provided for by her settlement ; 
 several illegitimate children at the same time received 
 5,000Z. each ; and the City people began to think
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 183 
 
 which of the popular aldermen they should elect for 
 the vacant term of the INIayoralty. ?>ut what of poor 
 Chatterton, to whom, with his two letters, and the 
 liopes he had built upon them, an insurance on Beck- 
 ford's life was more necessary than to all the City 
 besides ? " When Beckford died," Mrs. Ballance told 
 Sir Herbert Croft, " he (Chatterton) was perfectly 
 frantic and out of his mind, and said that he was 
 ruined." This is probably coiTect ; and yet there is an 
 authentic little record from which it appears that, after 
 his first frantic regret was over, he tried to console 
 himself ironically in a rather singular fashion. On the 
 back of the identical letter mentioned above as having 
 been sent to the Nurtli Briton, but which, as it could 
 not now appear there, Chatterton had recovered and 
 sent in manuscript to his friend Cary, there is an 
 endorsement in Chatterton's hand, evidently for Cary's 
 information, as follows : — 
 
 "Accepted by Bin<,'ley,— Set for, and thrown out of, tlie North 
 Briton, 21st June, on account of Lord Mayor's death : 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Lost by his death on this Essay 1116 
 
 Gained in Elegies £2 2 
 
 in Essays £3 3 
 
 5 5 
 
 Am glad he is dead by £3 13 6 " 
 
 So far as we are aware, this is the first time that grief 
 was openly estimated in pounds, shillings and pence.
 
 184 CHATTERTON. 
 
 The method, however, has some merits, and might, with-: 
 out much injury to truth, come into general use. 
 
 Beckford's death seems to have had one not unim- 
 portant effect on Chatterton's literary exertions. Even 
 before his interview with Beckford. as his letter to his 
 sister of the 30th of May sliows us, he had begun to have 
 doubts as to the advantages of mere political writing — 
 at any rate, of political writing on the Opposition side 
 and for the newspapers. For essays of this kind, he 
 says, one was sure of pay ; but the benefit ended there. 
 The " patriots " being all in search of place for them- 
 selves, there was little chance of any farther remunera- 
 tion for articles on their side than the publisher's pay- 
 ment for the copy ! On the other hand, if one wrote for 
 the Ministerial side, no publisher would take the articles, 
 and one must pay to have them printed ; but then, if 
 one could make a hit, the Ministerial men would be 
 glad of such a recruit, and could easOy make it worth 
 his while to serve them ! And then follow\s the maxim, 
 so characteristic of the miserable boy, " He is a poor 
 author who cannot write on both sides," with the state- 
 ment that, if necessary, he will put this maxim in 
 practice by transferring himself to the Court-party. 
 There is evidence that he actually made an attempt to 
 carry the intention into effect. On that very 26th of 
 May on which he penned the letter that was to appear 
 in the North Briton, lauding Beckford and the patriots
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 185 
 
 for their opposition to Ministers, he penned also another 
 letter — afterwards found among his papers — addressed 
 to Lord North, and signed " jVIoderator," in which, 
 according to Walpole, he passes " an encomium on 
 Ministers for rejecting the City Remonstrance." It was 
 probably, therefore, the consciousness of having written 
 these two letters on the same day that caused him to 
 write to his sister so coolly about taking either side ; 
 and what he says about the difficulty of getting Minis- 
 terial essays published may have been but the result of 
 his own experience Avith regard to the " ^Moderator " 
 letter. Evidently, however, after his introduction of 
 himself to Beckford, he had resolved to wait the issue 
 of that experiment before taking any farther steps 
 towards the Ministerial side. But, when Beckford died, 
 and all his hopes from that acquaintance were over, his 
 conviction of the uselessness of mere political writing 
 in newspapers, especially if on the patriotic side, came 
 back with fresh force. 
 
 There was independent reason why it should be so. 
 Since the end of ]\Iay there had been a perfect panic 
 among the newspaper-proprietors. As early as the 
 beginning of that month, we have seen, Edmunds of the 
 Middlesex Journal had been prosecuted by Ministers and 
 committed to Newgate. And this was but the beginning 
 of a series of similar prosecutions. After the City 
 Eemonstrauce of the 23rd of May, and Junius's terrible
 
 186 CHATTEIITON. 
 
 letter in the Fuhlic Advertiser of the 28th, ripping up 
 the conduct of tlie I'arliament just prorogued, and 
 lashing Ministers for all their recent misdemeanours, 
 including the massacre at Boston, the insult to the City, 
 and the escape of the murderer Kennedy, Ministers 
 seem to have made up their minds for a crusade against 
 the Opposition press. On the 1st of June Mr. Almon 
 of the London Museum, the friend of Wilkes, was tried 
 in Westminster Hall, before Lord Mansfield, for circulat- 
 ing a letter of Junius's in that publication ; on the 13th, 
 the greater culprit, Woodfall of the PuUic Advertiser, 
 was tried at the King's Bench on a similar charge ; and 
 on the 13th of July Mr. Miller, of the London Evening 
 Post, was tried for copying a letter by Junius into his 
 columns. All this had some effect. The proprietors of 
 newspapers began to be chary of printing articles which 
 might be their ruin. Thus, during the month of June, 
 Chattertou seems to have found it impossible to get such 
 articles into the Middlesex Journal as they had willingly 
 taken from him in May. " The printers of daily publi- 
 cations," he writes to Gary on the 29 th of June, " are 
 all frightened out of their patriotism, and will take 
 nothing unless 'tis moderate or Ministerial. I have not 
 had five patriotic essays this fortnight: all must be 
 Ministerial or entertaining." Accordingly, still keeping 
 in reserve the possibility of becoming " Ministerial " if 
 he should see occasion for it, he in the meantime falls
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 187 
 
 back on the " entertaining " : that is, on miscellaneous 
 non-political literature. And this leads us to a separate 
 question. What were Chatterton's literary exertions out 
 of the field of politics during his first two months in 
 London ? 
 
 From the very first he had l)y no means depended 
 exclusively on political writhig. In his letter to his 
 mother of the Gth of May he says " I get four guineas a 
 month by one magazine, and shall engage to write a 
 History of England and other pieces, which will more 
 than double that sum ;" and he clearly distinguishes, 
 in the same letter, between employment of this kind 
 and " occasional essays for the daily papers." Again, in 
 his letter to his sister of May 30th, he speaks of an 
 engagement with a speculative bookseller, the brother of 
 a Scotch Lord, who was to give him board and lodging 
 for writing a History of London, to appear in numbers. 
 How much of these statements about engagements to 
 write large historical compilations for the booksellers 
 was actual fact, founded on proposals which passed 
 between the eager youth and the bibliopolic powers of 
 Paternoster Row and its purlieus, and how much of it 
 was mere hallucination, we cannot now say. Of schemes 
 of this sort, at all events, we hear nothing more ; and 
 whatever chances of literary work, as distinct from ordi- 
 nary newspaper-writing, Chatterton did have in London 
 were limited to his connexion with various magazines.
 
 1 88 CHA TTER TON. 
 
 We are able to enumerate all the magazines with 
 which, during the months of May and June, Chatterton 
 is known to have had dealings. First, and by far the 
 most hopeful, as regarded receipts for his exchequer, 
 was the Town and Coimtry, to which he had been a 
 pretty constant contributor since its second number in 
 February 1769. This magazine, which had a very large 
 sale, was published on the last day of every month, at 
 the price of one shilling ; and, though the editor and 
 proprietor, Hamilton, must have been rather surprised 
 when his well-known Bristol correspondent presented 
 himself at his office, at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, to 
 find him so young, he appears to have behaved civilly, 
 and to have allowed Chatterton to regard the magazine 
 as one of his surest resources, now that he had settled in 
 town. Next there was the Frccliolders Magazine, some- 
 what more political in its character, and also published 
 on the last day of each month, price sixpence. With 
 this also Chatterton had had some acquaintance before 
 leaving Bristol ; and we have seen that, during his first 
 ten days in London, he was disposed to regard it and its 
 editor, Mr. Fell, as his mainstay. After Fell's imprison- 
 ment, however, when the magazine went into other 
 hands — the hands, as we find from an advertisement of 
 the ninth number (that for May 1770), of a certain 
 " patriotic society," who employed W. Adland and J. 
 Browne of Eed-lion Court, Fleet Street, to print it for
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 189 
 
 them — Chattertou says little of it. He did apparently 
 write for it ; but not much. Of greater consequence 
 in his eyes was the London Museum, a shilling monthly, 
 printed, as we have said, by J. ^Miller, of Queen's Head 
 Passage, and whicli, in ^May 1770, liad attained its fifth 
 imniber. Next was tlio Political Register, already de- 
 scribed. After it, may 1)C mentioned The Court and City 
 Magazine, price sixpence, six numbers old in IMay 1770, 
 printed by J. Smith of 15, Paternoster Row, and cha- 
 racterised in the advertisements as " A Fund of Enter- 
 tainment for the Man of Quality, the Citizen, the Scholar, 
 the Country Gentleman, and the Man of Gallantry, as 
 well as the Fair of every denomination." This magazine 
 had plates, as indeed most of the others had ; and, from 
 the advertised contents of one or two numbers, we judge 
 that the light amatory vein was deemed the most 
 attractive by the publishers. Lastly, there was the 
 Gospel Magazine, begun in 17C8, and printed and sold, 
 in 1770, by M. Lewis of No, 1, Paternoster Eow. This 
 magazine, the purpose of which, as stated on its title- 
 page, was " to promote religion, devotion, and piety 
 from evangelical principles," usually consisted, if we 
 may judge from the contents of a few numbers, of scraps 
 of sermons and short religious biographies, followed by a 
 few pieces of religious verse. 
 
 The editors of Chatterton's Eemains, after his death, 
 were not so careful as they might have been in recovering
 
 mo CEATTEBTON. 
 
 his contributions to the various London magazines, or 
 even in giving the exact dates and references of thofee 
 which they did recover. The task, in any case, was 
 not an easy one. Chatterton adopted various signatures, 
 and some of his contributions may have appeared, as 
 was then common, without any signature at all. It is 
 possible, therefore, that trifles which have been assumed 
 as his were not really his ; and it is far more possible 
 that trifles which he did write have been neglected. 
 (3n the whole, after such references as we have been 
 able to make to the old periodicals themselves, we 
 t^ive the foUowino; as the list of at least the chief of 
 Chatterton's contributions to these periodicals (the 
 poetical columns of newspapers included) from his 
 arrival in London to the end of June : — 
 
 "Narva and Mored, an African Eclogue," in verse, 
 dated May 2, 1770: published in the London Ifuseicm 
 for May. 
 
 "A Song," addressed to Miss C am, of Bristol, in 
 
 seven stanzas, dated " London, May 4." 
 
 "The Methodist", a short Hudibrastic squib, dated 
 May, 1770. 
 
 " Elegy " beginning " Wliy blooms," &c. : dated " Shore- 
 ditch, May 20," and published in the To2vn and 
 Country Magazine for ]May. 
 
 " The Prophecy ", a political poem in eighteen stanzas : 
 published in the Middlesex Journal of May 31, along 
 with the " Letter to the Freeholders of Bristol."
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. IDl 
 
 " The Death of Nicou, an African Eclogue," in verse : 
 dated " Urooke Street, June 12," and published in 
 the London Museum for June. [This is tlie piece 
 to which we have referred as proving Chatterton's 
 removal to ]5rooke Street early in June.] 
 
 " Maria Friendless ", a short tale in prose : dated " June 
 15," and published in the Town and Country Maga- 
 zine for June. 
 
 " The False Step " : a short prose tale, publislied in 
 the same number of the Town and Country Maga- 
 zine. 
 
 " Anecdote of Judge Jeffries " : a short paragraph, 
 published in the same number of the Toivn and 
 Country Magazine. 
 
 " On Punning " : a short letter, dated " June 16," and 
 published in the same number of the Town and 
 Country Magazine. 
 
 A Paper signed "Hunter of Oddities," dated " Slaughter's 
 Coffee-house, June 15," and describing the conduct 
 of a mad gentleman seen there : published in the 
 same number of the Town and Country Magazine. 
 [This was the fourth of a series of papers, all bearing 
 the same signature, and having the same object — 
 namely, the description of odd characters picked up 
 in walking about London. There are about twelve 
 papers in all in the series, extending over all the 
 numbers of the magazine for 1770. Chatterton was 
 certainly the author of some of them ; and, though 
 the rest were published after his death, and even 
 dated after it, this may have been only the editor's 
 way of using copy which Chatterton had given him 
 in a lump].
 
 192 CHATTERTON. 
 
 " Elegy on W. Beckford, Esq.," in twelve stanzas, 
 
 published in June. 
 " Letter to the Lord Mayor," signed " Probus," published 
 
 in the Political Berjistcr some time in June. 
 
 If this list were extended by the addition of scraps 
 from the same periodicals which look as if they were 
 Chatterton's, and of similar scraps from the Court and 
 City Magazine, the Gospel Magazine, and the Freeholder, 
 it might be more than doubled. We know, for example, 
 that Chatterton must have written more on Beckford's 
 death, both in verse and in prose, than the elegy above- 
 mentioned could amount to. He estimated his earnings 
 from this topic at five guineas. Indeed, it was in 
 connexion with this topic that he made the only 
 venture towards independent publication of which there 
 is any record. In the Middlesex Journal of Jvily 3rd 
 there is the following advertisement : " This day was 
 published, price one shilling, an Elegy on the much- 
 lamented death of William Beckford, Esq., late Lord 
 Mayor of, and Representative in Parliament for, the 
 City of London: Printed by G. Kearsly, at No. 1, 
 Ludgate Street." A copy of this publication has 
 survived ; and, on comparing it with the Elegy of 
 Chatterton mentioned above, it is found to be the same, 
 with sixteen additional stanzas. Here are the opening 
 stanzas: —
 
 SETTING THE THAMES Oy FT HE. 103 
 
 " Weep on, ye Britons ! give your gen'ral tear ; 
 But hence, ye venal — hence eacli titled slave ! 
 An lionest pang should wait on Beckford's bier. 
 And patriot Anguish mark the patriot's grave. 
 
 " "When like the Roman to his field retired, 
 
 'Twas you (surrounded by unnuinber'd foes) 
 Wlio call'd him forth, his services required, 
 And took from Age the blessing of repose." 
 
 Whether Chatterton gained any part of his five guineas 
 by this publication, or whether he lost some of them by 
 tlie venture, we do not know. The Elegy is as good as 
 was going, but is poor enough ; and perhaps it did 
 not sell. 
 
 But we have not yet taken account of all Chatterton's 
 efforts to make money and win fame during his first 
 two months in London. Besides writing political 
 articles for the newspapers, and miscellaneous scraps of 
 a more literary kind for the magazines, he made, as 
 we gather from his letters, a distinct effort towards 
 connecting himself with what may be called generally 
 the minor dramatic literature of the metropolis. 
 
 Within a month after his arrival in London, as we 
 have seen, the two great theatres of Drury Lane and 
 Covent Garden were closed for the season. But, 
 though the greater theatres were shut, one or two minor 
 or Slimmer theatres were open. Thus, at the Hay- 
 market, Foote was just about to bring out, for the 
 
 C.
 
 194 CIIATTERTON. 
 
 delight of the town, his comedy of the Lame Lover, 
 perhaps the greatest theatrical hit of that year. Sadler's 
 AVells was also in its glory. But, whatever dreams of 
 future work for those places may have passed across 
 Chatterton's mind, there was as yet no means of realizing 
 them ; and all that his ambition did conceive as within 
 its reach, for the present, was the chance of becoming 
 connected with one or other of those places of evening 
 musical and pyrotechnic entertainment which competed 
 with the minor theatres for the right to entertain the 
 more dissipated Londoners during the summer and 
 autumn months. Of these there were three of some 
 note — Eanelagh Gardens, at Chelsea ; Vauxhall Gardens, 
 on the Surrey side of the Thames, over against Millbank ; 
 and Marylebone or Mary bone Gardens, on the site of 
 part of the present New Road. At all these places 
 tlie entertainments consisted of promenading under 
 brilliant lights, hearing concerts of music, sipping tea 
 and coffee or more expensive beverages, and seeing, at 
 the close, grand displays of fireworks. Any hope that 
 Chatterton could entertain of contributing to the pro- 
 vision involved in such a bill of fare could obviously 
 consist only in liis ability to furnish words for the 
 musical portion of it. It did so happen that he had 
 an opportunity of making his ability in this respect 
 known, and that this opportunity was more especially 
 in connexion with Marylebone Gardens. We see no
 
 SETTlNCr THh: THAMES ON FIRE. 105 
 
 reason to doubt the literal accuracy of liis account to 
 his mother, on the I4th of ^May, of the accidental 
 manner in which the connexion was brought about. 
 "Last week;' he says, "being in the pit of Drury 
 " Lane Theatre, I contracted an immediate acquaintance 
 " (which you know is no hard task to me) with a young 
 " gentleman in Cheapside, partner in a music-shop, the 
 "greatest iu the city. Hearing I could write, he 
 " desired me to write a few songs for him : this 1 did 
 " the same night, and conveyed them to him the next 
 " morninfr. These he showed to a Doctor in music, and 
 " I am invited to treat with the Doctor on the footing of 
 " a composer for Eanelagh and the Gardens. Bravo, Jiaj 
 " hoijSy tip ive go ! '* For a while we hear no more of this 
 bargain or its results ; but, in the end of June, writing to 
 Cary,who had apparently been already informed of all 
 the particulars, he reports progress. " A song of mine," 
 he then says, " is a great favourite with the town, on 
 "account of the fulness of the music. You will see that 
 " and twenty more in print after the season is over. I 
 " yesterday heard several airs of my Burletta sung to the 
 " harpsichord, horns, bassoons, hautboys, violins, &c., and 
 " will venture to pronounce, from the excellence of the 
 " music, that it will take with the town." If we interpret 
 this into the language of direct statement, the facts seem 
 to be as follows -.—Chatterton having, early in May, 
 written some songs for some music-publisher who had 
 
 2
 
 196 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 an interest in Marylebone Gardens, one or two of these 
 had already been set to nnisic, and perhaps snng at the 
 Gardens, in the course of one of tlie concerts, by Mr. 
 Eeinhold, Mr. Bannister, or Mrs. Bartlielemon, who were 
 then the Marylebone stars ; and, these having pleased, he 
 had made some kind of arrangement for a more extensive 
 attempt, in the shape of a continuous Burletta, to be 
 
 brought out at the Gardens as soon as might be con- 
 venient, and had already before the end of June finished 
 this Burletta, handed it to the composer, and even had 
 the pleasure of hearing some of the songs of it in 
 rehearsal to the airs to vvliich they had been fitted. 
 
 All this is corroborated by the evidence of Chatter- 
 ton's remaining writings. For some five-and-twenty 
 years, indeed, after his death, all traces of either his 
 Burletta or his songs seem to have been lost ; but in 
 1795, the manuscripts having been recovered in the 
 possession of ]\Ir. Atterbury, who had been proprietor of 
 Marylebone Gardens, they were edited in the form 
 of a neat little pamphlet, having this title-page : " The 
 Revenge: A Burletta, acted at Maryhone Gardens 1770; 
 with additional sovf/s ; ly Thomas Chattcrton." Prefixed 
 to " Tlic Revenge" there is this list of dramatis 2')crson(B : 
 
 Jupiter Mr. Eeinhold. 
 
 Bacchus Mil. Bannistek. 
 
 Cupid Master Cheney. 
 
 Juno Mrs. Thompson.
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 107 
 
 The natural inference is that the Builetta was actually 
 performed at the Gardens. After looking over the 
 newspapers for 1770, however, in which there is a 
 pretty complete series of advertisements of the enter, 
 tainments at the Gardens fioui the lx?ginning to the 
 end of the season, we have found no trace of any 
 such Burletta having been produced that year ; and we 
 rather incline to think tliat, if the production took 
 place at all, it was not till a subsecpient season. Of 
 five short songs, however, printed along with the 
 Burletta, it seems likely enough that one, entitled 
 A Bacchanalian, and purporting to have been " sung by 
 Mr. Eeinliold," was actually sung by that gentleman at 
 one of the mixed concerts ; and it may be the very song 
 respecting which Chatterton wrote to Gary. Another 
 of the five, entitled The Invitation, has attached to it 
 the words, " To be sung by j\Irs. Barthelemon and 
 Master Gheney," as if it had not yet gone so far as the 
 other. The remainiu'j: three have no singer's name 
 
 o o 
 
 attached to them. Probably, however, to have had one 
 song actually sung at the Gardens, another about to be 
 sung, and a Burletta in progress, seemed to Chatterton 
 sufficient success. At all events, no sooner was one 
 Burletta off his hands than he began another of a more 
 modern dramatic character, entitled TJic Woman of 
 Spirit, the several parts of which are distributed by 
 anticipation thus : —
 
 ]98 CHATTEETOK. 
 
 Distort Mr. Bannister. 
 
 Councillor Latitat . . i\lR. 1'einiiold. 
 
 Endorse Master Cheney. 
 
 Lady Tempest . . . ISIrs. Thompson. 
 
 Of this intended Burletta only two scenes were written. 
 No one can read these dramatic attempts of the 
 industrious boy without a new impression of his extra- 
 ordinary cleverness and versatility. The Revenge, which 
 is in two acts, and is written in rhyme throughout, 
 partly in passages of recitative, but with numerous solo 
 airs, one or two duets, and a chorus at the close, might 
 really, if set to tolerable music, have been a pleasant 
 piece to hear. The words are decidedly better than 
 those of many of the musical burlesques which succeed 
 now-a-days. The story is that of a quarrel between 
 Jupiter and Juno on account of an assignation which 
 Jupiter has made with Maia ; the plot is thickened by 
 the introduction of Cupid and Bacchus ; and, after the 
 usual amount of confusion and cross-purpose, all ends 
 happily. Here is a specimen — a dispute between 
 Bacchus and Cupid respecting the worth of their diverse 
 functions : — 
 
 Bacchfs (with a bowl). 
 
 Recitative. — Od'sniggers, t'other draught; 'tis dev'Iish 
 heady ; 
 Olympus turns about {staggers) ; steady, 
 boys, steady !
 
 SETTTXa THE THAMES ON FIRE. V.iU 
 
 ^ir, — If Jove should pretend that he governs the skies, 
 I swear by this liquor his Tlmndership lies ; 
 A slave to his bottle, he governs by wine ; 
 And all must confess he's a servant of mine. 
 
 Air chamjes. — Kosy, sparkling, powerful wine. 
 All the joys of life are thine ; 
 Search the drinking world around, 
 Bacchus everywhere sits crown'd. 
 AVhilst we lift the flowing bowl 
 Unregarded thunders roll. 
 
 Air clianfjcs. — Since man, as says each bearded sage, 
 Is but a piece of clay, 
 Whose mystic moisture lost by age. 
 To dust it falls away, 
 'Tis orthodox, beyond a doubt, 
 That drought will only fret it ; 
 To make the brittle stuff hold out 
 Is thus to drink and wet it. 
 
 Recitative. — Ah ! Master Cupid, 'slife, I did not s' ye ; 
 
 'Tis excellent champagne, and so here's t' ye: 
 I brought it to these G ardens as imported ; 
 'Tis bloody strong ; you need not twice be 
 
 courted ; 
 Come, drink, my boy 
 
 Cupid. 
 
 Hence, monster, hence ! I scorn thy flowing bowl : 
 It prostitutes the sense, degenerates the soul. 
 
 Bacchus. 
 
 Gadso, methinks the youngster's woundy moral 
 He plays with ethics like a bell and coral.
 
 200 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Air. — 'Tis madness to think, 
 To judge ere you drink : 
 The bottom all wisdom contains. 
 Then let you and I 
 Now drink the bowl dry ; 
 We both shall grow wise for our pains. 
 
 Cupid. 
 
 Recitative. — Pray, keep' your distance, beast, and cease 
 your bawling, 
 Or with this dart I'll send you caterwauling. 
 
 Air. — The cliarms of wine cannot compare 
 With the soft raptures of the fair ; 
 Can drunken pleasures ever find 
 A place with love and womankind ? 
 Can the full bowl pretend to vie 
 With the soft languish of the eye ? 
 Can the mad roar our passions move 
 Like gentle breathing sighs of Love ? 
 
 Bacchus. 
 
 Go, whine and complain 
 
 To the girls of the plain, 
 And sigh out your soul ere she comes to the mind ; 
 
 My mistress is here. 
 
 And, faith, I don't fear : 
 / always am happy, she always is kind. 
 
 Air chcmga;. — A pox o' your lasses ! 
 A sliot of my glasses 
 Your arrows surpasses ; 
 Tor nothing but asses 
 
 Will draw in your team.
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 201 
 
 Whilst thus I am drinking, 
 My misery sinkinj^, 
 The cannikin clinking, 
 I'm lost to all thinking, 
 And care is a dream. 
 
 Cupid. 
 Provoking insolence ! &c. 
 
 One would like to know, if possible, the exact 
 pecuniary result for Chatterton of all those various 
 exertions of his during his first two busy months in 
 London — his political articles and essays, his miscel- 
 laneous poems and other literary trifles contributed to 
 magazines, and his songs and Burletta for jNIarylebone 
 Gardens. Oar data for this calculation are contained in 
 three small documents : — (1) On a scrap of paper found 
 in his pocket-book was the following jotting — an 
 account, as it would seem, of his earnings up to the 
 23rd of May :— 
 
 £ s. d. 
 " Eeceived to May 23, of Mr. Hamilton, for .Middlesex 111 6 
 
 „■ ofB 12 3 
 
 „ ,, of Fell for Tlie Consulmd (one of 
 Chattertou's longer satirical jioenis, which 
 Fell hail apparently bonght for the Free- 
 holder' n Marjazinc) 0106 
 
 „ „ of Mr. Hamilton for ' Candidus' 
 
 and 'Foreign Journal ' (punigraplis, it 
 seems, for the J\Iiddhsc.r or the Tuicn and 
 
 Coimtri/) 020 
 
 „ of Mr. Fell 10 6 
 
 ,, ,, Middlesex Journal 8 ti 
 
 ,, „ Mr. Hamilton, for 16 songs . . 10 6 
 
 £i 15 9
 
 202 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 (2) Another money document is that already quoted, 
 G;ivin<i; an ironical account of the balance in his favour 
 by Beckford's death, which is estimated at SI. 13s. 6^. 
 Tliis ma}' have been but one item in his receipts for 
 June, though probably, from the nature of the topic, it 
 was the most important item. (3) From a receipt in 
 Chatterton's hand, accidentally recovered in 1824, it is 
 inferred that he received, on the 6tli of July, 1770, the 
 sum of five guineas from ]\rr. Atterbury of jMarylebone 
 
 Gardens, in payment for his Burletta. On the whole, 
 
 allowing for uncertainties in our construction of these 
 documents, and for the probability that some of the 
 calculated earnings, including even part of the elegiac 
 3/. 13s. Sd., remained unpaid, we shall probably be 
 correct if we say that Chatterton's total receipts 
 during his first two months in London cannot have 
 exceeded 10/. or 12/., and that, if he had Mr. Atter- 
 bury's five guineas in hand early in Jul;^^, he had 
 nothing else then left with which to face the rest of 
 that month. 
 
 Chatterton was singularly abstemious in his personal 
 habits. He drank only water, and would rarely eat 
 animal food, assigning as his reason that " he had work 
 on hand and must not make himself more stupid than 
 God had made him." His receipts, therefore, small as 
 they were, would probably have satisfied all his absolute 
 wants for a considerable time. But there were other
 
 SETTING THE THAMES ON FIRE. 203 
 
 respects in M-liich lie did not deny liimself. "I employ 
 my money now," he writes to his sister on the 30tli of 
 Llay, " in fitting myself fashionably, and getting into 
 good company, " i.e. going to coffee-houses, the gardens, 
 the theatres, &c. Add to this the little presents sent 
 home to his mother and sister, and it will not be diffi- 
 cult to sec how, even without supposing any extrava- 
 gance, the end of his second and beginning of his third 
 month in London should have found him in some such 
 state as we have imagined. Still there was as yet no 
 appearance of despondency in Chatterton as to the 
 future. What he had spent in dress and " getting into 
 good company " was sure to bring him in interest ; and 
 each succeeding month would bring its own earnings ! 
 If money flowed as fast as honours upon him, he would 
 give his sister a portion of 5,000/. ! That day might be 
 still distant ; but, at least, he could look forward to the 
 time when his mother and sister should leave Bristol 
 and join him in London, where he could take apart- 
 ments for them and himself. Then how happy they 
 should be, all three together, walking out on Sundays to 
 Hampstead or Kensington, when the heaven over 
 London should begin to glow and blush with the burning 
 beneath it of that hard-to-kindle but still surely com- 
 bustible river, and the whole town, his mother and 
 sister included, should gaze at the crimson air and see 
 Ms portrait and the letters T. C. freaked in keener fire
 
 204 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 in tlie heart of the crimson ! Dream on, poor boy, for 
 the end is not yet. 
 
 It will have been observed that, all this while, in his 
 ceaseless efforts to become known in London, Chatterton 
 made no use of his antiques. Of at least one of those 
 longer modern satirical pieces which he had brought 
 with hiia to town from Bristol; — that called The Con- 
 suliad — he had contrived to make something ; but, 
 though he must have had his tragedy of JElla with him, 
 his fragment of the tragedy of Godclwyn, his Tuurna- 
 luait, his Baltic of Hastings, and others of his Rowley 
 l^oems, he seems to have made no attempt to get them 
 l)ublished. Indeed, his only allusion, after his arrival 
 in London, to the Rowley Poems, is contained in his 
 saying to his sister that,»if Rowley had been a Londoner, 
 instead of a " Biistowyan," he could have lived by 
 copying his works. It is possible, however, from his 
 writing to his sister for his MS. glossary of obsolete 
 terms, that he may have had some scheme in his 
 head with regard to his antiques. One wonders 
 what would have been the effect if he had tried the 
 London public with a bit of his jElla, fresh from his 
 lodging in Brooke Street. Fancy Johnson, Goldy, 
 AVarton, and the rest of them, reading it ! The London 
 antiquarians of that day may be supposed to have been 
 to the Bristol ones, in respect of perspicacity, as hawks
 
 SETTING THE THAMES OX EIRE. 20;-, 
 
 to doves ; but what a fluttering there would have been 
 even among the hawks I "Would it have been better for 
 Chatterton had he made the attempt ? Who can tell ? 
 On the one hand, by refraining from it, he moved to 
 a fate sad enough ; on the other, he might have lived 
 on a hardened literary liar.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BROOKE STREET, UOLBORN. 
 
 CiiATTEliTON had been in Lis new lodging in Brooke 
 Street now about three weeks. During that time he 
 had become pretty well acquainted with his landlady, 
 Mrs. Angellj and with her husband, Frederick Angell, 
 who seems to have been engaged in some kind of 
 business which took him from home durincr the 
 day, leaving his wife to her dress-making. Always of 
 social habits and willing to converse with those about 
 him, he seems now and then to have sat with Mr, and 
 Mrs. Angell of an evening, talking with them. The 
 impression he made on them appears to have been very 
 nmch the same as that made on the Walmsleys of 
 Slioreditch. Sir Herbert Croft, indeed, who made 
 repeated attempts, some years afterwards, to see Mrs. 
 Angell, in order to learn froui her all he coidd about 
 her strange lodger of 1770, never succeeded in finding 
 her. She was then, he tells us, in distressed circum- 
 stances, very suspicious of all visitors, and unable to
 
 BROOKE STREET, nOLP.ORN. 2n7 
 
 imagine what motive there could be for the calls with 
 which she was assailed, unless it might be something of 
 a police nature, or at least molestation for debt. In 
 default of ^Irs. Angell, however, Sir Herbert found a 
 neighbour and acquaintance of hers, " Mrs. "Wolfe, a 
 barber's wife," living two doors off, on the same side of 
 the street. She remembered Chattertou, and spoke of 
 "his proud and haughty spirit," adding that "he 
 appeared both to her and to Mrs. Angell as if born for 
 something great." Thomas Warton, whose interest in 
 the controversy as to the authenticity of the Eowley 
 Poems led him to similar inquiries about Chatterton 
 personally, discovered, in 1781 or 1782, yet another 
 person who had been a resident in Brooke Street in 
 1770 and had known Chatterton there. This was a 
 Mr, Cross, an apothecary. His information was to the 
 effect that Chatterton, dropping in at his shop, and 
 familiarly talking with him over the counter, had, 
 almost from the first day of his residence in Brooke 
 Street, struck up an acquaintance with him. Cross, 
 who, from his profession, was probably a man of some 
 intelligence, had begun to contract a real liking for his 
 odd visitor, and " found his conversation," as he after- 
 wards told "Warton^ " a little infidelity excepted, most 
 captivating." 
 
 So the month of July opens, Chatterton going out 
 and in as usual, and sitting up late at night in his room
 
 208 CHATTERTON. 
 
 among tlie tiles, still in high spirits, if not so fresh as at 
 first, and still with some money in his pocket, if only 
 the five guineas for his Burletta which he received on 
 the 6th of the month. Tliis last fact is somewhat 
 touchingly proved hy his next letter home, dated July 
 8th, and sent, apparently with a box, by the Bristol 
 coach or carrier, 
 
 " Dear Mother, — I send you in the box 
 
 " Six cups and saucers, with two basins, for my sister. 
 If a china tea-pot and cream-pot is, in your opinion, 
 necessary, I will send them ; but I am informed they 
 are unfashionable, and that the red china, which you are 
 provided with, is more in use. 
 
 " A cargo of patterns for yourself, with a snuff-box, 
 right French, and very curious in my opinion. 
 
 " Two fans : — The silver one is more giave than the 
 other, which would suit my sister best. But that I 
 leave to you both. 
 
 " Some British herb-snuff in the box — be careful how 
 you open it. (This I omit, lest it should injure the 
 other matters.) Some British herb-tobacco for my 
 grandmother, with a pipe. Some trifles for Thorne. Be 
 assured, whenever I have the power, my will won't be 
 wanting to testify that I remember you. Yours, 
 
 "T. Chatterton. 
 
 "July 2, 1770. 
 
 "KB. — I shall forestall your intended journey and 
 pop down upon you at Christmas. 
 
 " I could have wished you had sent my red pocket- 
 book, as 'tis very material.
 
 BROOKE STREET, nOLBORN. 203 
 
 " I bouL-lit two very curious twisted pipes for my 
 grandmotlier ; but, both breaking, I was afraid to buy 
 others, lest they should break in the box, and, bein-^ 
 loose, injure the china. Have you heard any thin ' 
 furtlier of the clearance ? Direct for me at Alis. 
 Angell's, sack-maker, Brooke Street, Holborn." 
 
 From his giving his address at tlie end of this letter it 
 is perhaps to be inferred that lie had not till nov.- 
 acquainted his mother with his change of lodfino-. 
 Probably, as we have said, he still called at Walmsley's 
 for his letters. This would account for Mrs. Ballance's 
 knowing his state of mind on the occasion of Beckford's 
 death. 
 
 The next letter, written to his sister, tliree days after 
 the last, is partly a continuation of it ; but it contains 
 some references to his literary occupations of the past 
 month, and his expectations for the month just begun. 
 
 " Dear Sister, — I have sent you some china and a fan. 
 You have your choice of two. I am surprised that you 
 chose purple and gold. [Was this for the fan or for some 
 one of the other presents ?] T went into the shop to buy 
 it ; but it is the most disagreeable colour I ever saw — 
 dead, lifeless, and inelegant. Purple and pink, or lemon 
 and pink, are more genteel and lively. Your answer in 
 this affair Avill oblige me. Be assured that I shall ever 
 make your wants my wants, and stretch to tlie utmost 
 to serve you. Eeraember me to Miss Sandford, Miss 
 Rumsey, jVIiss Singer, &c. &c. &c. As to the songs, I 
 have waited this week for them, and have not had time 
 
 C.
 
 210 CHATTERTON. 
 
 to copy one perfectly. When the season 's over, you 
 will have them all m print. I had pieces last month in 
 the following magazines — Gospel Magazine, Town and 
 CovMtry, (viz. ' Maria Friendless/ ' False Step/ ' Hunter 
 of Oddities/ ' To Miss Bush/ &c.,) Court and City, 
 London, Political Bcgister, &c. &c. The Christian Maga- 
 zine, as they are not to be had perfect, are not wortli 
 buying. [This Magazine, begun in 1760, and carried 
 on till 1707, had some celebrity, as having been edited 
 by Dr. Dodd ; and probably his sister or some one else 
 had been inquiring about it.] 
 
 " I remain yours, 
 " July 11, 1770. " T. ChaTTERTON." 
 
 The next, also to his sister, is nine days later ; and it 
 
 was the last but one that she and her mother were to 
 
 receive from him. 
 
 " I am about an Oratorio, which, when finished, will 
 purchase you a gown. You may be certain of seeing 
 me before the 1st of January, 1771. The clearance 
 [from Mr. Lambert] is immaterial. My mother may 
 expect more patterns. Almost all the next Tovjn and 
 Country Magazine is mine. I have an universal 
 acquaintance : my company is courted everywhere ; 
 and, could I humble myself to go into a compter, could 
 liave had twenty places before now. But I must be 
 among the great ; state-matters suit me better than 
 commercial. The ladies are not out of my acquaint- 
 ance. I have a great deal of business now, and must 
 therefore bid you adieu. You will have a longer letter 
 from me soon, and more to the purpose. Yours, 
 
 " T. C. 
 
 "•ICthJ^ihj, 1770."
 
 BROOKE STREET, nOLBOUN. 211 
 
 These three letters, giving us glimpses as they do of 
 Chatterton at three successive points in the month of 
 July, carry us over nearly the whole of that month. 
 It is necessary, however, to examine them a little in tlie 
 light which subsequent facts cast upon theui. 
 
 It is evident, at least, that in the be<nnnin«:c of that 
 month Chatterton was not in want of money. The 
 presents sent to his mother, sister, and grandmother, 
 seem to have been rather costly for a youth in his 
 circumstances. They probably left him with so little 
 that, had it been known at home how disproportionate 
 to his means had been this proof of his affection, the 
 pleasure in receiving it would have been mixed with 
 anxiety and fear. Clearly, however, from the first, it 
 was Chatterton's pride to convey to his mother and 
 sister the idea that he was getting on splendidly ; and 
 probably it was part of his chief delight, in sending the 
 presents, to fancy how they would be exhibited on the 
 widow's table to her acquaintances, — how Lambert, 
 Barrett, Catcott, and the rest would hear of them, and 
 what inferences, reflecting on their own inability to 
 appreciate a youth of genius, these Bristol pettifoggers 
 would draw Irom them ! Still, great as were Chatter- 
 ton's affection and pride, it is not to be conceived that 
 he would have actually impoverished himself in 
 gratifying them, unless at the time he had been 
 convinced that he had such prospects of continued work 
 
 1" -1
 
 212 CHATTERTON. 
 
 as would at least supply him with what was absolutely 
 necessary for his own subsistence. Unfortunately, when 
 we look carefully at the second and third letters, we 
 begm to perceive a kind of consciousness creeping 
 through that he had, at the time of writing the first, 
 been too sanguine in this respect. There are the same 
 bragging generalities as in the earlier letters of May and 
 June — extremely " busy," " an universal acquaintance," 
 " his company courted everywhere," and the like ; but 
 there is no such profuse mention as in those earlier 
 letters of specific shifts and contrivances in reserve 
 against the coming weeks, and of actual engagements on 
 hand. He tells of his great doings in last month's 
 magazines ; but, when he condescends on the business 
 of the month then passing, all that he says is that his 
 songs, which he had expected to see in copper-plate by 
 this time, were still not out, that he had begun an 
 oratorio, and that Hamilton had so much of his copy 
 that nearly the whole of the forthcoming Town and 
 Country Magazine would be his. We hear nothing of 
 fartlier work for the Middlesex Journal, for the 
 Folitical Register, for the London Museum, or any of the 
 other periodicals. In short, it is too plain that, by the 
 end of 'Tuly, Chatterton was in want of work and had 
 begTin to know it. 
 
 One can see various reasons why Chatterton should 
 somewhat suddenly have found himself in this predica-
 
 BROOKE STREET, TTOLBORN. 21S 
 
 inent, without resorting to the supposition — though 
 there may be something in that too — that he and his 
 bookselling patrons were not on such good terms as at 
 first, and that, by his incessant calling upon them, he 
 had begun to be regarded by them as a bore. 
 
 The months of July and August, we should think, 
 were then, even more than now, about the slackest 
 portions of the London year; and in the year 1770 they 
 seem to have been even slacker than usual. It was 
 the season of the Parliamentary recess, and of tlie liot 
 summer weather, when all who were not absolutely tied 
 to town were away taking their holiday. "Wilkes and 
 his family, we find, were olf to a watering-place on the 
 southern coast, en route for the Continent. And so with 
 other families in the same station — some north, some 
 west, some south, according to their tastes and oppor- 
 tunities. The jMargate hoys were in full activity, con- 
 veying their annual freights of sea-sick London trades- 
 men, with their wives and children, and packets of 
 unnecessary sandwiches, to that greedy coast-town of 
 Kent, where the lodging-house keepers had already 
 raised their prices, and the bathing-machines were out 
 on the beach, and all the shop-windows were exhibiting 
 their plates of boiled prawns and shrimps, and the 
 dancing saloons and petty theatres were in full play. 
 Even men who were never happy out of the London 
 ;st]"eets yielded to custom and forsook them now. The
 
 214 CHATTERTON. 
 
 taverns and coffee-houses had little to do. The clubs 
 were all broken up, and their scatte'red atoms were 
 wandering melancholy among green fields, smelling the 
 fresh hay, amusing the farmers by their ignorance of 
 crops, and saying it was so pleasant to get away from 
 town, but really longing for the time when they should 
 again come together in their familiar rooms in the courts 
 round about Temple Bar, and sit down, reconstituted 
 for another year, to their punch, their gossip, and their 
 oysters. 
 
 So it was with the famous club of the Turk's Head, 
 Gerard Street. Where Garrick, Burke, Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds, and the rest of the club, were rusticating, we 
 do not know ; but we can trace the great Doctor Samuel, 
 and his familiar Goldy. 
 
 Johnson, whom Bozzy had left with regret in the 
 previous November, in order to go back to Scotland and 
 settle down as a married man, had produced nothing 
 this year except his Tory pamphlet on the Wilkes 
 ([uestion, entitled The False Alarm ; the effect of which 
 had been to procure him no end of abuse from the 
 Opposition writers, and to fill the Opposition papers 
 with paragraphs about his pension. In the midst of 
 this unpopularity he had been living on as usual, and 
 making preparations for a new edition of his " Shake- 
 speare." But in the end of June, — the poet Akenside 
 had died on the 23rd of that month, and his body was
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 215 
 
 tlieii lying in its cdfflii in liis liousc in TUirlington SU'Cot, 
 — he did as others were doing and went out of town. 
 His purpose was to visit liis native Lichfield, and other 
 parts of the midland counties. During a considerable 
 portion of the month of July he was at Lichfield, whence, 
 as we learn from Mr. Croker, he wrote two letters to 
 Mrs. Thrale at Streatham. In one of these, dated the 
 nth of July — the day on which Chatterton wrote the 
 second of the foregoing letters from Brooke Street — we 
 find him informing Mrs. Thrale that he was going about 
 in his native town, " not wholly unaffected by the 
 revolutions " that had taken place in it since he re- 
 membered it, and, in particular, taking considerable 
 interest in a book recently found by ^Mr. Greene, an 
 apothecary of the town, which showed " who paid levies 
 in our parish, and how much they paid, above an 
 hundred years ago." " Many families," he says, " that 
 paid the parish rates are now extinct, like the race of 
 Hercules. Pulvis ct umbra sumus. What is nearest 
 touches us most. The passions rise higher at domestic 
 than at imperial tragedies." Thus moralizing about 
 Lichfield and its vicinity, the ponderous and noble man 
 remained out of town apparently about three months in 
 all ; for it is not till the 21st of September that we are 
 sure of his being again back in his well-known quarters 
 in Johnson's Court. 
 
 Through a portion, at least, of this same period, Gold-
 
 216 CHATTERTON. 
 
 smith was also absent from town. His Deserted Village 
 had appeared this year, on the 26th of May, and may, 
 therefore, have been read by Chatterton in the first 
 week of his residence in Brooke Street. Three new 
 editions were called for in the course of June ; and it 
 was with the pathos of that exquisite poem fresh in his 
 heart, and its pictures of rural peace and beauty in con- 
 trast with the crowded anguish of cities still vivid in 
 his fancy, that Goldsmith, in the middle of July, per- 
 mitted himself to be taken off on a short continental 
 tour, as one of a party made up by his friends the 
 Miss Hornecks. Precisely at the time when Chatterton 
 was writing his last letters home, and beginning to see 
 want staring him in the face, was this kindest of Irish 
 hearts taking leave for a while of Brick Court and all its 
 pleasant cares. Ah me ! so very kind a heart it was that 
 one feels as if, when it left London, Chatterton's truest 
 hope was gone. Goldsmith never saw Chatterton ; but 
 one feels as if, had he remained in London, Chatterton 
 would have been more safe. Surely — even if by some 
 express electric communication, shot, at the moment of 
 utmost need, under the very stones and pavements that 
 intervened between the two spots — the agony pent up 
 in that garret in Brooke Street, where the despairing lad 
 was walking to and fro, would have made itself felt in 
 the chamber in Brick Court ; the tenant of that chamber 
 would have been seized by a restlessness and a creeping
 
 BROOKE STREET, nOLBORN. 217 
 
 sense of some horror near ; he would have Imrried out, 
 led by au invisible power, and, by the grace of God, 
 Brick Court and Brooke Street would have come together! 
 O the hasty excited gait of Goldsmith as he turned into 
 Brooke Street : the knock ; the rush upstairs ; the garret 
 door burst open ; the arms of a friend thrown round the 
 friendless youth ; the gu.sli of tears over him and with 
 him ; the pride melted out of the youth at once and for 
 ever ; the joy over a young soul saved ! Phantasy all, 
 phantasy uU ! What migJd have been is one thing ; 
 what has been is another. In those late days of July, 
 when Chatterton was beginning to foresee the worst. 
 Goldsmith, having escaped the little mishaps of his 
 journey, in the society of the " Jessamy Bride " and her 
 sister, from London to Dover, from Dover to Calais, from 
 Calais to Lille, and from Lille to Paris, was going about 
 in Paris seeing the sights, but longing, even in such 
 sweet company, to be back in London again, and getting 
 very nervous on account of his arrears of work. He 
 was in Paris on the 29th of July, and remained there 
 some time. Latterly the party was joined by a person 
 who rather spoiled the pleasure of it for poor Goldy — a 
 certain attorney, Mr. Hickey; who would persist in 
 quizzing Goldy before the ladies, and who afterwards 
 brought home the story that, when the party went to 
 Versailles, Goldy, in order to prove himself right in 
 saying that a certain distance beyond one of the fountains
 
 218 CEATTERTON. 
 
 was within a leap, actually took the leap and fell into 
 the water. All August, Goldy had to bear his absence 
 from London, the thought of his arrears of work, and 
 the jokes of Mr, Hickey. Not till the first week in 
 September was he back in town. 
 
 Well, but though Goldsmith, Johnson, Wilkes, the 
 legislators of the country, and all the families of the 
 wealthier tradesmen were out of town on their annual 
 holiday, the town was not empty, A huge host of 
 citizens of all classes remained behind on duty, tiding 
 over the languid season as best they could, keeping their 
 windows open to abate the heat of the afternoon sun as 
 it beat on the brick houses, and strolling out of an 
 evening, if they could, to enjoy the cooler air of the 
 parks, and the green suburbs round. And these, of 
 course, still constituted " the town ; " and " the town," 
 even in the languid season, will have its excitements 
 and its topics of gossip. Thus, in London, in the months 
 of July and August 1770, though there was a comparative 
 lull in politics, consequent on the preternatural excite- 
 ment of the first half of the year, there was still matter 
 of interest for the newsmongers. On the 29th of June 
 Alderman Trecothick had been elected, after a some- 
 what brisk contest in the City, to succeed Beckford in 
 the Mayoralty ; and on the 12th of July Beckford's 
 place, as representative of the City in Parliament, was 
 filled up, after similar opposition, by the election, in the
 
 BROOKE STREET, nOLBORN. 211) 
 
 old City fashion, of Alderman Oliver. These elections, 
 affording room as they did for new trials of strength 
 between the Wilkesites and the Court party, were not 
 regarded with indifference ; and indeed it was not till 
 the second of the two was over that AVilkes himself left 
 town. Then there was a good deal of interest among 
 the City people about a proposed statue to Beckford, 
 and motion after motion on the subject was discussed at 
 the Common Council. The trial of Mr. jNIiller, of the 
 London Evening Post, for re-publishing Junius's letter, 
 did not come on till the 13th of July, and gave rise to 
 new arguments respecting the liberty of the press, and 
 the conduct of Lord Mansfield. A trial of a different 
 character, and far more piquant for the town at large, 
 was that of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, 
 on an action for damages brought against him by the 
 husband of a certain lady of high rank. The jury 
 awarded 10,000/. of damages, greatly to the delight of 
 the town. For many weeks the newspapers, other 
 matters not being abundant, lived on this trial, reporting 
 the proceedings at great length, commenting on them, 
 and printing piece by piece the letters that had passed 
 between the aristocratic lovers. When cloyed with this 
 delicious literature, citizens and their apprentices who 
 were in search of amusement could avail themselves of 
 the Haymarket and Sadler's Wells Theatres, or of one 
 or other of the public gardens. Foote at the Hay-
 
 220 CHATTERTON. 
 
 market was drawing crowds by his Lame Lover ; and at 
 the Marybone Gardens the favourite pieces were The 
 Magic Girdle and Serva Padroiia. By way of morning 
 relish after such evening dissipations, the citizens could 
 liear of robberies committed over-night, and particularly 
 of robberies of the post-boys carrying the mail-bags 
 to and from London. Robberies of this class were 
 unusually common at the time, so that the post-boys 
 never set out without making up their minds to the 
 chance of meeting a^ highwayman. One post-boy who 
 was robbed, the papers informed their readers, was fifty 
 years of age. 
 
 Attending to all this news from liis hot lodging in 
 narrow Brooke Street, wdth a view to extract occupation 
 for his pen out of it, Chatterton, as we have said, had 
 begun to find, the task a very hard one. No doubt he 
 went about the streets with his eyes and ears open, and 
 entered the coffee-houses to see what he could pick up 
 there in the shape of information or suggestion. No doubt 
 lie called frequently at the office of the Middlesex Journal, 
 and made proposals to Bingley of the Nortli Briton for 
 essays in lieu of the cancelled one on Beckford, and 
 similar proposals to the London Museum, the Court and 
 City Magazine, and the Political Register. But, whether 
 it was that some of the printers and editors were out 
 of town, or that they were overstocked already and 
 disposed to retrench, or tliat they had ceased to care for
 
 BROOKE STREET, TTOLBOU^. 221 
 
 liaviiig Chattertoii's contributions in particular, certain 
 it i3 that all these efforts were fruitless. On the Toion 
 and Country Magazine alone had he any hold. "Almost 
 all the next Town and Country Magazine is mine " he 
 says to his sister on the 20th of July ; and this is in 
 reality the sum-total of his literary dependence for that 
 month. We have looked over the July number of the 
 Magazine, in order to verify the statement. The following 
 is a list of its contents : — 
 
 " 1. State of Europe for July ; 2. *Character of Eolus, by 
 a Hunter of Oddities ; 3. Anecdote of Young lieynard ; 4. 
 
 An original letter from a Tutor to his r 1 pupil ; 5. 
 
 Letter from an Irish Fortune-hunter; 6. History of the 
 Tete-a-tete, or Memoirs of Tom Tilbury, &c. ; 7. Amusing 
 and instructive (Questions ; 8, Eemonstrance from the 
 Secretary of the Female Coterie ; 9. Particular Details in 
 the Trials of the Printers for publishing Junius's Letter ; 
 10. Sergeant Glynn's Argument (in the same case) at 
 large ; 11. Lord Mansfield's Charge (in the same case) ; 
 12. The Folly of Despair— a moral Tale ; 13. The Dang.-v 
 of Deceit ; 14. Singular Kesolution of a ]\rarried Lady ; 
 15. The Theatre, No. XVIIL; 16. A most comic Scen'/ 
 from the Lame Lover ; 17. Trial of his R. H. the Duke 
 
 of C ; 18. Letters of the D of C and Lady 
 
 ; 19. Mr. Wedderburne's Argument and }sh\ 
 
 Dunning's Reply; 20. Charge on a late remarkable Trial ; 
 21. The Gardener's Kalendar for July ; 22. Character 
 of Peter the Great ; 23. Reflections on the Characters of 
 Cnesar and Addison ; 24. * Memoirs of a Sad Dog, Part 
 L ; 25. * The Polite Advertiser, by Sir Buttertly Feather ;
 
 2-22 CHATTERTON. 
 
 26. A Defence of Lady , by a Member of the Female 
 
 Coterie ; 27. Experiments on certain Dissolvents for the 
 Stone; 28. Account of New Books, &c.; 29. Matliematical 
 Questions and Answers ; 30. Poetical Pieces ; 31. Foreign 
 Affairs; 32. Domestic Intelligence; 33. Births, Marriages, 
 Deaths, Bankrupts, &c. &c." 
 
 Of these articles, only the three which we have marked 
 with asterisks are identified as Chatterton's by the 
 editors of his Piemains. It is possible, however, that he 
 wrote some of the others. Still, on any supposition, his 
 contributions to the number form but a small proportion 
 of the entire contents. This fact may, to some extent, 
 1)6 reconciled with his statement, in anticipation, to his 
 sister, by supposing that, though he had supplied Hamil- 
 ton with copy enough to fill a much larger space in the 
 Magazine, Hamilton had, contrary to expectations, 
 published only a small portion of it, and reserved the 
 rest for future numbers. It is certain, at least, that 
 papers by Chatterton did continue to appear at intervals 
 in the future numbers of that year. Thus in the August 
 number (published, it must be remembered, on the last 
 day of August) there appeared not only the second part 
 of the Memoirs of a Sad Dog, but also a paper on The 
 Origin^ Nature, and Design of Sculpture, to accompany 
 an engraving of a design for Beckford's statue, and a 
 tale called Tony Selvmod, both written by Chatterton. 
 These, we imagine, with other pieces published still later,
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 223 
 
 were all in Ilaniilton's hands in tiuie fur the July number; 
 but he divided the Sad Do[j into two, so as not to give 
 the public too much of liim at a time, and he found it 
 con^'enient to postpone the rest. 
 
 The Memoirs of a Sad Dog, as being one of the largest 
 of Chatterton's prose pieces, and as having been written 
 at the period when he was beginning to despond, 
 deserve some notice. They are the imaginary autobio- 
 graphy, in brief, of one Harry Wildfire, who, having 
 been left five thousand pounds by his frugal father, sets 
 about spending it as a fast man. First he lost one of 
 his thousands in gambling ; and the remainder soon went 
 in successive debaucheries. Eeduced to his last penny, 
 he then throws himself on his brother-in-law, Sir Stentor 
 Ranger, a country knight, whose ideas are limited to 
 horses, but who, having some rough, natural kindliness, 
 forthwith instals his reprobate relative in the post of 
 chief of his stables. Sir Stentor sometimes has visitors 
 at his old place, and among these is " the redoubted 
 Baron Otranto " of antiquarian celebrity ; who, poking 
 about the house, falls in with what he considers a 
 remarkable curiosity, in the shape of a stone with an 
 old inscription in Gothic letters. This he deciphers 
 with great pains as "Hicjacet" the "coitus" of some- 
 body or other of the thirteenth century — the fact, known 
 to all the stable-boys, being that the stone was taken 
 from a neighbouring churchyard, and was nothing more
 
 224 CHATTEllTON. 
 
 than the memorial of an honest couple, James Hicks and 
 his wife. After living with Sir Stentor two years, and 
 making some money on the turf, Wildfire recommences 
 his old career, and carries it on till lie is again ruined, 
 when, as a last shift, he comes to town, and betakes 
 himself to literature. At the moment of his writing 
 his sad relation, he says, he is " throned in a broken 
 chair within an inch of a thunder-cloud." Such is the 
 story. The writing is slipshod in the extreme, and the 
 spirit deplorably coarse ; nor is there any merit in the 
 construction. The sole interest it has consists in a 
 certain evidence it furnishes of rough satirical force, and 
 in an occasional passage, like that on Walpole, bearing 
 on the author's own life and circumstances. Thus, the 
 hero, after describing one of his periods of good fortune, 
 breaks out in mock heroics as follows : — • 
 
 " But, alas ! happiness is of short duration ; or, to 
 speak in the language of tlie high-soimding Ossian, 
 ' Behold thou art happy ; but soon, ah ! soon, wilt thou 
 be miserable. Thou art as easy and tranquil as the 
 face of the green-mantled puddle ; but soon, ah ! soon, 
 wilt thou be tumbled and tossed by misfortunes, like the 
 stream of the water-mill. Tliou art beautiful as the 
 Cathedral of Canterbury ; but soon wilt thou be deformed 
 like Chinese palace-paling. So the sun, rising in the 
 east, gilds the borders of the black mountains, and laces 
 '>vith his golden rays the dark-brown heath. The hind 
 leaps over the flowery lawn, and the reeky bull rolls in
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 225 
 
 tiie bubltling brook. 'I'lie wild boar makes ready his 
 armour of defence. Tlie inhabitants of the rocks dance, 
 and all nature joins in the song. But see ! riding on 
 the wings of the wind, the black clouds fly. The noi.sy 
 tliunders roar; the rapid lightnings gleam; the rainy 
 torrents pour ; and the dropping swain flies over the 
 mountain, swift as Bickerstatf, the son of song, when 
 the monster Bumbailiano, keeper of the dark and black 
 cave, pursued him over the hills of death and the green 
 meadows of dark men.' Oh, Ossian ! immortal genius ! 
 what an invocation could I make now ! But I shall 
 leave it to the abler pen of Mr. Duff, and spin out the 
 thread of my own adventures." 
 
 The conclusion of the piece is even more specific. Mr. 
 Wildfire, from his " broken chair within an inch of the 
 thunder-cloud," thus details his brief experience of 
 authorship in London : — 
 
 " The first fruits of my pen were a political essay and 
 a piece of poetry. The first I carried to a patriotic book- 
 seller, who is, in his own opinion, of much consequence 
 to the cause of liberty ; and the poetry was left with 
 another of the same tribe, who made bold to make it a 
 means of puffing his magazine, but refused any gratuity. 
 jMr. T5ritannicus [Bingley of the North Britoji?], at first 
 imagining that the piece was not to be paid for, was 
 lavish of his praises, and, I might depend upon it, it 
 should do honour to his flaming patriotic paper ; but, 
 when he was told that I expected some recompense, he 
 assumed an air of criticism, and begged my pardon : he 
 did not know the circumstance, and really he did not 
 
 C. Q
 
 2-26 CHATTERTON. 
 
 think it good language or sound reasoning ! — I was not 
 discouraged by the objections and criticisms of the book- 
 selling tribe ; and, as I knew the art of Curlism pretty- 
 well, I made a tolerable hand of it. But, Mr. Printer, 
 the late prosecution against the booksellers having 
 frightened them all out of their patriotism, I am neces- 
 sitated either to write for the entertainment of the 
 public or in defence of the Ministry. As I have some 
 little remains of conscience, the latter is not very 
 agreeable. Political writing on either side of the question 
 is of little service to the entertainment or instruction of 
 the reader. Abuse and scurrility are generally the chief 
 figures in the language of party. I am not of the 
 opinion of those authors who deem every man in place 
 a rascal, and every man out of place a patriot. Permit 
 this, then, to appear in your universally-admired 
 magazine : it may give some entertainment to your 
 readers, and a dinner to 
 
 " Your humble servant, 
 
 " Haeky Wildfire." 
 
 This, we fear, was but too true a description of Chatter- 
 ton's own circumstances while he was writing. He too 
 was " throned on a broken chair within an inch of a 
 thunder-cloud," and had come to the extremity when 
 too literally the purpose of giving entertainment to his 
 readers was bound up with that of obtaining means for his 
 own next dinner. But it was not, as in the case of his 
 imaginary hero, "the monster Bumbailiano " that ^\ as 
 pursuing him over the hills of death and the green 
 meadows of dark men. It was a more fearful monster
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 227 
 
 still — the monster Want, without any bailiff as harbin;;er. 
 No imaginary five thousand pounds had he wasted ; 
 no writs were out against him; else, probably — for 
 Debt, though negative property, still is a kind of 
 property, and functions as such to the advantage of its 
 possessor, — it might have been better for him ! He was 
 but a poor widow's son of Bristol, who had been working 
 like a slave for three months in London to obtain the 
 barest livelihood, and now found that even that was 
 failincr him. 
 
 Hamilton, at best, must have been a stingy paymaster. 
 If we may judge from the rate of his previous pay- 
 ments — two shillings for two paragraphs, and half a 
 guinea for sixteen songs — Chatterton's receipts from 
 him for his July contributions can have gone but a 
 very little way, even if they had not been spent in 
 anticipation before the month was over. It seems also 
 clear enough that, if Hamilton did pay punctually 
 according to his miserable tariff, he was resolute against 
 solicitations for an advance on the faith of future work, 
 or even of manuscript on hand. Accordingly, through 
 the latter half of July we arc to fancy Chatterton 
 almost at his last shilling. No visits any longer, we are 
 to fancy, to the theatres and the gardens ; visits to the 
 coffee-houses, if made at all, conducted on the most 
 parsimonious scale ; no purchases of articles of dress, as 
 at first; his very shoes, if we could see the soles, worn 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 CHATTERTON. 
 
 through, so that the dust gets in as lie walks, and if it 
 rains his feet are wet ! As he walks out, it is this 
 consciousness of his shuffling and poverty-stricken 
 appearance that most distresses him ; and it is a part of 
 his meditations, as people pass him, whether they remark 
 it. Probably what he cares far less about is that, in 
 the privacy of his lodging, he lives chiefly on bread 
 and water. 
 
 And so out and in, out and in, through all the late 
 days of July, wanders the poor youth, growing daily 
 more wan and haggard : out in the morning, or about 
 mid-day, on his daily round among the publishing and 
 editorial offices near, the doors of which begin to be shut 
 against him ; or farther still, on his aimless ramble 
 into the suburbs and the sequestered places of the 
 parks, where methinks I sometimes see him weeping 
 Tinder trees ; and then, fatigued and fevered, back again 
 in the evening to his lodging, where he sits up nearly 
 all night, scribbling hopelessly his " Harry Wildfires " 
 and his " Tony Selwoods," or sometimes merely gazing 
 hour after hour at the empty grate. The biographers of 
 Schiller tell how people, going to a kind of bank or high 
 ground behind the poet's house at Weimar, could see 
 him stalking up and down in his lighted room till long 
 after midnight, engaged in poetical composition, every 
 now and then sitting down to write what he had just 
 completed in thought, and helping himself freely to wine,
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBOllN. 229 
 
 or to coffee with wine in it, to maintain his phrenzy. 
 Had the watchman of Brooke Street stood opposite that 
 window among the tiles, the light of which he must 
 liave noticed burning so long after all the others were 
 dark, he, too, might have seen the shadow of a poet pass 
 and repass. Ikit there was a difference between the two 
 cases. In the one, it was a famous and noble man, to 
 whose nerves the world would willingly permit wine oi 
 spices, or whatever else might be necessary that they 
 might thrill productively ; in the other, it was a poor 
 boy, not yet eighteen, living on a crust and water, and 
 writing that he may get more of that. There he sits! 
 The short July night passes ; the light of the morning 
 breaks over the city, paling that by which he is writing; 
 he looks up to be aware that another day has come, that 
 people are moving about the streets, and that the 
 sparrows are chirping along the eaves. 
 
 July is gone, and it is now the month of August. 
 There is no better hope. Indeed, the prospect is worse. 
 The last driblet of money from Hamilton, on account of 
 July, is exhausting itself as former driblets had done ; 
 and, Hamilton having already enough of his copy on 
 liand, there is no demand for any new copy for the 
 August number of the Toicn and Country. All other 
 magazines and periodicals are closed as before. If he 
 writes at all, it must be on pure speculation, or for the 
 mere sake of writini;.
 
 230 CHATTERTON. 
 
 So much, probably, had become known to liim before 
 August was ten days old. Mercifully it is not given to 
 us to know the history of those ten davs. Out and in, 
 out and in, every day twenty-four hours long, and each 
 of these hours to be gone through somewhere and some- 
 how, that is the substance of the history, even if it could 
 be told. He has ceased to write home, and they can 
 only guess there what he is doing. Eiither than that 
 the truth should be known in Bristol, and that, after all 
 his boasting, the jest of his total failure should go round 
 among his friends there, he will die of starvation ! 
 
 One communication with Bristol, though not of the 
 frankest, he does seem to have been driven to in his 
 extremity. The thought, we have seen, of obtainiiig a 
 clerk's place or some similar situation in a counting- 
 house in London, had more than once occurred to him, 
 and also the thought of getting some kind of appointment 
 that would take him abroad. To this last notion in a 
 somewhat modified form he had at last returned. Fond, 
 when in Bristol, of reading medical books, which 
 Barrett used to lend him, he had picked up, as he 
 thought himself, a considerable smattering of medical 
 knowledge ; and, in consequence perhaps of something 
 that passed in conversation between him and the 
 apothecary Cross, it had occurred to him as possible 
 that he might obtain an appointment as surgeon or 
 surgeon's mate on board of some ship. How he proposed
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 231 
 
 to manage it we cannot say ; Lut in those days " the 
 experienced surgeons " that ships, and especially African 
 ships, carried, were probably, in many cases, witliout 
 the qualification of a diploma. Chatterton, at all events, 
 was prepared to doctor any crew that would take him. 
 As a first step towards trying for such an appointment, 
 he thought it worth while to apply to Barrett for some 
 kind of certificate or testimonial which he might show 
 to owners of vessels. This he appears to have done 
 directly in a letter sent to Barrett; but he also did it 
 indirectly in the course of a letter to Catcott, written on 
 the 12th of August. The second letter is extant. It 
 is evidently an answer to one wln'ch Catcott had sent 
 
 to him. 
 
 "London, Arigiist 12, 1770. 
 " t<ip,^ — A correspondent from Bristol had raised my 
 admiration to the highest pitch, by informing me that 
 an appearance of spirit and generosity had crept into 
 tlie niches of avarice and meanness — that the murderer 
 of Newton, Ferguson, [James Ferguson, the mechanician, 
 who had written a popular work simplifying Newton's 
 Philosophy ?] had met with every encouragement that 
 ignorance could bestow; that an episcopal palace was to be 
 erected for the enemy of the Whore of Babylon, and the 
 present tui'ned into a stable for the ten-headed beast; that 
 a spire was to be patched to St. Mary Eedcliffe, and the 
 streets kept cleaner; with many other impossibilities. 
 But, when j\Ir. Catcott (the ChamjnoJi of Bristol) doubts 
 it, it may be doubted. Your description of the intended 
 steeple struck me. I have seen it, but not as the
 
 332 CEATTERTON. 
 
 inventiou of ^Nlr. . All that he can boast is Gotliic- 
 
 izing it. Give yourself the trouble to send to Mr. 
 "SVeobley's, Holborn, for a view of the Church of St. Mary 
 de la Annunciation at Madrid, and you will see a spire 
 almost the parallel of what you describe. The conduct 
 
 of is no more than what I expected. I had 
 
 received information that he was absolutely engaged in 
 the defence of the Ministry, and had a pamphlet on the 
 stocks which was to have been paid with a translation 
 [i.e., to a new see ; for it is clearly Dr. Newton, Bishop 
 of Bristol, that is meant]. In consequence of this 
 information, I inserted the following paragraph in one 
 of my ' Exhibitions ' [newspaper-squibs so named] : — 
 
 ' Eevelation unravelled by : The Ministry are 
 
 indefatigable in establishing themselves ; they spare no 
 expense so long as the expense does not lie upon them. 
 This piece represents the tools of the Administration 
 offering the Doctor a pension, or translation, to new- 
 model his treatise on the Revelation, and to prove 
 Wilkes to be an Atheist.' 
 
 " The Editor of Baddch\i/s Bath Journal has done me' 
 the honour to murder most of my hieroglyphics, thaf 
 they may be abbreviated for his paper. Whatever may 
 be the political sentiments of your inferior clergy, their 
 superiors are all flamingly ministerial. Should your 
 scheme for a single row of houses in Bridge Street take 
 place, conscience must tell you that Bristol will owe 
 even that beauty to avarice ; since the absolute impossi- 
 bility of Knding tenants for a double row is the only 
 occasion of your having but one. The Gothic dome I 
 mentioned was not designed by Hogarth. I have no 
 great opinion of him out of his ludicrous walk ; here he
 
 BROOKE STREET, IIOLBORN. 233 
 
 was undoubtedly iuiniitable. It was designed by the 
 great Cipriani. Tiie following description may give 
 you a faint idea of it : — From an hexagonal spiral tower 
 (such as I believe liedclitle is) rose a similar palisado 
 of Gothic pillars, three at a cluster in every angle, but 
 single and at ecpial distance in angular spaces. The 
 pillars were trifoliated (as liowlie terms it), and supported 
 by a majestic oval dome, not absolutely circular (that 
 would not be Gothic), but terminating in a point, 
 surmounted with a cross, and on the top of the cross 
 a globe. — The last two ornaments may perhaps throw 
 you into a fit of religious meditation, and give rise to 
 many pious reflections. Heaven send you the comforts 
 of Christianity ! / request them not ; for I am no 
 Christian. . . . 
 
 " I intend going abroad as a surgeon. Mr. Barrett 
 has it in his power to assist me greatly by his giving me 
 a physical character. I hope he will. I trouble you 
 with a copy of an Essay I intend publishing. 
 
 " I remain your much obliged humble Servant, 
 
 " Thomas Chatterton. 
 
 " Direct to me at ]\Irs. Angell's, sack-maker, Brooke 
 Street, Holborn." 
 
 Aha ! What words were those that one heard ? 
 " Heaven send you the comforts of Christianity ! / 
 request them not; for I am no Christian !" The whole 
 letter, with its hollow mocking bitterness, and its cool 
 architectural details penned by one who knew himself 
 to be on the brink of starvation, has for us an air of 
 horrible irony ; but these words, Hung into it so care-
 
 234 CHATTERTON. 
 
 lessly, complete the impression, and convert the horrible 
 into the ghastly. 
 
 " I am no Christian." The Mords are simple, strong, and 
 straightforward. What do they mean? They mean that 
 he, a youth of seventeen years and nine months, born in a 
 town in the west of England, bred up there as an attorney's 
 clerk, and now lodg(;d in a London garret, without food 
 to eat, has, by dint of reading and reflection, come to 
 the conclusion that the Divine One who died in Jadiea 
 eighteen hundred years ago, and whom all the genera- 
 tions of men in the fairest lands of the world since have 
 been worshipping as the Son of God, and building 
 temples to, and believing in as their Lord and Saviour, 
 was in reality no such thing or being, but, at the utmost, 
 a wise and holy Jew. They mean that he, this same 
 English stripling, has, in virtue of this conclusion, come 
 to regard all that part of the past history of eighteen 
 centuries which had proceeded on the belief in Christi- 
 anity as so much human action, grand perhaps in itself, 
 but done in pursuit of an illusion. They mean that, 
 looking about him upon all the apparatus of bishops, 
 churches, and schools, established in the service of this 
 belief, he could view it with a smile, as a fabric with 
 no foundation, piled up by ancient zeal, and cemented 
 by time, custom, and the necessities of social arrange- 
 ment. They mean that, remembering the names of 
 great men, recently or anciently dead, who had nourished
 
 BROOKE STIiEET, HOLBORN. 235 
 
 their souls in this belief, and clang to it through grown 
 manhood to grey old age, and died serene in it, and left 
 tlieir testimonies to it as their most solemn words to the 
 world, he could yet account for all this to himself by 
 supposing that those men were and would have been 
 noble anyhow, and that the special form of their nobility 
 alone was due to this intense grasp they had taken of 
 Humanity's largest hallucination. They mean more 
 They mean that he, the boy of Bristol, was decidedly of 
 opinion, with Voltaire and others, that, though the earth 
 had rolled on for ages, a brown ball spinning in the 
 azure, and i'reighted with beings capable of weal and 
 Avoe, all longing, as by the one sole law of their consti- 
 tution, to hear some voice from behind the azure, no 
 such voice liud really spoken, nor any tongue of light 
 irom the outer realms of mystery ever struck the surface 
 of the planet, either in Judaea or elsewhere. They mean 
 that the world did not seem to him at all to rest certainly 
 on any rule of love, but to be possibly only an aggregate 
 of beings, more or less clever, more or less miserable, 
 and more or less rich, jostling together and working on 
 to some end, though no one could say what. They mean 
 that in tlie matter even of Immortality, or a future 
 world in continuation of this, he had no absolute 
 certainty ; that sometimes he might have a glimpse of 
 such immortality as possible, but tliat again the glimpse 
 would vanish quite, and it would seem to him that
 
 236 CEATTERTON. 
 
 Avhen a iiiim died tliere might very well be an end of 
 him, and that, should tlie earth itself ever meet a 
 sufficient catastrophe to destroy all the life upon it at 
 once, tliere would be some risk of an end to the race too, 
 and to all the accumulated memories and maxims of its 
 sages and Shakespeares, and all the vast lore of it.s 
 libraries. Sometimes, indeed, he might have his new 
 doubts on this, and might think both of individual life 
 as continued, and of the collective Avisdom of the world 
 as safe against any catastrophe, and sure, should the 
 erath itself be cracked in pieces or shrivelled to a scroll, 
 to take wing elsewhither at the moment of the last 
 shriek, and prolong itself somewhere and somehow to 
 the further issues of the Universe. But, at all events, 
 for the Heaven and Hell of the Christian he could have 
 no belief left ; and, if a poor wretch, wearj'- of the world, 
 did think fit to kill himself, his soul, if he had one, 
 could fare none the worse in the future life for the one 
 act of rushing suddenly into it ! 
 
 There is abundant proof, in scores of passages in 
 Chatterton's writings, and in his recorded conversations 
 with his friends among the young men of Bristol, that, 
 after the peculiarities of that coarse and scoffing fashion 
 of infidelity which had crept over so much of English 
 society in his day, and which was represented in such 
 men as Wilkes, he had substantially accustomed him- 
 self to the above method of regarding the Christian
 
 BROOKE STREET, IfOLBORN. 237 
 
 religion. Tt is unnecessary to multiply quotations to 
 illustrate his way of speaking of Methodists, preachers 
 like Whitfield, and priests in general. Here is one, 
 selected as being comprehensive : — 
 
 " 'Tis mystery all : In every sect 
 You find this palpable defect : — 
 The axis of the dark machine 
 Is enigmatic and unseen ; 
 Opinion is the only guide 
 By which our senses are supplied." 
 
 Now, it was of supremely little consequence to Christi- 
 anity that one precocious lad the more had taken 
 this attitude of hostility to it. But it was of some 
 consequence to the lad himself. There are and have 
 been many — and these men in our I\irliaments and in 
 other high places — who might in a certain sense use 
 Chatterton's phrase, " I am no Christian," and probably, 
 in using it, speak the exact truth, and yet who never do 
 use it, but leave it to their loud-mouthed critics to make 
 the inference for them. One has to distinguish, there- 
 fore, between the sceptic who finds no occasion for 
 asserting this negative side of his views at all and the 
 sceptic who is vehement in proclaiming the negative. 
 The second is in a different stage intellectually, and 
 morally in a more restless predicament. lie is always 
 proclaiming his independence of a certain class of con- 
 siderations, and yet he is always meddling with them.
 
 238 CHA TTEBTON. 
 
 Si) it was with Cliattertou. In his statement " I am no 
 Christian," and his spasmodic variations of it through 
 his writings, one sees him fascinated by the very creed 
 towards which he is malignant, so that he cannot avoid 
 making it the topic of his thoughts. It is as if he saw 
 that he had parted with certain beliefs, the very pretence 
 of which, the very habit of even nominally professing 
 them, was a safeguard to those who were capable of it. 
 It is as if he were conscious of one check less upon his 
 own course to ruin than even ordinary youths around 
 liim had. Nay more, said at the moment at which they 
 were said, his Avords to Catcott are a proof that the 
 MTiter has again been, for some reason or other, catechis- 
 ing himself on the subject to w^hich they refer. He has 
 been turning one sarcastic look more, as it were, in his 
 depression and despair, to those " comforts of Christian- 
 ity" the efficacy of which, in such circumstances, he has all 
 his life heard mentioned ; and the result is that he finds 
 they wall not suit him and remits them to Mr. Catcott. 
 Well, but was there no equivalent ? If the Christian 
 has a source of faitli and hope that the world knows 
 not of, and that bears him u}), as nothing else could, in 
 times of worldly distress and trial, still it is known by 
 universal experience that, in such times of worldly 
 distress and trial, men who are not Christians do not 
 uniformly break down. That fervid and impassioned 
 man of majestic thought and gait, people do not call him
 
 BROOKE STREET, IIOLBORN. 239 
 
 a Christian : they call him a Pantheist, or a rhilosoplter, 
 or something of that sort ; and yet, were he at his last 
 sliilling or his last crust, were the rack prepared for him 
 and the multitude howling IVn- his destruction, every 
 one knows that lie would endure and come through. 
 Rifr actus illahatur orhis, wipaviclum ferient mince. lie 
 helieves in Justice, and God, and the Everlasting I Nay 
 more, that tough little fellow, all grey iron and scepticism, 
 whose very principle it is that there is no Everlasting, 
 and that men ought " to apprehend no farther than this 
 world, and square their lives according " : he too, unless 
 his antecedents belie him, might be beaten a long time 
 between any size of hammer and any shape of anvil. 
 He, too, could come througli. ^Vhy, since the beginning 
 of the world people have been coming through ! Quiet, 
 plain scholars have lived, before now, in German or in 
 Scottish University towns, on boiled peas-cods for 
 months, or a single guinea a quarter earned by teaching, 
 without saying much about it. Had youths of this type 
 been in Chatterton's place in London, in August, 1770, 
 they would have most probably survived the crisis. 
 They would have availed themselves gratefully, and yet 
 honestly, of such small immediate aid as those aunts 
 and other relatives that we hear of so slightly in Chat- 
 terton's letters (one of them a carpenter, who had 
 married one of his aunts) might perhaps, though poor, 
 have willingly offered at the sharpest moment (jf the
 
 240 CHATTERTOK. 
 
 emergency ; and, even failing tliat, tliey would have 
 conquered by slieer patience. How was it, then, in 
 Chatterton's case — the " comforts of Christianity " being 
 placed out of the question ? 
 
 Chatterton never would call himself an Atheist. In 
 a time when Wilkes and other contemporaries, whose 
 language he sometimes borrowed, carried on their 
 outrages on Christianity very much in that character, 
 Chatterton, by the very structure of his genius as a boy 
 of ardour and imagination, retained something in him 
 of a poet's reverence for the sublime and the awful. In 
 express anticipation, in one of his satirical poems, of 
 the stigma of Atheism, he says — 
 
 " Fallacious is the charge ; 'tis all a lie, 
 As to my reason I can testify. 
 I own a God, immortal, boundless, wise. 
 Who bid our glories of Creation rise ; 
 Wlio forra'd his varied likeness in mankind. 
 Centering his many wonders in the mind." 
 
 And, again, in one more solemn soliloquy, on which one 
 dwells with peculiar interest, as perhaps, in its kind, the 
 highest utterance by the poor boy of what was best in 
 him, and which reminds one of similar bursts of natural 
 piety in the writings of Burns and Byron : — 
 
 " God, Avhose thunder shakes the sky, 
 Whose eye this atom globe surveys, 
 To Thee, my only rock, I fly, 
 
 Thy mercy in Thy justice praise.
 
 BROOKE STREET, TWLBORN. 241 
 
 The mystic mazes of Thy will, 
 
 The shadows of celestial light, 
 Are past the power of human skill ; 
 
 But what the Eternal acts is right. 
 
 teach me in the trying hour. 
 
 When anguish swells the dewy tear. 
 
 To still my sorrows, own thy power, 
 Thy goodness love, thy justice fear! 
 
 Tf in this hnsoni aught hut Tliee 
 
 Encroaching sought a boundless sway. 
 
 Omniscience could the danger see, 
 And jMercy look the cause away. 
 
 Then, why, my soul, dost thou complain ? 
 
 Why drooping seek the dark recess ? 
 Shake off the melancholy chain, 
 
 For God created all to bless. 
 
 But ah ! my breast is human still ; 
 
 The rising sigh, the falling tear, 
 My languid vitals' feeble rill. 
 
 The sickness of my soul declare. 
 
 But yet, with fortitude resign'd, 
 I'll thank the luflicter of the blow, 
 
 Forbid the sigh, compose my mind, 
 Nor let the gush of misery flow. 
 
 The gloomy mantle of the night. 
 Which on my sinking spirit steals. 
 
 Will vanish at the morning liiiht 
 
 Which God, my East, my Sun, reveals." 
 
 R
 
 242 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Well for the poor fatherless boy had this mood been 
 permanent ! But, at the time of his extreme need^ 
 these comforts, even of such natural religion as he had, 
 seem to have taken their flight too, and left him, mock- 
 ing and bitter, face to face with despair. 
 
 Nor had Chatterton the resources to be found in 
 rectitude and gentleness of mere worldly character. 
 Impetuous, stormy, industrious, and energetic, as he was, 
 there was still in him an element of weakness in what 
 he called his " pride," as well as in his open contempt 
 for all the commoner forms of moral principle. Above 
 all, he had in him the conscious sense of a past impos- 
 ture, and of innumerable minor deceits practised in 
 prosecuting it. Eowley, once the darling phantasm of 
 his poetical imagination, now dogged him as a hateful 
 demon, evoked by himself from the world of spirits, 
 and not to be laid to rest. Wherever he moved, and in 
 whatever form of new labour or distraction he engaged, 
 he could not look back over his shoulder, but there was 
 to be seen the form of this demon, in the garb of a 
 Bristol monk of the fifteenth century, with his hideous 
 old face under a cowl, grinning and gliding after him. 
 In short, whether we view Chatterton's character as it 
 naturally was, or those recollections of past lies and 
 deceits with which he had burdened his conscience, so 
 as to deprive his character of half its natural force, he 
 was very likely to endure much, and yet to break down
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBOUN. 243 
 
 at a point where others in the same circumstances 
 might have found longer endurance quite possible. 
 
 After all, however, the most material fact in the case 
 remains to be told. Physical causes were at work. 
 Bereft of the amount of actual food, and of other com- 
 forts, necessary, even with his abstemious habits, to 
 keep body and soul healthily together; wandering about 
 LouddU in a per})etual state of fever and excitement ; 
 returning home to write ni'dit after night without rest 
 or sleep — little wonder if he had overstrained his 
 physical capabilities, and if br.iin and nerve began 
 to fail in their office. Whatever taint of hereditary 
 insanity was in him — derived from the old line of 
 sextons who had jangled in past generations the keys 
 of St. Mary's Church in Bristol, and walked at midnight 
 through its aisles, and dug the graves of its parishioners ; 
 or derived, more immediately, from that drunken, wild- 
 eyed father, whom lie had never seen, but w^ho used to 
 tell his tavern-companions that he believed in Cornelius 
 Agrippa the necromancer — it had at last come out in a 
 way not to be mistaken. From his childhood there had 
 been symptoms of it — his fits of weeping, his sudden 
 paroxysms of passion, his long reveries when he gazed 
 at people without seeming to see them, his frequent 
 mutterings aloud. Not till now, however, had these 
 traits passed the limits of what could be considered 
 compatible with sanity. But now, almost certainly, 
 
 R 2
 
 244 CIIATTERTON. 
 
 those limits ivere passed. Noticing the strange haggard 
 hid walking about the streets, muttering perhaps to 
 himself, or making sudden gestures, or looking at what 
 was passing, sometimes vacantly, and sometimes with 
 glances unusually keen and bright, even strangers could 
 not but follow him with their eyes, and wonder who he 
 was and where he came from. Had the observer been 
 one accustomed to the ways of the insane, he would 
 probably at once have pronounced that the lad's brain was 
 affected. And, had the observer been able, with this idea 
 in his mind, to pursue his inquiries farther, so as to ascer- 
 tain what peculiar form or species of insanity had taken 
 possession of the lad, he would have found that it was 
 that form which physicians recognise as the " suicidal 
 tendency." Physicians, as all know, do recognise this 
 as a form of madness ; and, though they allow that a 
 perfectly sane man may commit suicide after deliberate 
 reasoning on the point, they attribute a large proportion 
 of suicides to the action of a certain specific impulse 
 which reason cannot overcome. In Chatterton's case, 
 as we have seen, there had been premonitory appearances 
 of the existence of this tendency. The idea of suicide 
 had from the first been familiar to him. 
 
 Something like positive proof exists that before the 
 month of August, 1770, was very far advanced Chatter- 
 ton was actually in the specific maniacal condition which
 
 BROOKE STREET, IIOLBORN. 
 
 physicians recognise as capable of being induced by 
 circumstances where there is a predisposition Even in 
 the letter to Catcott which we have quoted we see 
 traces of overrexciternent of brain, and of that morbid 
 spirit of hatred to persons which results from it. There 
 is a story also of a letter sent by him to his mother, on 
 or about the loth of August, which was written in such 
 a strain as to cause her very great anxiety. This letter 
 — the last she ever received from him — is not extant ; 
 but Mrs. Edkins, the wife of a painter and glazier in 
 Bristol, who lived long afterwards and communicated 
 many particulars about the Chatterton family, distinctly 
 remembered having been sent for by Mrs. Chatterton 
 when the letter was received. She found Mrs. Chatter- 
 ton " in tears and very uneasy " on account of the con- 
 tents of the letter, and particularly on account of one 
 part of it, in wliich he told her a strange story of his 
 walking among the tombs in a churchyard, and suddenly, 
 in a fit of absent meditation, stumbling into an open 
 grave. " But," added he, in his humorous way, " it was 
 not the quick and the dead together," for he found the 
 sexton under him, who was digging the grave ! Mrs. 
 Edkins tried to console Mrs. Chatterton by saymg it 
 was only " one of his reveries ; " but " she could not be 
 persuaded to consider it otherwise than as ominous." 
 
 And so it proved. Barrett very properly refused tc 
 give Chatterton the certificate he wanted of competence
 
 246 CHATTERTON. 
 
 for the situation of surgeon's mate on board an African 
 ship ; and the refusal was one disappointment the more 
 added to those wliich were already preying upon him. 
 His misery was almost at its climax. Cross, whose re- 
 peated invitations to come and take a meal in his house 
 in Brcoke Street he had always hitherto declined, was 
 rather surprised to find him one day, on being again 
 pressed, consent. That evening he partook of a supper 
 of oysters at Cross's house, and was observed, as Cross 
 afterwards told Warton, " to eat most voraciously." Tor 
 audit we know, it was the last meal he had. On the 
 22nd or 23rd of August, at all events, he had reached 
 that extreme beyond wdiich our fancies of human 
 destitution cannot go. Hope, patience, and all force of 
 reason had finally forsaken him ; and he was secretly 
 bidding farew^ell to the world. Strange that at this very 
 moment something w^as happening in his favour which, 
 had he but known it, might even then have roused him 
 and determined him to live. Tlie Eev. Dr. Fry, Head 
 of St. John's College, Oxford, had by some means or 
 other seen some of the antique Eowley Poems which 
 had been circulating in Bristol, and, having conceived 
 an unusual desire to know something more about them 
 and their authorship, was on the eve of setting out for 
 Bristol, to make inquiries about Chatterton, whom he 
 supposed still to be there. Dr. Fry, make haste ; set 
 out at once ; life or death depends upon it ! Dr. Fry,
 
 BROOKE STREET, UOLBORN. 24' 
 
 not knowing what we now know, takes his own time, 
 and lives to regret it. lie did make the journey, but it 
 
 was too late. 
 
 The 23rd of August, 1770, was a Thursday, the morn- 
 in<^ of which, according to tlie old London weather- 
 registers, was " hazy," but the day itself " fine." That 
 day is a dead blank in the tragic story : \\hether 
 Chatterton remained in-doors all day, or took a ramble 
 about the streets and returned in the evening as usual, 
 no one can tell. Of the next day, Friday, the 24th of 
 August,—" clouds, sunshine, and showers at intervals," is 
 the description of the day in the registers— one incident 
 is recorded, on the faith of the information afterwards 
 civen to Sir Herbert Croft by Mrs. AYolfe, the barber's 
 wife of Brooke Street. Her neighbour, Mrs. Augell, 
 Chatterton's landlady, had told her that, " as she knew 
 " he had not eaten anything for two or three days, she 
 "begged he would take some dinner with her on the 
 " 24th of Augiist, but he was offended at her expressions, 
 " which seemed to hint that he was in want, and assured 
 " her (though his looks showed him to be three parts 
 " starved) that he was not hungry." Possibly true ; 
 possibly only an invention of Mrs. Angell afterwards, or 
 of Mrs. Wolfe for her, to save her character for motherly 
 vigilance and humanity against too sore impeachments ! 
 Enough that on that evening too, if Chatterton had 
 again gone out for a ramble, Mrs. Angell heard him
 
 248 CHATTERTON. 
 
 return, ascend the stairs, and reach his room. He 
 
 entered, and locked the door behind him. -The 
 
 Devi] was abroad that night in the sleeping city. Down 
 narrow and squalid courts his presence was felt, where 
 savage men clutched miserable w^omen by the throat, 
 and the neighbourhood was roused by yells of murder, • 
 and the barking of dogs, and the shrieks of children. 
 Up in wretched garrets his presence was felt, where 
 solitary mothers gazed on their infants and longed to 
 kill them. He was in the niches of dark bridges, where 
 outcasts lay huddled together, and some of them stood 
 up from time to time and looked over at the dim stream 
 below. He was in the uneasy hearts of undiscovered 
 forgers, and of ruined men plotting mischief He was 
 in prison-ceUs, where condemned criminals condoled 
 M'ith each other in obscene songs and blasphemy. 
 What he achieved that night, in and about the vast 
 city, came duly out into light and history. But of all the 
 spots over which the Black Shadow hung the chief, for 
 that night at least, was a certain undistinguished house 
 in the narrow street which thousands who now dwell in 
 Loudon pass and repass, scarce observing it, every day 
 of their lives, as they go and come along the thorough- 
 fare of Holborn. At the door of one house in that quiet 
 street the horrid Shape watched; through that door 
 he passed in towards midnight; and from that door, 
 having done his work, he emerged before it was morning.
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 249 
 
 On the morrow — Saturday tlic 2r)tli of Au^^ust — 
 alarm liavin<^ been caused 1)}' the protracted non-appear- 
 ance of Mrs. Angell's lodger, his room was broken opeii» 
 and he was discovered lying dead, having swallowed 
 arsenic in water. " His room, when they broke it open, 
 after his death," says Sir Herbert Croft, "was found, 
 like the room lie quitted at Mr. Walmsley's, covered 
 with scraps of paper." There was a coroner's inquest ; 
 and Sir Herbert afterwards took the trouble, when he 
 was pursuing his inquiries about Chatterton, to look out 
 the Coroner, and question him as to the circumstances. 
 The Coroner, however, had kept no minutes of "the 
 melancholy business," beyond a memorandum that the 
 witnesses had been Frederick Angell, a Mary Foster, 
 and a William Halmsley (Walmsley ?) ; nor, at the 
 distance of time, could his memory recall any of the 
 particulars. The verdict seems to have been Fdo dc se ; 
 and, in accordance with this verdict, the body, having 
 been inclosed in a parish shell, was privately interred, 
 the following day, in the burying-grouud attached to 
 Shoe Lane Workhouse. This appears from the entry of 
 the burial, under the date August 28th, iu the parish- 
 registers of St. Andrew's, Holborn — the parish in which 
 Brooke Street is situated, and the church and consecrated 
 churchyard of which are close to Shoe Lane. jNIr. Peter 
 Cunningham notices, as a coincidence, that the same 
 parish-registers contain the entry of the baptism of
 
 250 CHATTERTON. 
 
 Richard Savage on the 18th of January, 1G96-7 ; and he 
 enhances the coincidence by remarking that Savage M^as 
 born in Eox Court, Brooke Street, close to the house 
 wliere Chatterton died, and that he died in 1743 in the 
 jail of the very city of Bristol where, nine years later, 
 Chatterton was bora.^ 
 
 ' In Notes and Queries for Feb. 5, 1853 (vol. vii., First Series, 
 jip. 138-139) appeared what purported to be "Account of the inquest 
 held on tlie body of Thomas Chatterton, deceased, at the Three 
 Clowns, Brooke Street, Holborn, on Friday, the 27th August, 1770, 
 before Swinson Carter, Esq., and the following jury : — Charles Skinner, 
 — Meres, John Hollier, John Park, S. G. Boran, Henry Dugdale, 
 G. J. Hillsley, C. Sheen, E. Manley, C. Moore, — Nevett." In this 
 document the witnesses examined were said to have been " Mary 
 Angcll, of No. 17, Brook Street," "Frederick Angell," "Edwin Cross, 
 apothecary," and "Anne Wolfe ;" and an abstract of the evidence of 
 each was given. Tlie document was communicated to Notes and Queries 
 by John i\Iatthew Gutch, Esq., of Worcester, formerly of Bristol, 
 possessor of a large collection of papers relating to Chatterton and his 
 writings; and Mr. Gutch stated it to be from "a MS. copy" in his 
 possession, never before published. In the first edition of the present 
 Narrative in 1856, I pointed out certain suspicious circumstances about 
 Mr. Gutch's document — e.g. the unauthenticated numbering of Mrs. 
 Angell's house in Brooke Street as 17 ; the incongruity of parts of the 
 report with Sir Herbert Croft's account of what he had been told by 
 the coroner ; and, above all, the blunder of making the 27th of 
 August, 1770, a " Friday," when it was really a Monday. Neverthe- 
 le.ss, as Mr. Gutch's jiersonal good laith was unimpeachable, I was not 
 sufficiently on my guard against the document as a whole, but allowed 
 the reported evidence of the four witnesses cited in it to affect my 
 narrative somewhat in the particular cluii)ter to which this note is 
 appended, and especially to tinge my details of the closing days of 
 Chatterton's life. Not long after the publication of my volume, 
 however, it came out distinctly that the profes.sed report of the inquest 
 was a sheer fabrication by an ingenious but unscrupulous person, who 
 had worked upon hints derived from the authentic accounts of 
 Sir Herbert Croft, Warton, and others, and bestowed the result
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 251 
 
 Whetlier Chatterton's body ve,maineil in the Shoe 
 Lane buryiug-grouud, to be torn up, with the bodies of 
 otlier paupers, fifty years afterwards, when Farriugdon 
 Market usurped the site, is a point on which a question 
 has been laised. 
 
 In or about tbe year 1808, George Cumberland, Esq., 
 " descendant of Bishop Cumberland, and a literary and 
 highly respectable man," was informed by Sir Robert 
 Wilmot that at a basket-maker's in Bristol, whose name 
 Sir Robert had forgotten, he had heard it positively 
 stated that Chatterton was buried in the churchyard of 
 St, Mary Redcliffe. Sir Robert farther said that the 
 statement was made to liim in such a manner that he 
 believed it. ^Ir. Cumberland thereupon instituted 
 inquiries in Bristol, so as to ascertain the truth of the 
 story. For some time he could find no one who knew 
 anything of the matter ; but at last he traced the infor- 
 mation to a Mrs. Stockwell, the wife of a basketmaker 
 in Peter Street. Questioned on the subject, she stated 
 that, when a girl (apparently after Chatterton's death), 
 
 on the uususpectiiig Mr. Gatch (see exposure of the affair by Mr. W. 
 Moy Thomas in Atkoueum of Dec. 5, 1857, and a subsequent article 
 in the same journal for Jan. 23, 1858). In the present reprint of my 
 story of Chatterton's life it lias, accordingly, been my duiy to revise 
 this particular chapter carefully, so as to remove from it every state- 
 ment or suggestion derived from the tainted document. The changes 
 so recpiired have been almost wholly omissions, and have not e.xtended 
 to mcn-e than about four pages of the chapter as originally printed ; 
 and 1 believe that the chapter, in ils present form, is brought back, a.s 
 I should like it tu be, to the strict basis of authentic records.
 
 252 CIIATTERTON. 
 
 slie had been a pupil of Mrs. Chatterton's, and tliat she 
 used to be frequently with her till she was twenty years 
 old ; that often slie stayed with Mrs. Chatterton and 
 slept with her ; that she was •' very kind and motherly," 
 and told her many things she would not tell to most 
 l^eople — among others, "how happy she was that her 
 unfortunate boy was brought home and buried in 
 Eedcliffe." This had been done, she said, " through the 
 attention of a relative in London, who, after the body 
 had been cased in a parish-shell, had it secured and sent 
 to her by the waggon." When the case arrived and was 
 opened, the body was found '"black and half-putrid;" 
 it was, therefore, interred immediately — this being done 
 secretly by Phillips, the sexton, who was a friend of the 
 family, and extremely fond of Chatterton. Mrs. Stock- 
 well farther stated that the grave was " on the right 
 hand side of the lime-tree, in the middle paved- walk in 
 Eedcliffe churchyard, about twenty feet from the father's 
 grave, which was m the paved-walk, and where Mrs. 
 Chatterton and Mrs. Newton also lay." She also recol- 
 lected that Mrs. Chatterton had given leave to a person 
 named Hutchinson or Taylor (she could not be sure 
 which) to bury his child over her son's cothn, and was 
 very sorry afterwards tliat she had done so, as this person 
 had not only put a stone over the grave which had for- 
 merly belonged to it, though it had been removed and 
 placed against the church- wall, but had also subsequently
 
 BROOKE STREET, IJOLBORN. 253 
 
 buried his wife in the same grave, and on that occasion 
 erased the old inscription on the stone to make room for 
 a new one. This was all that Mrs. Stockwell could tell ; 
 but she mentioned to j\lr. Cumberland that there was a 
 Mrs. Kirkland, the wife of a Scotch naval man, who 
 had formerly resided in Bristol, and been on such very 
 intimate terms with Mrs. Chatterton in her old age that 
 she was likely to know all about the burial. Cumber- 
 land, on inquiry, found that this Mrs. Kirkland had 
 dieil about three months before, leaving a daughter 
 somewhere in London, whom he could not trace. But 
 Mrs. Stockwell referred him to " a hatter's wife " (name 
 not given) who remembered Mrs, Kirkland, and had 
 often heard her say that Chatterton was privately 
 buried in Bedcliffe churchyard. To make the matter 
 more sure, Mr. Cumberland sought out the family of the 
 sexton Phillips, who had himself died in 1772. He 
 found his sister, a Mrs. Jane Phillips, still alive; and 
 she told him that she had known Chatterton well, and 
 that her brother, the sexton, whom Chatterton used to 
 call " uncle," was much attached to the family. It was 
 her brother that first told her the news of Chatterton's 
 having killed himself in London ; and, on hearing it, 
 she had gone, against her brother's wish, to j\Irs. Chat- 
 terton, in order to know more about it. She asked Mrs. 
 Chatterton where her son was buried ; and she replied 
 " Ask me nothing : he is dead and buried." A daughter
 
 254 CHATTERTON. 
 
 of the sexton, now Mrs. Stephens, tlie wife of a cabinet- 
 maker, was also found by Cumberland and interrogated. 
 She said her father had never told her anytliing of the 
 burial in PiedclifFe churchyard, and, " if he had done it 
 privately, it was not likely that he would tell her, being 
 very reserved on all occasions ; " but she thought " he 
 would not have refused, if asked, being attached to 
 Chatterton and his mother." She remembered the 
 removal of a stone from the church-wall, and the erasure 
 of the old inscription to make room for a new one, by 
 a person named Hutchinson, whose wife had died. A 
 brother of this Mrs. Stephens, a son of the sexton, and 
 named Stephen Chatterton Phillips, was also seen by 
 Cumberland. He was then a retired sailor with a 
 wooden leg, and was said to have some resemblance to 
 Chatterton in the face. He but corroborated vvhat his 
 sister had said : i.e., he knew nothing of the burial, 
 and " His father was not likely to tell him, and yet 
 might have done it." Finally, Cumberland saw Mrs. 
 Eilkins, already mentioned as having been so intimate 
 with Mrs. Chatterton. As a Miss James, she had been 
 at the school kept by Chatterton's father, whom she 
 remembered well ; she had known Mrs. Chatterton then, 
 and had been present afterwards at the birth of her son ; 
 and from the time of his birth, all through his school- 
 boy period and his apprenticeship with Mr. Lambert, 
 till he went to Loudon, she had been continually seeing
 
 BROOKE STREET, HOLBORN. 255 
 
 him and his mother. Some interesting particulars 
 of Chatterton's early life wore procured finm h<'r. As 
 to the private burial, however, she was unable to say 
 anything. She had gone to see Mrs. Chatterton imme- 
 diately after the news came of her son's death. On 
 entering, she found Mrs. Chatterton in a fit of hysterics. 
 She said she had come to ask about her health. " Ay," 
 said Mrs. Chatterton, " and about something else ; " on 
 which she burst into tears, and they cried together, and 
 " no more was said till they parted." 
 
 All these facts or rumours, collected by Cumberland 
 about 1808, were given by him to Cromek, the editor of 
 " Burns's Reliques," who undertook to make farther 
 researches and publish them. This was not done ; and 
 Cumberland's memoranda did not see the light till they 
 were printed as an appendix to Dix's Zi/e of Clmt- 
 Urton in 1837. Since that date they have received one 
 slight corroboration. In the " Memorials of Canynge," 
 &c., published in 1854 by Mr. George Pryce, a Bristol 
 antiquary, there is a short account of Chatterton ; and 
 in that account is included a letter written, in 1853, by 
 the late well-known Mr. Joseph Cottle of Bristol, in 
 which he states his belief that Chatterton was buried 
 in Eedcliffe churchyard. His reasons for the belief are 
 thus stated : — " About forty years ago, Mr. George 
 Cumberland called upon me and said, ' 1 have ascertained 
 one important fact about Chatterton.' 'What is it?' I
 
 !.2n6 CHATTERTON. 
 
 said. 'It is,' said he, 'that that marvellous boy was 
 buried in Eedcliffe churchyard.' He continued : ' I am 
 just come from conversing with old Mrs. Edkins, a 
 friend of Chatterton's mother. She affirmed to me this 
 fact, with the following explanation :' — ' Mrs. Chatterton 
 was passionately fond of her darling and only son, 
 Thomas ; and, when she heard that he had destroyed 
 himself, she immediately wrote to a relation of hers (the 
 poet's uncle, then residing in London), a carpenter, urging 
 him to send home his body in a coffin or box. The box 
 was accordingly sent down to Bristol ; and, when I 
 called on my friend Mrs. Chatterton to condole with her, 
 she, as a very great secret, took me upstairs and showed 
 me the box ; and, removing the lid, I saw the poor boy, 
 whilst his mother sobbed in silence. She told me that 
 she should have him taken out in the middle of the 
 night, and bury him in Redcliffe churchyard. After- 
 wards, when I saw her, she said she had managed it 
 very well, so that none but the sexton and his assistant 
 knew anything about it. This secrecy was necessary, 
 as he could not be buried in consecrated ground.' " Mr, 
 Cottle adds that he knew the hiisband of Mrs. Edkins, 
 wlio was a respectable painter and glazier. 
 
 There is some difference, it will be observed, between 
 the account given in Mr. Cumberland's surviving 
 memoranda and that given by Mr. Cottle as his 
 recollection of what Mr. Cumberland had told him. In
 
 BROOKE STRI'JET, HOLBORN. 
 
 short, tlicrc are doubts about the wliole story. At the 
 least, however, one would wish to believe it, and to 
 fancy the poor boy's bones resting (juietly within the 
 hallowed precincts he loved so well, and where, since 
 1840, the piety of Ihistol has raised him a modest 
 monument.
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 
 
 Chattekton's death made very little sensation in 
 London beyond the immediate neighbourhood in which 
 the inquest was held. We have looked over the news- 
 papers of the time with some diligence ; but, though 
 paragraphs giving accounts of such casualties were ns 
 common then as now, we have not found the slightest 
 reference to the suicide in Brooke Street. The incident 
 which figures in the newspapers as the chief metro- 
 politan fact of the day on whi'ch the suicide occurred 
 — i.e. the 24th of August — is the robbery at the foot of 
 Hi<ihgate Hill, bv " a tall thin man in a light-coloured 
 coat, mounted on a black horse," of the boy carrying the 
 Chester mail. Under the same date is recorded, as a 
 somewhat minor incident, a visit paid by their Majesties 
 to Woolwich to see the artillery. Even the Town and 
 Courdrij Mayazine, which came out, on the 31st of 
 August, with three contributions in it from the pen of
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF FOSTERITY. 2-,'.) 
 
 the unfortunate youth who was now no more (one of 
 these the article on sculpture to accompany the en- 
 graved design for Beckford's monument) takes no notice 
 in its " Domestic Intelligence " of the death of its cor- 
 respondent. Doubtless, Plamilton knew the fact in 
 time to notice it if he chose; hut he may have had 
 his reasons for not doing so. Nor in the September 
 number, which likewise contains souk? of Chatterton's 
 writings, is the omission supplied. It is not till the 
 October number that any notice of Chatterton occurs ; 
 and then it is in the form of an elt;gy in twenty-three 
 stanzas " To the Memory of Mr. Thomas Chatterton, 
 late of Bristol" The elegy is dated " Bristol, October, 
 1770," and is signed " T. C." — evidently the initials of 
 Chatterton's friend, Thomas Cary. The elegy is written 
 with more of genuine affection than of poetry ; but two 
 stanzas may be quoted : — 
 
 " Think of his tender opening unfledged years. 
 Brought to a final crisis ere mature, 
 As Fate had grudged the wonders Nature rears, 
 Bright genius in oblivion to ininiure. 
 
 Weep, Nature, weep : the mighty loss bewail ; — 
 The wonder of our drooping isle is dead ! 
 
 Oh ! could but tears or plaintive sighs avail, 
 By night and day would I bedew my bed." 
 
 In consequence, however, of such communications as 
 these sent from Bristol, and of the naturally increased 
 
 s 2
 
 260 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 interest that there would be there among the Catcotts 
 and the Barretts in the Eovvley manuscripts and other 
 l)apers that Chatterton had left behind him — perhaps, 
 too, of the researches of Dr. Fry and others, who ob- 
 tained copies of those papers and began to send them 
 about; and, doubtless, to some extent also, of the 
 casual references to Chatterton's fate that would be made 
 by persons who had seen liim in town — it is certain that 
 before the winter of 1770-1 w^as far advanced the tragic 
 death in the previous August of a certain youth of 
 genius named Chatterton, a writer for the Magazines, 
 and the alleged editor and transcriber of various pieces 
 of ancient poetry, had become a topic of conversation in 
 the literary clubs of London. 
 
 This was especially the case at the Gerard Street 
 Club. Goldy had returned from his Parisian trip before 
 the 8th of September: on which day, his biographer, 
 ]\Ir. Forster, finds him receiving a new suit of mourning 
 from his tailor, to be worn on account of the death of 
 hi.-j old mother, of wliich he had received the news when 
 in Paris. Johnson was also back in town before 
 September was over. One of the two — most probably 
 it was Goldy — having seen the Elegy in the Town and 
 Country for October, or otherwise coming across tlie 
 story of Chatterton, made himself acquainted wdth the 
 particulars ; and thus Chatterton and the Ptowley Poems 
 came to be discussed at the Club. P)y this means it
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POHTEIUTY. f!ni 
 
 ]>robal)ly was tliiit the Iloiiourable Horace WaljDole 
 unexpectedly found liiiusolf, one day early in 1771, 
 reminded of liis Bristol correspondent of the year 17G9, 
 The occasion of his doing so was in itself a somewhat 
 memorable one. The first annual dinner of the Royal 
 Academy was held on St. George's Day (April 23rd), 
 1771. At this dinner Sir Joshua Reynolds presided; 
 and uuKjiig the guests who sat under the pictures which 
 Avere hung along the walls were almost all the distin- 
 guished men of London. "Walpole, who was not in the 
 habit of seeing much of Johnson, (ioldsmith, and that 
 set, elsewhere, found himself seated near to them. We 
 will let himself relate the rest. " Dining," he says, " at 
 " the Iioyal Academy, Doctor Goldsmith drew the 
 " attention of the company witli an account of a mar- 
 " vellous treasure of ancient poems lately discovered at 
 " Bristol, and expressed enthusiastic belief in them, for 
 " which he was laughed at by Dr. Johnson, who was 
 " present. I soon found this was the trouvaille of my 
 " friend Ohatterton ; and I told Dr. Gold.smith that this 
 " novelty was known to me, who might, if 1 had pleased, 
 " have had the honour of ushering the great discovery 
 " to the learned world. You may imagine, Sir, we did 
 *' not all agree in the measure of our faith ; but, thougli 
 " his credulity diverted mo, my mirtli was soon dashed : 
 " for, on asking about Ohatterton, he told me he had. 
 " been in London and had destroyed himself. The
 
 262 I'UATTERTON. 
 
 " persons of honour uuJ veracity wlio were present will 
 " attest with what surprise and concern I thus first hear J 
 '•' of his death." Said we not that, of all the literary men 
 then alive, the one that it niiglit have been best for 
 Chatterton to have near him in his hour of despair was 
 Oliver Goldsmith ? AVe see that, after Chatterton was 
 dead, Goldsmith was somehow the first to hear of his 
 fate and to talk about it. 
 
 From that time, for the next six or seven years, we 
 are to fancy the interest in the Rowley Poems, and in 
 Chatterton as connected with them, gradually increas- 
 ing. Catcott, as possessor of the greater portion of 
 Chatterton s transcripts of the supposed ancient poems, 
 has become a person of some consequence in the eyes of 
 local antiquarians, and he takes care to make the most 
 of it. He has already increased his stock of MSS. by 
 buying from Chatterton's mother, for five guineas, such 
 of his papers as had been left Avith her, — a proceeding 
 by no means to his credit, if it is true that about the 
 same time he offered to sell his own collection for 70/. 
 Barrett, too, as the possessor of some copies of the 
 supposed antiques, finds himself inquired after. Both 
 he and Catcott lend about copies of their manuscripts, 
 some fragments of which get into print. The Bristol 
 poems of the fifteenth century are frequently spoken of 
 in literary circles in London. Warton, for example, 
 was shown a collection of them in 1773 by the Earl of
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. -nv.) 
 
 Lichfield, wlio asked his opinion of their genuineness. 
 All sensible persons who had seen specimens had already 
 made up tlieir minds that they were forgeries ; hut 
 many antiquarian old women stoutly maintained the 
 contrary. Whenever a literary man from the metropolis 
 was in the neighbourhood of Bristol, he endeavoured, as 
 a matter of course, to see Catcott and Barrett, and to 
 get all the particulars from them about Chatterton and 
 his circumstances. They were very communicative on 
 this subject, and spoke of Chatterton's talents, now that 
 they had a kind of property in them, far more enthusi- 
 astically than they had done when he was alive ; but 
 they, and indeed nearly all Bristol, persisted in believing 
 in the genuineness of the antiques. Chatterton, they 
 said, was a youth of extraordinary genius ; but he could 
 not have produced such poems as these were ! They 
 were, they had no doubt of it, the works of the much 
 older Bristol poet, Thomas Eowley, mysteriously pre- 
 served for three hundred years in the old chest in the 
 nmniment-room of St. Mary Redcliife, and only brought 
 to light by Chatterton ! Thus, when in April 177(j 
 Johnson and Boswell paid a visit to Bristol, they saw 
 Catcott and Barrett, and were shown the original MSS. 
 Johnson, says Boswell, read some of them aloud, while 
 Catcott stood by with open mouth, amazed at his 
 scepticism; after which, Catcott, to settle the matter, 
 led them in tiiumph to the Church of St. Mary Eedcliffe,
 
 2G4 CHATTERTON. 
 
 and, by way of uuauswerable argument, sliowed them 
 " the chest itself." It was on this occasion that Johnson 
 said to Boswell, speaking of Chatterton, " This is the 
 most extraordinary young man that has encountered my 
 knowledge : it is wonderful how the whelp has written 
 such things." In connexion with this same visit, it 
 may be interesting to state that Hannah More, who was 
 still residing in Bristol with her sisters, a young woman 
 of twenty-five, at the time of Chatterton's death, had, 
 between that time and Dr. Johnson's visit in 1770, 
 added to the literary reputation of Bristol by the publi- 
 cation of her first dramas. In visiting Bristol, Johnsou 
 was paying a compliment to this rising poetess, as well 
 as to the memory of Chatterton. One is glad to know 
 also that, if Hannah More, as one of the conductors of 
 the best boarding-school for young ladies in Bristol, 
 was almost necessarily out of the circle of Chat- 
 terton's acquaintances while he was going about 
 in the city as an attorney's apprentice, she was 
 one of the first in Bristol to show an interest in 
 his fate after she did hear of him, and to prove 
 that interest by being kind to his mother and sister. 
 Mrs. Chatterton, after her son's death, was seized 
 with a nervous illness, which, though she lived a 
 good many years longer, never left her ; and among 
 those who used to go to see her and sometimes take 
 tea with her, for lier dead son's sake, there was none*
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 205 
 
 Mrs. Stockwell said, whom she respected so much as 
 Miss More. 
 
 It was in 1777 that the liovvley Poems were first 
 published collectively, chiefly from the manuscripts in 
 possession of Catcott and Barrett. A second and more 
 splendid edition was published in 1782 by Dean Milles, 
 President of the Society of Antiquaries, with the follow- 
 ing title : — " Poems supposed to have been written at 
 Bristol in the Fifteenth Century hy Thomas Eoicley, 
 Priest, &c. ; with a Commentary, in ivhich the antiquity of 
 them is considered and defended hy Jeremiah Milles, D.D., 
 Dean of Exeter." Dean jMilles, in his preliminary dis- 
 sertation on the poems, gave a very slight account of 
 Chatterton, with a view to show that he could not have 
 been their author. Immediately on the publication of 
 the volume, there blazed out a Eowley controversy, as 
 fierce as that which had attended the appearance of the 
 Ossian Poems. Bryant and one or two others sided 
 with Milles, and the question was argued and re-argued 
 in every shape; but all the great critical and anti- 
 quarian authorities, such as INIalone, Tyrwhitt, and 
 Warton, were on the other side, and their arguments, 
 from evidence external and internal, set the question 
 conclusively at rest in the minds of all who could be set 
 at rest about anything. The collection and publication 
 about the same time of Chatterton's acknowledged 
 Miscellanies helped somewhat in the demonstration, by
 
 266 CHATTEIITON. 
 
 showing the possibility that their author miglit also have 
 been the author even of things so extraordinary as tlie 
 Rowley Poems. It was not till 1803, however, that the 
 two sets of pieces were printed, together with additions 
 as the undoubted works of Chatterton. This first com 
 ]ilete edition of Chatterton's works was undertaken ii 
 1799 by subscription, with a view to raise a sum for the 
 benetit of his sister, then Mrs. Newton, his mother being 
 by that time dead. Southey and jSIr. Cottle of Bristol 
 acted as the editors. Tlie subscription, however, not 
 reaching the expenses of publication, an arrangement 
 was made with Messrs. Longman in the interest of Mrs. 
 iSTewton. According to what Mr. Cumberland heard in 
 Bristol in ISOvS, the result of this speculation, and of 
 other similar acts of kindness shown to tlie Chatterton 
 family since the fatal year whicli had made them im- 
 mortal, was that a sum of about GOO/, came after ]\Irs. 
 Newton's death to her only daughter, who had for some 
 time been in the service of Miss Hannah JMore. This 
 girl, the last of the Chattertous, died in 1807, leaving 
 100/. to a young man, an attorney, to whom she was 
 about to be married. The rest went to her father's rela- 
 tives, the Newtons, living in London somewhere about 
 the Minories. 
 
 We have already quoted enough from Chatterton's 
 acknowledged writings in prose and in verse to give an
 
 TUB JUDGMENT OF rOHTERITY. 267 
 
 idea of his ability and versatility as there shown. They 
 are certainly astonishing; productions for a Loy not 
 past his eighteenth year: astonishing for their very 
 variety, and their precocious tone and manner, even 
 where in substance they are most worthless. He writes 
 ])olitical letters for the newspapers, shallow enough, but 
 as aood as were iroinff ; he writes scurrilous satires in 
 the Churchill vein, with here and tliert^ lines as good as 
 any in Churchill, and sometimes with turns of epigram 
 reminding us of Pope ; he writes very tolerable imita- 
 tions of Ossian, and elegies and serious poems showing 
 some power both of thought and of imagination; he 
 catches the knack of magazine-articles, and scribbles 
 them off currente calamo, exactly of a kind to suit ; he 
 goes an evening or two to Marylebone Gardens, and 
 straightway he writes a capital Burletta. Ou the evi- 
 dence, then, of his acknowledged productions alone, 
 Chatterton must be pronounced to have been a youth 
 of singular endowments, who, had he lived, would cer- 
 tainly have made himself a name in the literature of 
 England at the close of the last antl the beginning of 
 the present century. The passages which we have 
 hitherto quoted from those productions having, however, 
 been selected mainly as affording illustrations of his 
 character and life, it may be well to cite one or two 
 more, exhibiting rather his poetical powers as such. 
 Here is a piece entitled " An Elegy " : —
 
 268 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 "Joyless I seelc the solitarj^ shade, 
 
 Where dusky Contemplation veils the scene — 
 The dark retreat, of leafless branches made, 
 
 AVhere sick'ning sorrow wets the yellow'd green. 
 
 The darksome ruins of some sacred cell, 
 Where erst the sons of Superstition trod, 
 
 Tott'ring upon the mossy meadow, tell 
 We better know, but less adore, our God. 
 
 Now, as I mournful tread the t;loomv cave, 
 
 Thro' the wide window, once with mysteries dight, 
 
 The distant forest and the darken'd wave 
 Of the swoln Avon ravishes my sight. 
 
 But see ! the thick'ning veil of Evenino's drawn : 
 
 The azure changes to a sable blue ; 
 The rapturing prospects fly tiie less'ning lawn. 
 
 And Nature seems to mourn the dying view. 
 
 Self-sprighted Fear creeps silent thro' the gloom. 
 Starts at tlie rustling leaf and rolls his eyes ; 
 
 Aghast with horror, when he views the tomb, 
 Witli every torment of a hell he flies. 
 
 The bubbling brooks in plaintive murmurs roll ; 
 
 The bird of omen, with incessant scream, 
 To melancholy thoughts awakes the soul, 
 
 And lulls the mind to Contemplation's dream. 
 
 A dreary stillness broods o'er all the vale ; 
 
 The clouded moon emits a feeble "lare ; 
 Joyless I seek the darkling hill and dale : 
 
 Where'er I wander, sorrow still is there." 
 
 This is by no moans perfect, but it is in a vein of true 
 poetry; and both the melancholy of the mood, and the
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 2G9 
 
 tendency tu personitication, as in " Self-spriglited Fear," 
 are very cliaracteristic of Cliatterton. The foUowinjf, 
 also a fine instance of personification, is from another 
 Elegy, which contains many good stanzas : — 
 
 " I'alc, rugged Winter, Lending o'er his tread ; — 
 His grizzled hair bedrupt ^vith icy dew; 
 His eyes a dusky light congeal'd and dead ; 
 His robe a tinge of bright ethereal blue ! 
 
 His train a motleyed, sanguine, sable cluud. 
 He limps along the russet dreary moor. 
 
 While rising whirlwinds, blasting keen and loud, 
 lioU the white surges to the sounding shore." 
 
 There is a satirical description of Whitfield preaching, 
 wiiich, if we were to quote from it, might remind readers 
 of some of Burns's humorous pieces on the preachers of 
 Ayrshire. What we have already quoted from the 
 IJurletta, however, must suffice in this vein. 
 
 It must not be supposed that there are many passages 
 so good as the above in Chatterton's acknowledged 
 poems. There is not one of them that is not clever ; 
 and from the longer ones there might be selected 
 instances of nervous and epigrammatic expression, and of 
 sudden strokes of fancy, which would have done credit 
 to any veteran writer of the time. But, upon the whole, 
 except as they bear on the life and character of their 
 extraordinary author, these poems possess little interest; 
 and, were an editor to go over them now, with a view
 
 270 CHATTERTON. 
 
 to select such portions of them as, apart from the peculiar 
 circumstances of their authorship, might be entitled to 
 preservation in a collected edition of extracts from the 
 English Poets, all that he could find in them suitable 
 for his purpose might be comprised in a very few printed 
 pages. 
 
 It is very different witli the antique pieces written in 
 the names of Kowley and other poets. Whether, in the 
 composition of tliose poems, it was Chatterton's habit 
 first to write in ordinary phraseology, and then, by the 
 help of glossaries, to translate what he had written into 
 archaic language, or whether he had by practice become 
 so far master of ancient words and expressions as to be 
 aide to write directly in the fictitious dialect he had 
 prescribed for himself, certain it is that, whenever his 
 thoughts and fancies attained their highest strain, he 
 either was whirled into the archaic form by an irresistible 
 instinct, or deliberately adopted it. Up to a certain 
 point, as it were, Chatterton could remain himself; but 
 the moment he was hurried past that point, the moment 
 he attained to a certain degree of sublimity, or fervour, 
 or solemnity in his conceptions, and was constrained to 
 continue at the same pitch, at that moment he reverted 
 to the fifteenth century, and passed into the soul of 
 Eowley. !No one who has not read the antique poems 
 of Chatterton can conceive what extraordinary things 
 they are. Feeling this, and feeling that all tliat we have
 
 Tllf': JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 271 
 
 written about Cliatterton hitherto would be out of pro- 
 portion unless we could communicate some idea of the 
 force of his genius as shown in his Itowley antiques, we 
 shall close this sketch of his life with a slight account 
 of these poems, and with a few extracts from them. 
 
 The antique poems, as printed in Southey's edition of 
 Chatterton's works in 1803, occupy one octavo volume 
 out of three. The following is a descriptive list of the 
 most important of them : — 
 
 1. Four Eclogues, or supposed poetical dialogues of 
 shepherds and shepherdesses at different periods in the 
 ])ast history of England — chiefly about the period of the 
 Wars of the Roses. The first three of the Eclogues 
 were printed from MSS. in Chatterton's writing in the 
 possession of Mr. Catcott, to whom they had been given 
 as transcripts of old poems by Eowley ; the fourth was 
 published in the Town and Country Magazine for May, 
 17G9, with this title, " Elinoure and Juga : written three 
 hundred years ago by T. Rowley, secular priest." 
 
 2. The Parliament of Sprytes : " A most merrie 
 Entyrlude, plaied by the Carmelyte Freeres at Mastre 
 Canynges hys greete howse, before Mastre Canynges and 
 I'yshoppe Carpenterre, on dedicatynge the Chyrche of 
 Oure Ladie of Redclefte; wroten bie T. Rowleie and J. 
 Iscarame." Printed from Mr. Barrett's History of 
 Bristol : the original, in Chatterton's handwriting, in 
 the British Museum. 
 
 3. The Tournament : A dramatic account by Rowley 
 of a Tournament, held at Bristol before Edward I. in 
 1285, in wlrch Sir Simon Burton, one of the old worthies
 
 CIIATTERTON. 
 
 of Bristol, and tlie original founder of the Church of St. 
 "Mary Eeilcliffe, which Canynge rebuilt, showed his 
 prowess over all other knights. Printed from a copy 
 made by Catcott from one in Cliatterton's handwriting. 
 
 4. The Bristowc Tragedic ; or the Dcthe of Syr Charles 
 Baivdin : A ballad, in nearly a hundred stanzas, celebra- 
 ting the death of Sir Charles Baldwin, otherwise Sir 
 Baldwin Fulford, a zealous Lancastrian, who M^as exe- 
 cuted at Bristol, in 1461, by order of Edward IV. The 
 poem was printed in London, in 1772, from a copy 
 made by Catcott from one in Cliatterton's handwriting. 
 Chatterton, it appears, acknowledged to his mother and 
 sister that he was the author of this poem. 
 
 5. The Storie of William Canynge : A poem in twenty- 
 five stanzas, purporting to be extracted from a jDrose 
 work by Eowley, giving an account of eminent natives 
 of Bristol, from the earliest times to his own. The first 
 thirty-four lines of this poem are extant on the "original 
 vellum " given by Chatterton to Mr. Barrett ; the rest is 
 from various transcripts. 
 
 6. Songe to yElla, Lorde of the Cast el of Brystaire 
 ynne dales of yore : A short Pindaric lyric by Eowley, 
 t(^ the memory of ^Ua, the great Saxon chieftain of 
 West England, and enemy of the Danes, in the tenth 
 century. Printed from the Catcott MSS. 
 
 7. JElla : " A Tragycal Enterlude, or Discoorseynge 
 Tragedie, wrotenn by Thomas Rowieie ; plaiedd before 
 ]\Iastre Canynge, atte hys howse nempte the Eodde 
 Lodge ; alsoe before the Duke of iJ^orfolck, Johan 
 Howard." This is Chatterton's masterpiece. It is a 
 long dramatic poem in various rhyme, with songs 
 interspersed, originally jirinted from a manuscript in 
 Chatterton's hand in the possession of Mr. Catcott.
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 273 
 
 The hero of tlic di'ama is the aforesaid yElla, the Saxon 
 lord of Bristol in the tenth century, and the hammer of 
 the then invading Danes. The plot is this : — i'Elhi has 
 iust married the Leauteous Birtlia, and is feasting at 
 Bristol in all the joy of liis spousals, Avhon the news is 
 brought that two hosts of the Danes, under jNIagnus and 
 Hurra, are ravaging the country round. ^Ua tears 
 himself away from Birtha ; meets the Danes ; totally 
 defeats ]\Iagnus and his host ; and drives Hurra and his 
 host skulking into the woods. He is in the pride of his 
 victory when his i'ricnd Celmonde, who has been 
 secretly in love with Birtha, steals from the camp, and, 
 (ToinfT to Bristol alone, tells Birtha that her husband is 
 sorely wounded, and wishes her to come to him. Birtha 
 mounts a horse immediately, and, not waiting to inform 
 her maidens of her purpose, rides off wdth Celmonde. 
 They go tlirougli a wood ; where, as Celmonde is 
 revealing his purpose and offering violence. Hurra and 
 his Danes come to the rescue, slay him, and magnani- 
 mously protect Birtha. They escort her to Bristol; 
 where, meanwhile, however, yElla has arrived, and, 
 thinking his Birtha false, has stabbed himself. He 
 survives to see her, and then dies ; and she swoons on 
 his body. 
 
 8. Goddimjnn: "A Tragedie, by Thomas Eowleie." 
 This poem, also from the Catcott INISS., is a fragment of 
 a supposed tragedy, the scene of which is laid in England 
 immediately before the Norman Conquest, and the chief 
 persons in which are Earl Godwin, Harold, and King 
 Edward the Confessor. The topic of the drama, so far 
 as it proceeds, is the patriotic rage of tlin Saxons at the 
 growing power of tlie Xormaus in the land. 
 
 C. T
 
 274 CHATTERTON. 
 
 9. The Bcdade of Charitie : " As wroten bie the gode 
 prieste Thomas Eowleie, 1464." This poem, originally 
 printed from a professed copy in Chatterton's hand- 
 writing in the possession of JNIr. Barrett, is a kind of. 
 narrative phantasy, describing a pilgrim overtaken by a 
 storm. A rich abbot passes him, and refuses him an 
 alms ; but a poor " Limitour " friar, who has little to 
 spare, acts a more In^otherly part. 
 
 10. The Battle of Hastings: A long rhymed descrip- 
 tion, in two parts, of the supposed incidents of the great 
 liattle by which Duke William became master of 
 England. The poem purported to be a translation by 
 Eowley of a metrical narrative by Turgot, a Saxon 
 monk, contemporary \\'ith the Conquest. Chatterton, 
 when liard pressed, had admitted to Mr. Barrett that 
 the first part was his own. 
 
 These antique poems of Chatterton (and there are 
 about twenty shorter ones in the same series) are perhaps 
 as worthy of being read consecutively as many portions 
 of the poetry of Byron, Shelley, or Keats. There are 
 passages in them, at least, quite equal to any to be found 
 in these poets ; and it is only the uncouth and spurious 
 appearance of antiquity which they wear when the 
 absurd spelling in wliich they were first printed is 
 retained that prevents them from being known and 
 quoted. Let us strip a few passages of this unnecessary 
 concealment as far as is possible witliout changing the 
 words. Here is a passage, with the spelling partly 
 modernized, lr(jni the Balade of Charitie : —
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POUTEUITY. 
 
 'Jto 
 
 " In Yirgindj the sweltry sun 'gan sheen, 
 And hot upon the niees did cast Ins vay ; 
 The apple rudded from its paly green, 
 And the moll ^ pear did bend his leafy spray ; 
 The peed chelandrie - sung the livelong day ; 
 'Twas now the pride, the manhood of the year, 
 And eke the ground was dight in its most defc aumere.-' 
 
 The sun was gleaming in the mid of day, 
 Dead still the air, and eke the welkin blue, 
 When from the sea arist in drear array 
 A heap of clouds of sable sullen hue ; 
 The which full fast unto the woodland drew, 
 Hiltring atenes* the sunne's fetive face; 
 And the black tempest swoln and gathered up apace. 
 
 Beneath an holm, fast by a pathway-side. 
 Which did unto Sainte Godwin's convent lead, 
 A hapless pilgrim moaning did abide. 
 Poor in the view, ungentle in his weed, 
 Long bretfuP of the miseries of need. 
 "Where from the hail-stones could the aimer fly ? 
 He had no housen there, ne any convent nigh I 
 
 Look in his gloomed^ face, his spright there scan: 
 How woe-begone, how withered, forwend,'^ dead 1 
 Haste to thv church -glebe-house, ashrewed man !^ 
 Haste to thy kist,'^ thy only dortour-bed : ^^ 
 Cale as the clay which will gre on thy head 
 Is charity and love among high elves : 
 Knightes and barons live for pleasure and themselves. 
 
 ^ Soft pear. - Pied goldfinch. ^ Becomiug mantle. 
 
 * Shrouding at once. * Brimful. ^ Clouded face. ^ Sapless. 
 
 ^ Accursed man. ^ Cofliu. ^° Dormitory. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 CHATTERTON. 
 
 The gathered storm is ripe ; the big drops fall ; 
 The forswat meadows smeethe^ and drench with rain ; 
 The coming ghastness does the cattle pall ; 
 And the full flocks are driving o'er the plain ; 
 Dash'd from the clouds the waters float again ; 
 The welkin opes ; the yellow levin flies ; 
 And the hot fiery smoth in the wide lowiugs dies.^ 
 
 List! how the thunder's rattling dimming ^ sound 
 Cheeves slowly on, and then embollen clangs,* 
 Shakes the high spire, and, lost, dispended, drowned, 
 Still on the galliard ear of terror hangs.^ 
 The winds are up ; the lofty elmen swangs ; 
 Again the levin and the thunder pours, 
 And the full clouds are burst attenes in stonen showers." 
 
 This may serve as a specimen of the descriptive 
 passages with which the poems abound. Here .are a 
 few samples of maxim and thought tersely expressed : — 
 
 " Plays made from halie tales I hold unmeet ; 
 Let some great story of a man be sung." 
 
 "Verse may be good, but poetry wants more." 
 
 " Strange doom it is that in these days of ours 
 jSTought but a bare recital can have place : 
 Xow shapely Poesy hath lost its powers, 
 And pinanf" History is only grace." 
 
 " P)Ut then renown eterne ! — It is but air 
 Bred in tlie phantasie, and allene living there." 
 
 ^ Sweated meadow.s smoke. * Fiery steam : wide flamings. ' Noisy. 
 * Moves alow]y : swollen clangs. ^ Flighted ear. ^ Languid History.
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 211 
 
 " Still inurmuriug at their scliap,^ still to the king 
 They roll their troubles like a surgy sea. 
 Han P]ngland, then, a tongue, but not a sting? 
 Doth all complain, yet none will riglited be ? " 
 
 " Virgin and halie saints, who sit in glour, 
 Or give the mighty will, or give the good man power," 
 
 "And both together sought the unknown shore, 
 Where we shall go, where many's gone before." 
 
 " So have I seen a mountain-oak, that long 
 Has cast his shadow to the mountain side, 
 Brave all the winds, though ever they so strong, 
 
 And view the briars below with self-taught pride ; 
 But, when thrown down by mighty thunder-stroke. 
 He'd rather be a briar than an oak." 
 
 The following is a personification worthy of Spenser : — 
 
 " Hope, holy sister, sweeping through the sky, 
 Tn crown of gold and robe of lily white. 
 Which far abroad in gentle air doth fly. 
 Meeting from distance the enjoy ous sight ; 
 Albeit oft thou takest thy high flight 
 HeckM in mist,^ and with tliine eyne yblent."^ 
 
 Perhaps, however, it is in the lyrical pieces scattered 
 through the poems that Chatterton's genius is seen at 
 its best. Here is RovAeys Song to JElla : — 
 
 " Oh thou, or what remains of thee, 
 ^Ua, the darling of futurity. 
 Let this my song bold as thy courage be, 
 As everlasting to posterity ! 
 
 ^ Fate. ' SLjouded in mist. ^ Eyes blinded.
 
 278 CHATTERTON. 
 
 AVheu Dacia's sous, with hairs of blood-red hue, 
 Like kingcups bursting with the morning dew, 
 
 Arranged in drear array. 
 
 Upon the lethal day. 
 Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore, 
 
 Then didst thou furious stand. 
 
 And by thy valiant hand 
 BesprengM all the mees with gore. 
 
 Drawn by thine anlace^ fell 
 Down to the depths of hell 
 Thousands of Dacians went; 
 Bristowans, men of might, 
 Ydared the bloody fight, 
 And acted deeds full quaint. 
 
 Oh thou, where'er (thy bones at rest) 
 
 Thy spirit to haunt delighteth best, 
 "Wliether upon the blood-imbrukl plain, 
 
 Or where thou kenst from far 
 
 The dismal cry of war. 
 Or seest some mountain made of corse of slain ; 
 
 Or seest the hatched" steed 
 
 Yprancing on the meed, 
 And neigh to be among the pointed spears ; 
 
 Or in black armour stalk around 
 
 Embattled Bristowe, once thy ground. 
 And glow ardiirous^ on the castle stairs. 
 
 Or fiery round the minster glare, 
 
 Let Bristowe still be made thy care. 
 
 ^ Sworf], ^ Accoutred. ^ All blazing.
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 279 
 
 Guard it from foemen and consuming lire ; 
 
 Lil<e Avon's stream encirc it round ; 
 
 Ne let a flame enharni the ground, 
 Till in one flame all the whole world expire." 
 
 From this piece of powerful imagination turn to the 
 following exquisitely dainty little song, supposed to be 
 sung for the entertainment of Birtha by one of ^Ella's 
 minstrels. The song, though introduced into yElla, 
 purports to be by Sir Tibbot Gorges, and not by 
 Eowley : — 
 
 " As Eliuour by the green lessel was sitting 
 As from the sun's heate she harried. 
 She said, as her white hands white hosen was knitting, 
 ■' What pleasure ic is to be married ! 
 
 ' My husband, lord Thomas, a forester bold 
 
 As ever clove pin or the basket,^ 
 Does no cherisaunces from Eliuour hold ; 
 
 I have it as soon as I ask it. 
 
 ' When I lived with my father in merry Cloud-dell, 
 Tho' 'twas at my lief to mind spinning, 
 
 I still wanted something, but what ne could tell. 
 My lord-father's barb'd hall ban ne winning.- 
 
 ' Each morniug I rise do I set my maidens. 
 Some to spin, some to cardie, some bleachiug ; 
 
 G if any new entered do ask for mine aidens, 
 Then swithen^ you find me a-teaching. 
 
 * Marks iu archery. - Had no cliarms. 
 
 ^ Straightway.
 
 2S0 CHATTEBTON. 
 
 ' Lord Walter, my father, he loved me well, 
 
 And nothing unto me was needing ; 
 But, should I again go to merry Cloud-dell, 
 
 In soothen 'twould be without reding.'^ 
 
 She said, and lord Thomas came over the lea, 
 
 As he the fat deerkins was chasing ; 
 She put by her knitting, and to him went she : 
 
 So we leave them both kindly embracing." 
 
 The following, in another strain, is also one of the 
 lyrics sung by the minstrels in jElla. It is the song of 
 a bereaved maiden : — 
 
 "0, sing unto my roundelay; 
 
 O, drop the briny tear with me ; 
 
 Daunce ne moe at halie-day ; 
 
 Like a running river be. 
 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed, 
 All under the willow tree. 
 
 Elack his crine^ as the winter-night, 
 White his rood^ as the summer snow, 
 liud his face as the morniuir li^ht ; 
 Cold he lies in the grave below. 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed, 
 All under the willow-tree. 
 
 Sweet his tongue as the throstle's note ; 
 Quick in dance as thought can be ; 
 Deft his tabour, cudgel stout ; 
 0, he lies by the willow-tree. 
 
 ^ Advice. * Hair. ^ N^eck.
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 281 
 
 ;My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death -l)ed, 
 All under tlie willow-tree. 
 
 Hark ! the raven flaps his wing 
 
 In the briared dell below ; 
 
 Hark ! the death-owl loud doth sing 
 
 To the nightmares as they go. 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed, 
 All under the w^illow-tree. 
 
 See ! the white moon shines on high ; 
 Wliiter is my true love's shroud, 
 Whiter than the morning-sky. 
 Whiter than the evening-cloud. 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed. 
 All under the willow-tree. 
 
 Here upon my true love's grave 
 
 Shall the barren flowers be laid ; 
 
 Ne one halie saint to save 
 
 All the celness^ of a maid. 
 ]\Iv love is dead. 
 Gone to his death-bed, 
 All under the willow-tree. 
 
 With my hands I'll dent^ the briars 
 Eound his halie corse to gree ; 
 Ouphant,^ fairy, light your fires ; 
 Here my body stiU shall be. 
 
 Coldness. * Fasten. ' Elfin.
 
 282 CHATIERTON. 
 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death-bed, 
 All iinder the willow- tree. 
 
 Come with acom-cup and thorn ; 
 
 Drain my heartes blood away ; 
 
 Life and all its good I scorn, 
 
 Dance by night, or feast by day. 
 My love is dead, 
 Gone to his death- bed, 
 All under the willow-tree. . 
 
 Water w^itches, crowned with raits,^ 
 Bear me to your lethal tide : 
 I die ! I come ! my true love waits. 
 Thus the damsel spake, and died." 
 
 But perhaps the grandest thing in all Chatterton 
 is his fragmentary Ode to Liberty in his Tragedy of 
 Gochvin. We know nothing finer of its kind in the 
 whole range of English poetry. A Chorus is supposed 
 to sing the song ; which is throughout, it will be seen, 
 a burst of glorious and sustained personification : — 
 
 When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest, 
 
 To every knight her war-song sung, 
 Upon her head wild weeds were spread, 
 A gory anlace^ by her hung. 
 
 She danced on the heath; 
 She heard the voice of Death ; 
 
 ^ Rushes. * Sword.
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF POSTERITY. 263 
 
 Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue, 
 In vain assailed her bosom to acale.^ 
 She heard untlemed- the shrieking voice of woe, 
 And sadness in the owlet shake the dale. 
 
 She shook the burlkP spear ; 
 
 On high she jeest* her shield ; 
 
 Her foenien all appear, 
 
 And fiizz along the field. 
 Power, with his heafod straught^ into the skies, 
 His spear a sun-beam and his shield a star. 
 Alike tway brenning gronfires^ rolls his eyes, 
 Chafts with his iron feet and sounds to war. 
 
 She sits upon a rock ; 
 
 She bends before his spear ; 
 
 She rises from the shock, 
 
 Wielding her own in air. 
 Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on ; 
 Wit skilly wimpled" guides it to his crown ; 
 His long sharp spear, his spreading shield, is gone ; 
 He falls, and falling rolleth thousands dovra. 
 War, gore-faced War, by envy burl'd,^ arist, 
 His fieiy helm nodding to the air. 
 Ten bloody arrows in his straining fist." 
 
 "\M;at a picture in the last line I With no other 
 evidence before us than is afforded by this and the 
 other antique pieces which we have quoted, one may 
 assert, unhesitatingly, not only that Chatterton was a 
 true English poet of the eighteenth century, but also 
 
 * Freeze. ' Unterrified. ^ Armed. ■* Tossed. ' Head stretchetl. 
 ^ Two buniing meteors. ^ Closely covered. ^ Armed.
 
 284 CHATTERTON. 
 
 that, compared with the other English poets of the 
 part of that century immediately prior to the new era 
 begun by Burns and AYcrdsworth, he was, with all his 
 immaturity, almost solitary in the possession of the 
 highest poetic gift. Pope, Thomson, and Goldsmith, 
 were poets of this century ; and no sensible man will 
 for a moment think of comparing the boy of Bristol, in 
 respect of his whole activity, with those fine stars of 
 our literature, or even with some of the lesser stars that 
 shone along with them. But he had a specific fire 
 and force of imagination in him which they had not ; 
 and, when one remembers that he was but seventeen 
 years and nine months old when he died, and that most 
 of his antiques were written fully a year before that 
 time, little wonder that, with. Coleridge, Wordsworth, 
 and Keats, one looks back again and again on his brief 
 existence with a kind of awe, as on the track of a 
 heaven-shot meteor earthwards through a night of 
 gloom. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 design ? ' Malbone ' is a rare work, possessing these characteristics, 
 and replete, too, with honest literary effort." 
 
 Hillside Rhymes. — Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. 
 
 Home.— BLANCHE LISLE, and other Poems. By Cecil 
 lIo.MK. Fcap. 8vo. 4J. dd. 
 
 Hood (Tom).— THE PLEASANT TALE OF PUSS AND 
 
 ROBIN AND THEIR FRIENDS, KITTY AND BOB. 
 
 Told in Pictures by L. Frolicii, and in Rhymes by ToM Hood. 
 
 Crown 8vo. gilt. 3^. dd. 
 
 " The volume is prettily got up, and is sure to be a favourite in the 
 nursery." — SCOTSMAN. ^^ Her r Frolic h has outdone himself in 
 his pictures of this dramatic chase." — Morning Post. 
 
 Keary (A.) — Works by Miss A. Keary :— 
 JANET'S HOME. New Edition. Globe 8vo. is. 6d. 
 
 ^^ Never did a more charming family appear upon the canvas ; and 
 most skilfully and feluitously have their characters been portrayed. 
 Each individual of the fireside is a finished portrait, distinct and 
 lifelike. . . . The fteture before her as a novelist is that of becoming 
 the Aliss Austin of her generatiofi." — SuN. 
 
 CLEMENCY FRANKLYN. New Edition. Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 ^^ Full of wisdo/n and goodness, simple, truthful, and artistic. . . // 
 is capital as a story; better still in its pure tone and wholesome 
 influence." — Globe. 
 OLDBURY. Three vols. Crown 8vo. 31J. 6d. 
 
 "This is a very powerfully written story." — GLOBE. "This is a 
 really excellent novel." — Illustrated London News. ^^ The 
 sketches of society in Oldbury are excellent. The pictures of child 
 life are full of truth." — WESTMINSTER Review. 
 
 Keary (A. and E.)— Works by A. and E. Keary:— 
 THE LITTLE WANDERLIN, and other Fairy Talcs. i8mo. 2s. 6d. 
 " The tales are fanciful and well written, and they are sure to win 
 favour amongst little readers." — Atuen.'EUM. 
 THE HEROES OF ASGARD. Tales from Scandinavian 
 Mythology. New and Revised Edition, Illustrated by Huard. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 4J. bd. 
 
 " Told in a light and amusing style, which, in its drollery and 
 quaintness, reminds us of our old favourite Grimm." — Times. 
 
 Kingsley. — Works by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, M.A., 
 Rector of Eversley, and Canon of Westminster : — 
 "WESTWARD HO!" or, The Voyages and Adventures of 
 Sir Amyas Leigh. Ninth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j-.
 
 lo BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 K i n g S 1 e y ( C . ) — continued. 
 
 Fraser's Magazine calls it ^^ almost the best historical novel of 
 the day y 
 TWO YEARS AGO. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 "Mr, Kingsley has provided us all along with such pleasant diver siotis 
 — such rich and brightly tinted glimpses of natural history, such 
 suggestive remarks on. mankind, society, attd all sorts of topics, 
 that amidst the pleasure of the way, the circuit to be made will be by 
 most forgotten.'''' — Guardian. 
 HYPATIA ; or, New Foes with an Old Face. Seventh Edition. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 HEREWARD THE WAKE— LAST OF THE ENGLISH. 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
 
 YEAST : A Problem. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 
 ALTON LOCKE. New Edition. With a New Preface. Crown 8vo. 
 4^. dd. 
 
 The author\ shows, to quote the Spectator, ^'ivhatit is that coH' 
 stitutes the true Christian, God-fearing, man-living gentleman." 
 
 THE WATER BABIES. A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. New 
 Edition, with additional Illustrations by Sir Noel Paton, R.S.A., 
 and P. Skelton. Crown Svo. cloth; extra gilt. 5^. 
 ^^ In fun, in humour, and in innocent imaginat'ion, as a child'' s 
 
 book we do not knozu its equal." — London Review. '■'■Mr. 
 
 Kingsley must have the credit of revealitJg to tis a new order of life. 
 
 . . . There is in the ' Water Babies ' an abundance of wit, fun, 
 
 good humour, geniality, elan, go." — Times, 
 
 THE HEROES ; or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. With 
 Coloured Illustrations. New Edition. i8mo. 4^^. ()d. 
 
 " IVe do not think these heroic stories have ever been more attractively 
 told. . . There is a deep under-ao'rent of religious feeling traceable 
 tlu'oughout its pages which is sure to influence young readers power- 
 fully." — London Review. " One of the children's books that 
 will surely become a <:/«^«V."— Nonconformist. 
 PHAETHON ; or. Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers. Third 
 
 Edition. Crown Svo. is. 
 
 " The dialogue of '■ Phaethon ' has striking beauties, and its sugges- 
 tions may meet halfway many a latent doubt, and, like a light 
 breeze, lift frotn the soul clouds that are gathering heavily, and 
 threatening to settle down in misty gloom on the sunwier of many 
 a fair and promisiftg young life.'''' — Spectator. 
 
 POEMS ; including The Saint's Tragedy, Andromeda, Songs, 
 
 Ballads, etc. Complete Collected Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 6^. 
 
 77;r Spectator calls '■^Andromeda'''' ^' the f nest piece of English 
 
 hexameter verse that has ever been written. It is a volume 
 
 which many readers will be glad to possess." 
 
 PROSE IDYLLS. NEW AND OLD. Second Edition. Crown 
 
 Svo. 5^. 
 
 Contents : — A Charm of Birds; Chalk-Stream Studies ; The 
 Fens ; My Winter-Garden ; From Ocean to Sea ; North Devon.
 
 • BELLES LETT RES. \\ 
 
 ^' Alto^s^fther a delimit tf id book It exhibits the author's best 
 
 traits, and cannot fail to infect the reader noith a love of natnrc 
 and of out-door life and its enjoyments. It is 7vell calcidated to 
 bring a gleam of summer toith its pleasant associations, into the 
 bleak ivinter-time ; 7vhile a better companion for a summer ramble 
 could hardly be found." — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 Kingsley (H.) — Works by Henry Kincsley :— 
 
 TALES OF OLD TRAVKL. Rc-narratcd. With Eight full-page 
 Illustrations by IIUARD. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth, 
 extra gilt. 5-^' 
 
 "/Ft" know no better book for those who want knorwledge or seek to 
 refresh it. As for the 'sensational,' fnost novels are tame cofn- 
 pared with these narratives." — ATHENiTLUM. " Exactly the book 
 to interest and to do good to intelligent and high-spirited boys." — 
 Literary Churchman. 
 THE LOST CHILD. With Eight Illustrations by FroLICH. 
 Crown 4to. cloth gilt. 31. dd. 
 
 *' A pathetic story, and told so as to give children an interest in 
 Australian ways and scenery." — Globe. "Very charmingly and 
 very touchingly told." — SATURDAY REVIEW. 
 OAKSIIOTT CASTLE. 3 Vols. Crown Svo. 31^. 6</. 
 
 " A^ one who takes tip ' Oakshott Castle' will willingly put it do7un 
 until the last page is turned. . . . It may fairly be considered a 
 capital story, full of go, and abounding in word pictures of storms 
 and Tc;w/x"— Observer. 
 
 Knatchbull-Hugessen. — Works by E. II. Knatchbull- 
 
 IIUGESSEX, M.r. : — 
 
 Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen has won for himself a reputation as 
 a teller of fairy-tales. '' Ilis powers" [says the Times, 
 " are of a very high order ; light and brilliant narrative flows 
 from his pen, and is fed by an invention as graceful as it is inex- 
 haustible." " Children reading his stories," the Scotsman says, 
 "or hearing them read, will have their mitids refreshed and in- 
 vigorated as much as their bodies would be by abundance of fresh 
 air and exercise." 
 STORIES FOR MY CHILDREN. With Illustrations. Fourth 
 
 Edition. Crown Svo. 5^-. 
 
 " The stones are charming, and fidl of life and fun." — STANDARD. 
 *' The author has an imagination as fanciful as Grimm himselj, 
 while some of his stories are superior to anything t/uit Hans Chris- 
 tian Andersen has written." — NONCONFORMIST. 
 CRACKERS FOR CHRISTMAS. More Stories. W^ith Illustra- 
 tions by Jellicoe and Elwes. Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. 5/. 
 
 " A fascinating little 'lolume, which will make him friends in every 
 household in which there are children. " — Daily News. 
 MOONSHINE: Fairy Tales. With Illustrations by W. Brunton. 
 
 Sixth Edition. Crown Svo. cloth gilt. 5.f. 
 
 ''A volutne of fairy tales, written not only for ungrown children.
 
 12 BELLES LETTRES. ' 
 
 KnatchbuU-Hugessen (E. H.) — continued. 
 
 but for bigger, and if you are nearly ivorii out, or sick, or sorry, 
 you will find it good reading. " — Graphic. ' ' The most charming 
 volume of fairy tales tvhichzoe have ever read. . . . We cannot qjtit 
 this very pleasant book without a word of praise to its illustrator. 
 Mr. Brunton from first to last has done admirably." — Times. 
 TALES AT TEA-TIME. Fairy Stories. With Seven Illustra- 
 tions by \V. Brunton. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth gilt 5^. 
 " Capitally illustrated by W. Brunton. . . . In frolic and fancy they 
 are quite equal to his other books. The author knozvs how to write 
 fairy stones as they should be written. The xvhole book is full of 
 the most delightful drolleries.'^ — TIMES. 
 QUEER FOLK. FAIRY STORIES. Illustrated by S. E. 
 Waller. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth gilt. ^s. 
 "Decidedly the author s happiest effort. . . . One of the best story 
 books of the year."— IIOVR. 
 
 Knatchbull-Hugessen (Louisa). — the HISTORY OF 
 PRINCE PERRYPETS. A Fairy Tale. By Louisa Knatch- 
 bull-Hugessen. With Eight Illustrations by Weigand. 
 New Edition. Crown 4to. cloth gilt. ' 3^. 6d. 
 
 "A grand and exciting fairy tale." — MORNING PoST. "A delicious 
 piece of fairy nonsense." — Illustrated London News. 
 
 Knox.— SONGS OF CONSOLATION. By Isa Craig Knox. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. Cloth extra, gilt edges, ^s. 6d. 
 
 " The verses are truly sweet ; there is in them not only much genuine 
 
 poetic quality, but an ardent, flowing devotedness, and a peculiar 
 
 skill in propounding theological tenets in the most graceful way, 
 
 inhirh any divine might envy." — Scotsman. 
 
 Latham. — SERTUM SHAKSPERIANUM, Subnexis aliquot 
 aliunde excerptis floribus. Latine reddidit Rev. H. Latham, 
 M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. 
 
 Lemon. — the legends of number nip. By Mark 
 Lemon, With Illustrations by C. Keene. New Edition. Extra 
 fcap. 8vo. "Zs. 6d. 
 
 Life and Times of Conrad the Squirrel, a Story 
 
 for Children. By the Author of "Wandering Willie," " Effie's 
 Friends," &c. With a Frontispiece by R. Farren. Second 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 '^Having commenced on the first page, we were compelled to go on to 
 
 the conclusion, and this we predict will be the case luith every one 
 
 -who opens the book." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Little E Stella, and other FAIRY TALES FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 i8mo. cloth extra. 2s. 6d. 
 
 ' ' This is a fine story, and we thank heaven for not being too wise to 
 enjoy it." — Daily News. 
 
 Lowell. — Works by J. Russell Lowell : — 
 AMONG MY BOOKS. Six Essays. Dryden — Witchcraft —
 
 BELLES LETT RES. 13 
 
 Lowell — continued. 
 
 Shakespeare once More — New England Two Centuries Ago — 
 Lessing — Rousseau and the Sentimentalists. Crown 8vo. 7^. 6(/. 
 *^VVe may safely say the volume is one of which our chief complaint 
 
 must be that there is not more of it. There are good sense and lively 
 
 feeling forcibly and tersely expressed in every page of his Tvriting." 
 
 — Pall Mall Gazictte. 
 COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS of Jamks Russell Lowell. 
 With Portrait, engraved by Jcens. iSmo. cloth extra. ^. td. 
 ^^ All readers who are able to recognise and appreciate genuine verse 
 
 ■will give a glad welcome to this beautiful little volume." — Pall 
 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 Lyttelton. — Works by Lord Lyttelton :— 
 THE "COMUS" OF MILTON, rendered into Greek Verse. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. ^s. 
 THE "SAMSON AGONISTES" OF MILTON, rendered into 
 Greek Verse. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j-. 6(/. 
 
 "Classical in spirit, full of force, and true to the original." 
 — Guardian. 
 
 Maclaren. — THE FAIRY FAMILY. A series of Ballads and 
 Metrical Talcs illustrating the Fairy Mythology of Europe. By 
 Arciiiuald Maclaken. With Frontispiece, Illustrated Title, 
 and Vignette, Crown Svo. gilt. 5^. 
 
 " A successful attempt to translate into the vernacular sofue of the 
 Fairy Mythology of Europe. The verses are very good. There is 
 no shirking dtjfictdties of rhyme, and the ballad metre which is 
 oftenest employed has a great deal of the ki)ui of ^ go ' which we find 
 so seldom outside the pages of Scott. The book is of permanent 
 value."— G uardlvn. 
 
 Macmillan's Magazine. — Published Monthly. Price IS. 
 
 Volumes I. to XXIX. are now ready. 7^-. dd. each. 
 Macquoid. — patty. By Katharine S. Macquoid. Third 
 and Cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. ()s. 
 
 "A booh to be read." — Standard. "A po7uerful and fascinating 
 story." — Daily Telegraph. The Q-lov,^ considers it "well- 
 writteti, amusing, and interesting, and has the tnerit of being out 
 of the ordinary run of novels." 
 
 Maguire, — YOUNG PRINCE MARIGOLD, AND OTHER 
 
 FAIRY STORIES. By the late John Francis Maguire, M.P. 
 
 Illustrated by S. E. Waller. Globe Svo. gilt. 4J. 6d. 
 
 " The author has raidcntly studied the ways and tastes of children and 
 
 got at the secret of amusing them ; and has succeeded in what is not 
 
 so easy a task as it may seem — in producing a really good children's 
 
 book."— Daily Telegraph. 
 
 Marlitt (E.)— the COUNTESS GISELA. Translated from 
 the German of E. Marlitt. Crown Svo. "js. 6d. 
 "A very beautiful story of German country life." — Literary 
 Churchman.
 
 14 BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 Masson (Professor). — Works by David Masson, M.A., 
 
 Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University 
 
 of Edinburgh. 
 BRITISH NOVELISTS AND THEIR STYLES. Being a Critical 
 
 Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction. Crown 8vo. 7^-. 6a'. 
 WORDSWORTH, SHELLEY, KEATS, AND OTHER 
 
 ESSAYS. Crown 8vo. 51. 
 
 CHATTERTON : A Story of the Year 1770. Crown Svo. 55. 
 
 THE THREE DEVILS : LUTHER'S, MILTON'S, and 
 GOETHE'S ; and other Essays. Crown Svo. 5^. 
 
 Mazini.— IN THE GOLDEN SHELL ; A Story of Palermo. 
 By Linda Mazini. With Illustrations. Globe Svo. cloth gilt, 
 
 ' ' As beautijul and bright and fresh as the scenes to luhich it 7vafts 
 us over the blue Ulediten-anean, and as pure and innocent, but 
 piquant and sprightly as the little girl who plays the part of its 
 heroine, is this admirable little book." — Illustrated London 
 News. 
 
 Merivale. — KEATS' HYPERION, rendered into Latin Verse. 
 By C. Merivale, B.D. Second Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 
 3^. (id. 
 
 Milner. — the lily of LUMLEY. By Edith Milner. 
 
 Crown Svo. 7^. dd. 
 
 " The novel is a good one and decidedly worth the reading."-^ 
 Examiner, "yi pretty, brightly-written story." — Literary 
 Churchman. ^'■A tale possessing the deepest interest." — Court 
 Journal. 
 
 Milton's Poetical Works. — Edited with Text collated from 
 the best Authorities, with Introduction and Notes by David 
 Masson. Three vols. Svo. With Three Portraits engraved by 
 C. H. Jeens and Radcliffe. (Uniform with the Cambridge 
 Shakespeare.) 
 
 Mistral (F.) — MIRELLE, a Pastoral Epic of Provence. Trans- 
 
 lated by H. Crichton. Extra fcap. Svo. 6^. 
 
 " It would be hard to overpraise the sweetness a7td pleasing freshness 
 of this charming epic." — Athen.'EUM. ^^ A good translation oj 
 a poem that deserves to be known by all students cf literatuie and 
 fricjids of old-world simplicity in story-telling." — Nonconformist. 
 
 Mitford (A. B.) — TALES OF OLD JAPAN. By A. B. 
 
 Mitford, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan. 
 
 With Illustrations drawn and cut on Wood by Japanese Artists. 
 
 New and Cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. C>s. 
 
 " They will always be interesting as memorials of a most exceptional 
 society ; while, regarded si7nply as tales, they are sparkling, sensa- 
 tional, and dramatic, and the originality of their ideas and the 
 quaintness of their language give them a most captivating piquancy.
 
 BELLES I^ETTRES. 15 
 
 The illustrations are extremely interesting, and for the curious in 
 such tnalters have a special and particular value." — Pall Mall 
 Gazeite. 
 
 Mr. Pisistratus Brown, M.P., in THE highlands. 
 
 New Kdition, with Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3J-. 6d. 
 
 " 'J'he I'ook is calculated to recall fUasant memories of holidays well 
 spent, and scenes not easily to be forgotten. 'Jo those who have 
 never been in the IVestern Highlands, or sailed along the Frith of 
 Clyde and on the IVestern Coast, it will seem almost like a fairy 
 story. 1 here is a charm in the volume which makes it anything 
 but easy for a reader who has opened it to put it do^on until the last 
 page has been read." — Scotsman, 
 
 Mrs, Jerningham's Journal, a Poem purporting to be the 
 
 Journal of a newly-married Lady. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 
 
 35. dd. 
 
 ^' It is nearly a perfect gem. We have had nothing so good for a 
 long time, and those who neglect to read it are neglecting one of 
 the jewels of contemporary history." — Edinburgh Daily Re- 
 view. ^'' One quality in the piece, sufficietit of itself to claim a 
 moments attention, is that it is unique — original, indeed, is not too 
 strong a word — in the manner of its conception and execution." 
 — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Mudie. — STRAY LEAVES. ByC. E. Mudie. New Edition. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. Contents: — "His and Mine" — 
 
 "Night and Day"— "One of Many," &c. 
 
 This little volume consists of a number of poems, mostly of a genuinely 
 devotio7ial cha7-acter. " They are for the most part so exquisitely 
 siveet and delicate as to be quite a marvel of composition. They' are 
 worthy of being laid up in the recesses of the heart, and recalled to 
 memory from time to time." — Illustrated London News. 
 
 Murray. — THE EALLADS AND SONGS OF SCOTLAND, 
 
 in View of their Influence on tlie Character of the People. Py 
 
 J. Clark Murray, LL.D., Professor of Mental and Moral 
 
 Philosophy in McGill Colleije, Montreal. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 
 ' ' Independently of the lucidity of the style in which (he whole book 
 
 is written, the selection of the examples alone would recommend it 
 
 to favour, while the geniality of the criticism upon those examples 
 
 cannot fail to make them highly appreciated and valued." — 
 
 Morning Post. 
 
 Myers (Ernest). — THE PURITANS. By Ernest Myers. 
 
 Extra fcap. Svo. cloth. 2s. 6d. 
 
 " // is not too much to call it a really graiui poem, stately and dig- 
 nified, and showing not only a high poetic mitid, but also great 
 poxver aver poetic expression." — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Myers (F. W. H.)— POEMS. By F. W. H. Myers. Con- 
 taining "St. Paul," "St. John," and others. Extra fcap, 8vo, 
 4J. 6d. 
 ^' It is rare to find a 7oriter who combines to such an extent the faculty
 
 i6 BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 of communicating feelings with the faculty of euphonious expres' 
 sion." — Spectator. '^'St. FauP stands loithout a rival as the 
 noblest religious poem zuhich has been "written in an age which 
 beyond any other has been prolific in this class of poetry. The sub- 
 limest conceptions are expressed in lajiguage which, for richness, 
 taste, and purity, zue have never seen excelled." — ^JOHN Bull. 
 
 Nichol. — HANNIBAL, A HISTORICAL DRAMA. By John 
 NiCHOL, B.A. Oxon., Regius Professor of English Language and 
 Literature in the University of Glasgow. Extra fcap. 8vo. 7^. 6d. 
 " The poem combines in no ordinary degree firmness and workman- 
 ship. After the lapse of majiy centuries, an English poet is found 
 paying to the great Carthagenian the worthiest poetical tribute which 
 has as yet, to our knowledge, been afforded to his noble and stainless 
 name." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Nine Years Old.— By the Author of "St. Olave's," "When I 
 was a Little Girl," &c. Illustrated by Frolich. Third Edition. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth gilt. ^. 6d. 
 
 It is believed that this story, by the favourably known author of 
 " St. Olave's," will be found both highly interesting and instructive 
 to the young. The volume contains eight graphic illustrations by 
 Mr. L. Frolich. The Examiner says: '■'■Whether the readers 
 are nine years old, or twice, or seven times as old, they must enjoy 
 this pretty volume." 
 
 Noel. — BEATRICE, AND OTHER POEMS. By the Hon. 
 RoDEN Noel. Fcap. 8vo. ds. 
 
 ''It is impossible to read the poetn through without being powerfully 
 moved. There are passages ht it which for intensity and tender- 
 ness, dear and vivid vision, spontaneous and delicate sympathy, 
 may be cotnpared luith the best efforts of our best living writers." 
 — Spectator. 
 
 Norton. — Works by the Hon, Mrs. Norton : — 
 THE LADY OF LA GARAYE. With Vignette and Frontispiece. 
 New Edition. Fcap. 8vo. i,s. 6d. 
 
 ' ' Full of thought well expressed, and may be classed among her best 
 efforts." — Times. 
 OLD SIR DOUGLAS. Cheap Edition. Globe 8vo. 7.s. 6d. 
 " This varied and lively novel — this clever novel so full of character, 
 and of fine incidental refnark." — SCOTSMAN. "One of the 
 pleasantest and healthiest stories of modern fiction." — Globe. 
 
 Oliphant. — Works by Mrs. Oliphant :— 
 
 . AGNES HOPETOUN'S SCHOOLS AND HOLIDAYS. New 
 Edition with Illustrations. Royal i6mo. gilt leaves. 4^. dd. 
 ' ' There are few books of late years more fitted to touch the heart, 
 purify the feeling, and quicken and sustain right principles." — 
 Nonconformist. "A more gracefully written story it is impos- 
 sible to desire."— Dm-ly News. 
 A SON OF THE SOIL. New Edition. Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 "It is a very different work fro)n the ordinary run of novels.
 
 BELLES LETT RES. 17 
 
 The whole life of a man is portrayed in it, worked out with subtlety 
 and i»sij;ht." — Athk.NVF-UM. 
 
 Our Year, a Child's Book, in Trose and Verse. By the Author 
 of "John llaHfax, Gentleman." Illustrated by Clarenxe 
 DoBELL. Royal i6mo. 3J-. Gd. 
 
 "/t is just the book u<c could luish to see in the hands of every child." 
 — English Churchman. 
 
 Olrig Grange. Edited by Hermann Kunst, Philol. Professor. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 6d. 
 
 "A masterly and original poaver of impression, pouring itsdf forth 
 in clear, S7ueet, strong rhythm. ... It is a fine poem, full of lije, 
 of music and of clear vision." — North British Daily Mail. 
 
 Oxford Spectator, The. — Reprinted. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
 
 y. 6d. 
 
 ^'There is," the Saturday Review says, *' all the old fun, the 
 old sense of social case and brightness and freedom, the old medley 
 of 7uork and indolence, of jest and- earnest, that made Oxford life 
 so picturesque. " 
 
 Palgrave. — Works by Francis Turner Palgrave, M.A., late 
 Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford : — 
 THE FIVE DAYS' ENTERTAINMENTS AT WENTWORTH 
 GRANGE. A Book for Children. With Illustrations by Arthur 
 Hughes, and En^jraved Title-page by Jeens. Small 410. cloth 
 extra. 6 J. 
 
 " If yon want a really good book /or both sexes and all ages, buy 
 this, as handsome a volume of tales as you'll find in all the 
 market." — ATHENAEUM. "Exquisite both inform and substance." 
 — Guardian. 
 LYRICAL POEMS. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j. 
 
 '■^ A volume of pure quiet verse, sparkling zuith tender melodies, and 
 alive with thoughts of genuine poetry. . . . Turn where we 'vill 
 throughout the volume, 7oe find traces oj beauty, tenderness, and 
 truth ; true poet's 'cork, touched and re/ined by the master-hand 0/ 
 a real artist, who shozus his genius even in Irijles." — STANDARD. 
 ORIGINAL HYMNS. Third Edition, enlarged, i8mo. is. 6d. 
 " So choice, so perfect, and so refined, so tender in feeling, and so 
 scholarly in expression, that we look with special interest to every- 
 thing that he gives us." — LITERARY CHURCHMAN. 
 GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST SONGS AND LYRICS. 
 
 Edited by F. T. Palgrave. See Golden Treasury Series. 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND SONGS. Edited by F. T. 
 Palgrave. Gem Edition. With Vignette Title by Jeens. y. 6d. 
 "Tor minute elegance no volume could possibly excel the 'Gem 
 Edition.' " — Scotsman. 
 
 Parables.— TWELVE PARABLES OF OUR I,ORD. Illus- 
 trated in Colours from Sketches taken in the East by McEniry 
 with Frontispiece from a Picture by John Jellicoe, and Illumi- 
 nated Texts and Borders. Royal 4ti>. in Ornamental Binding. 16s. 
 
 a
 
 1 8 BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 The Times calls it "one of the most beautiful of modern pictorial 
 works ;" -iohile the GRAPHIC says ^^ nothing in this style, so good, 
 has e7'er before been published" 
 Patmore. — the children's garland, from the Best 
 
 Poets. Selected and an-anged by Coventry Patmore. New 
 
 Edition. Willi Illustrations by J. Lawson. Crown 8vo. gilt. 6j. 
 
 Golden Treasury lulition. i8mo. 4^.6^/. 
 
 " The charming illustrations added to jiiany of the poems will add 
 greatly to their value in the eyes of children." — Daily News. 
 Pember. — the tragedy of LESBOS. a Dramatic Poem. 
 
 By E. H. Pember. Fcap. 8vo. 4J. dd. 
 
 Founded upon the story of Sappho. ' ''He tells his story with dramatic 
 force, and in language that often rises almost to grandeur." — 
 Athen^um. 
 Poole.— PICTURES OF COTTAGE LIFE IN THE WEST 
 
 OF ENGLAND. By Margaret E. Poole, New and Cheaper 
 
 Edition. With P'rontispiece by R. Farren. Crown 8vo. y. ()d. 
 
 " Charming stories of peasant life, 7vritten in something of George 
 Eliot'' s style. . . . Her stories could not be other than they are, as 
 literal as truth, as rotnantic as fiction, full of pathetic touches 
 and strokes of genuine hiimour. . . . All the stories are studies 
 of actual life, executed with 710 mean art.'''' — Times. 
 
 Population of an Old Pear Tree. From the French 
 
 of E. Van Bruyssel. Edited by the Author of "The Heir of 
 
 Redclyfife." With Illustrations by Becker. Cheaper Edition. 
 
 Crown 8vo. gilt. 4J. bd. 
 
 " This is not a regular book of natu7-al history, but a description op 
 all the living c7-eatures that came and went in a summer's day 
 beneath an old pear tree, observed by eyes that had for the nonce 
 become tnicroscopic, recorded by a pen that finds dramas in every- 
 thing, and illustrated by a dainty pencil. . . . We can hardly 
 fa7icy a7iyo)te with a 7noderate turn for the curiosities of ittsect 
 life, or for delicate French esprit, not bei7ig taken by these clroer 
 sketches. " — Guardian, ' ^A zuhi/nsical a7id charmi7ig little book, " 
 
 — ATHENi?i:UM. 
 
 Prince Florestan of Monaco, The Fall of. By 
 
 Himself. New Edition, with Illustration and Map. 8vo. cloth. 
 
 Extra gilt edges, ^s. A French Translation, 5^-, Also an Edition 
 
 for the People. Crown 8vo. \s. 
 
 ' ' Those who have read 07ily the extracts given, will not need to be 
 told how amusing and happily touched it is. Those who read it for 
 other pmposes than at?iuseme7tt ca7i ha7-dly miss the sober a7td 
 sound political lesso7is with which its light pages abou7id, a7idrvhich 
 ai'c as much needed in England as by the 7iatio7i to who?n the author 
 directly addi-esses his moral." — Pall Mall Gazette. " This 
 little book 17 very clever, wild with aitimal spirits, but sho^ving 
 plenty of good sense, amid all the heedless no7isense which fills so 
 7na}iy of its pages." — Daily News. " Lt anage little re7na7-kable 
 for powers of political satire, the sparkle of the pages gives them 
 every claitn to welcome." — Standard.
 
 BELLES LETTRES. 19 
 
 Rankine.— SONGS AND FADLES. By W. J. McQuoRN 
 
 K.VNKiNE, late rrofessor of Civil Knginecrint; and Mechanics at 
 
 Glasgow. Willi Illustrations. Crown 8vo. (ys. 
 
 "// lively volume of verses, full of a fine in only spirit, inuc/i 
 
 humour and 'geniality. The illustrations are admirably con- 
 
 ceived, and executed luith fidelity and talent." — Morning Post. 
 
 Realmah. — By the Author of "Friends in Council." Crown 
 Svo. 6j-. 
 
 Rhoades. — POEMS. By James Riioades. Fcap. Svo, e^s. dd. 
 
 Richardson.— THE ILIAD OF THE EAST. A Selection of 
 
 Legends drawn from Valmiki's Sanskrit Poem, "The Ramayana." 
 
 By Freuerika Richardson. Crown Svo. is. bd. 
 
 " It is impossible to 7-ead it liiithout recognizing the value and interest 
 
 of the Eastern epic. It is as fascinating as a fairy tale, this 
 
 romantic poem of India. " — G 1,0 BE. "A charming volume, which 
 
 at once enmeshes the reader in its snares." — Atiien,eum, 
 
 Roby.— STORY OF A HOUSEHOLD, AND OTHER POEMS. 
 By Mary K. Robv. Fcap. Svo. 5^-. 
 
 Rogers. — Works by J. Y.. Rogers :— 
 RipiCULA REDIVIVA. Old Nurseiy Rhymes. Illustrated in 
 Colours, with Ornamental Cover, Crown 4to. 35. 6d. 
 " The most splendid, and at the same time the most really meritorious 
 of the boohs specially intended for children, that 7ue have seen. " — 
 Spectator. " IViese large bright pictures ivill attract children to 
 really good and honest artistic luork, and that ought not to be an 
 indifferent consideration ii.<ith parents zuho propose to educate their 
 children." — Pall Mall Gazkite. 
 MORES RIDICULI. Old Nursery Rhymes. Illustrated in Colours, 
 with Ornamental Cover. Crown 4to. 31'. 6d. 
 These xvorld-old rhymes have never had and need never wish for 
 a better pictorial setting than Mr. Rogers has given them," — 
 Times. "Nothing could be quainter or more absurdly comical 
 than most of the piclia-es, which are all carefully executed ana 
 beautifully coloured. " — Globe. 
 
 Rossetti.— GOBLIN MARKET, AND OTHER POEMS. By 
 Christina Rossetti. W'ith two Designs byD. G. Rossetti. 
 Second Edition. Fcap. Svo. 5j'. 
 
 "She handles her little marvel -with that rare poetic discrimination 
 which neither exhausts it of its simple wonders by pushing sym- 
 bolism too far, nor keeps those wonders in the merely fabulous and 
 capricious stage. In fact, she has produced a true children's poem, 
 which is Jar more delightful to the mature than to children, though 
 it would be delightful to all." — Spectator. 
 
 Runaway (The), a Stoiy for the Young. By the Author of 
 " Mrs. Jerningham's Journal." With Illustrations by J. Lawson. 
 Globe Svo. gilt. 4J. 6(/. 
 
 " This is one of the best, if not indeed the very best, cj all the stories 
 that has come before us this Christmas. The heroines are both 
 
 E 2
 
 20 BELLES LETT RES 
 
 charmiug, and, unlike heroines, they are as Jull of fun as ot charms. 
 It is an admirable book to read aloud to the young folk ivhen they 
 are all gathei-ed round the fire, and nurses and other apparitions 
 are still far a-vay." — Saturday Review, 
 
 Ruth and her Friends, a Story for Girls. With a Frontis- 
 piece. Fourth Edition. i8mo. Cloth extra. 2J. dd. 
 *' We zoish all the school girls and hotne-taught girls in the land had 
 the opportufiity of reading it." — NONCONFORMIST. 
 
 Scouring of the \A^hite Horse; or, the Long 
 
 VACATION RAMBLE OF A LONDON CLERK. Illustrated 
 by Doyle. Imp. i6mo. Cheaper Issue. 3^'. 6d. 
 "A glorious tale of summer joy." — Freeman. " There is a genial 
 hearty lije about the book." — John Bull. " The execution is 
 excellent. . . . Like ' To7n Brown^s School Days,' the ' White 
 Horse' gives the reader a feeling oj gratitude and personal esteem 
 tozuards the author." — Satvrvay Review. 
 
 Shairp (Principal). — KILMAHOE, a Highland Pastoral, with 
 
 other Poems. By John Campbell Shairp, Principal of the 
 
 United College, St. Andrews. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 
 
 *' Jwlmahoe is a JPighland Pastoral, 7'edolent of the warm soft air 
 
 of the ivesterti lochs and moors, sketched out with remarkable 
 
 grace and picturesqueness.'" — Saturday Review, 
 
 Shakespeare. — The Works of William Shakespeare. Cam- 
 bridge Edition. Edited by W. George Clark, M,A, and W. 
 Aldis Wright, M.A. Nine vols. 8vo. Cloth. 4/, 14?. dd. 
 The Guardian calls it an ^'' excellent, and, to the student, almost 
 indispensable edition ;" aitd the ILXAUiNEK calls it "an unrivalled 
 edition. " 
 
 Shakespeare's Tempest. Edited with Glossarial and Ex- 
 planatory Notes, by the Rev. J. M. Jei'HSON. New Edition. 
 i8mo. is. 
 
 Slip (A) in the Fens.— illustrated by the Author. Crown 
 8vo. 6^. 
 
 "An artistic litflevolunie, for every page is a picture." — Times. "// 
 7vitl be read with pleasure, and with a pleasure that is altogether 
 innocent. " — Saturday Review. 
 
 Smith. — POEMS. By Catherine Barnard Smith. Fcap, 
 8vo. 5^. 
 
 ^^ Wealthy in feeling, 77ieaning, finish, and grace; not without passion, 
 wJiich is suppressed, but the keener for that." — AtheN^UM. 
 
 Smith (Rev. Walter). — hymns OF CHRIST and the 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE. By the Rev. Walter C. Smith, M,A. 
 Fcap. Svo. ()s. 
 
 " These are among the sweetest sacred poems we have read for a long 
 time. With no p?'ofuse imagery, expressing a range of feeling 
 and exp7-ession by 710 7/tea7is tmconwion, they aj-e ti-ue a7id elevated, 
 a7id their pathos is prgfound and simple. " — Nonconformist.
 
 BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 Spring Songs. By a West Highlander. With a Vignette 
 Illustration l)y Gouklay Stkei.e. Fcap. 8vo. \s. (xL 
 '* IVilkout a trace of affectation or scntu/iculalisin, these utterances 
 are perfectly simple and natural, profoundly human and pro- 
 foundly true." — Daily News. 
 
 Stanley.— TRUE TO life.— a simple story. By Mary 
 Sr.A.NLEY, Crown 8vo. lo^. td. 
 
 ' ' /''or many a long day we have not met loith a more simple, healthy, 
 and tinpretending story." — STANDARD. 
 
 Stephen (C. E.)— the service of the POOR; being 
 an Inquiry into the Reasons for and against the Establishment of 
 Religious Sisterhoods for Charitable Purposes. By Caroline 
 Emilia Stephen. Crown 8vo. 6j. 6^/. 
 
 "// touches incidentally and with much wisdom and tenderness on 
 so many of the relations of women, particularly of single wofncn, 
 with society, that it 7nay be read with advantage by tnany who 
 have never thought of entering a Siste)-hood." — Spectator. 
 
 Stephens (J. B.)— CONVICT ONCE. A Poem. By J. 
 Brunton Stephens. Extra fcap. Svo. 3^. dd. 
 " It is as far more interesting than ninety-nine novels out of a 
 
 hundred, as it is superior to them in power, worth, and beauty. 
 
 We should most strongly advise everybody to read ' Convict Once. ' " 
 
 — Westminster Review. 
 
 Streets and Lanes of a City: Being the Reminiscences 
 of Amy Button. With a Preface by the Bishop of Salis- 
 bury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Globe Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 ^' One of the most really striking books that has ever come before us." 
 — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Thring.— SCHOOL SONGS. A Collection of Songs for Schools. 
 With the Music arranged for four Voices. Edited by the Rev. E. 
 Thring and II. Riccius, Folio. 75-. dd. 
 
 The collection includes the '■'■Agnus Dei," Tennyson's *' Light 
 Brigade, " Jlfacaula/s " Ivry, " etc. amo7ig other pieces. 
 
 Tom Brown's School Days. — By an Old Boy, 
 
 Golden Treasury Edition, 4J. 6d. People's Edition, 2s. 
 
 With Seven Illustrations by A. Hughes and Sydney PIall. 
 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 " The most famous boy's book in the language." — Daily News. 
 
 Tom Brown at Oxford. — New Edition. With Illustrations. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' ' In no other work that we can call to tnind are the finer qualities of 
 the English gentleman more happily portrayed." — Daily News. 
 ''A book of great potoer and truth."— 'National Review. 
 
 Trench. — Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop 
 of Dublin. (For other Works by this Author, see Theological, 
 Historical, and Philosophical Catalogues.) 
 POEMS. Collected and arranged anew. Fcap. Svo. "Js. 6d.
 
 22 BELLES LETTRES. 
 
 Trench (Archbishop) — continued. 
 
 ELEGIAC POEMS. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. is. dd. 
 CALDERON'S LIFE'S A DREAM : Tlie Great Theatre of the 
 World. With an Essay on his Life and Genius. Fcap. 8vo. 4;. dd. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY. Selected and 
 
 arranged, with Notes, by Archbishop Trench. Second Edition. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. dd. 
 
 ' ' The Archbishop has con/e>'rcd in (his delightful volume an important 
 gift on the whole English-speaking population of the world. " — 
 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 SACRED LATIN POETRY, Chiefly Lyrical. Selected and 
 
 arranged for Use. By Archbishop Trench. Third Edition, 
 
 Corrected and Improved. Fcap. 8vo. "js. 
 JUSTIN MARTYR, AND OTHER POEMS. Fifth Edition. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Trollope (Anthony). — SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF 
 
 IIUiMBLETHWAITE. By Anthony Trollope, Author of 
 
 "Framley Parsonage," etc. Cheap Edition. Globe 8vo. 2s.6d. 
 
 The Athen^um remarks : "No reader who begins to read this book 
 
 is likely to lay it down until the last page is turned. This brilliant 
 
 novel appears to us decidedly more successful than any other of Mr. 
 
 T7-ollop?s shorter stories." 
 
 Turner. — Works by the Rev. Charles Tennyson Turner : — 
 
 SONNETS. Dedicated to his Brother, the Poet Laureate. Fcap. 
 
 8vo. 4^. 6d. 
 SMALL TABLEAUX. Fcap. Svo. t^. 6d. 
 
 Under the Limes. — By the Author of "Christina North." 
 
 .Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 
 ' ' The readers of ' Christina North ' are not likely to have forgotten 
 that bright, fresh, picturesque story, nor will they be shnv to 
 welcome so pleasa)it a companion to it as this. It abounds in 
 happy touches of description, of pathos, and insight into the life 
 and passion of true love." — Standard. " One of the prettiest 
 and best told stories which it has been our good fortune to read for 
 a longti7!ie."—VAi.i. 1\L\LL Gazettk. 
 
 Vittoria Colonna.— life AND POEMS. By Mrs. Henry 
 RoscoE. Crown 8vo. gs. 
 
 '^ It is written with good taste, luith quick and intelligent sympathy, 
 
 occasionally with a real freshness and charm of styled — Pall 
 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 Waller. — six weeks in the saddle : A Painter's journal 
 
 in Iceland. By S. E. Waller. Illustrated by tlie Author. 
 
 Crown 8vo. Q)S. 
 
 "■'An exceedingly pleasant and naturally 7V7-itten little hook. . . Mr. 
 Waller has a clavr pencil, and the text is well illustrated with his 
 oiun sketches.'' — Times. 
 Wandering Willie. By the Author of " Effie's Friends," and 
 " John Hatherton." Tliird Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
 
 BELLES LETT RES. 23 
 
 *' This is an idyll of raretrtUh and beauty. . . . The story is sitnple 
 and touching, the style oj extraordinary delicacy, precision, and 
 picturesqueness. . . . A charming ^i/t-Oook for young ladies not 
 yet promoted to novels, and will amply repay those of their elders 
 7oho vuiy give an hour to its perusal." — Daily News. 
 
 Webster. — Works by AUGUSTA WiiUSTKR : — 
 
 "// Mrs. Webster only remains true to herself, she will assuredly 
 take a higher rank as a poet than any woman has yet done." — 
 Westminster Review. 
 DRAMATIC STUDIES. Extra fcap. 8vo. Sj. 
 
 "A volume as strongly marked by perfect taste as by poetic power."— ' 
 Nonconformist. 
 A WOMAN SOLD, AND OTHER POEMS. Crown Svo. ^s. 6d. 
 
 ^^ Mrs. Webster has shown us that she is able to draw admirably 
 from the lije ; that she can observe luith subtlety, and render her 
 observations with delicacy ; that she can impersonate complex con- 
 ceptions and venture into which few living writers can follow her. " 
 — Guardian. 
 PORTRAITS. Second Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 3j-. 6d. 
 
 "Mrs. Webster's poems exhibit simplicity and tenderness . . . her 
 taste is perfect . . . This simplicity is combined with a subtlety of 
 thought, feeling, and observation which demand that attentionwhich 
 only real lovers of poetry are apt to besto^u." — WESTMINSTER 
 Review. 
 PROMETHEUS BOUND OF .^SCHYLUS. Literally translated 
 
 into English Verse. Extra fcap. Svo. 3J'. 6d. 
 
 " Closeness oid simplicity combined with literary skill." — Athe- 
 naeum. '^ J\frs. Webster's ' Dramatic Studies' and ' Translation 
 of Prometheus ' have won for her an honourable place among our 
 female poets. She writes with remarkable vigour and dramatic 
 realization, and bids fair to be the most successful claimant op Mrs. 
 Browning's mantle." — British Quarterly Review. 
 MEDEA OF EURIPIDES. Literally translated into English 
 
 Verse. Extra fcap. Svo. 3J. 6^. 
 
 "Mrs. Webster's translation surpasses our utmost expectations. It is 
 a photograph of the original without any oJ that harshness which 
 so often accompanies a photograph."— W ESVUISSTEK Review. 
 THE AUSPICIOUS DAY. A Dramatic Poem. Extra fcap. 
 
 Svo, 55. 
 
 " The 'Auspicious Day"* shoios a marked advance, not only in art, 
 but, in what is of far more importance, in breadth of thought and 
 intellectual grasp." — WESTMINSTER Review. " This drama is 
 a manifestation of high dramatic poioer on the part of the gifted 
 writer, and entitled to our warmest admiration, as a worthy piece 
 of work. " — Stan daru. 
 YU-PE-YA'S LUTE. A Chinese Tale in English Verse. Extra 
 
 fcap. Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 "A very charming tale, charmingly told in dainty verse, with 
 occasional lyrics of tender beauty." — Standard. " We close the
 
 24 BELLES LETT RES. 
 
 Webster — continued. 
 
 book with the removed conviction that in Mrs. Websta' ive have a 
 profound and original poet. The book is marked not by mere 
 S'iuectness of melody — rare as that gift is — but by the infinitely 
 rarer gifts of dramatic poiuer, of passion, and sympathetic i7isight." 
 — Westminster Review. 
 
 When I was a Little Girl, stories for CHILDREN. 
 
 By the Author of "St. Olave's." Fourth Edition. Extra fcap. 
 
 8vo. 4J. 6d. With Eight Illustrations by L. Frolich. 
 
 ' ' At the head, and a long way ahead, of all books for girls, we 
 place ' When I was a Little Girl.' " — Times. "// is one of the 
 choicest morsels op child-biography which we have met %vith." — 
 Nonconformist. 
 
 White.— RHYMES BY WALTER WHITE. 8vo. 'js. 6d 
 
 Whittier.— JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER'S POETICAL 
 WORKS. Complete Edition, \\ith Portrait engraved by C. II. 
 Jeens. i8mo. 4J-. 6d. 
 " Air. Whittia- has all the smooth melody and the pathos of the aiithor 
 
 op ' Iliaivatha,'' with a greater -nicety of description and a 
 
 quainter fancy. " — Graphic. 
 
 Wolf.— THE LIFE AND PIAEITS OF WILD ANIMALS. 
 
 Twenty Illustrations by Joseph Wolf, engraved by J. W. and E. 
 
 Whymper. With descriptive Letter-press, by D. G. Elliot, 
 
 F.L.S. Super royal 4to, cloth extra, gilt edges. 2is. 
 
 This is the last series of draioings which will be made by Mr. Wolj, 
 either upon wood or stone. The Pall Mall Gazette says : 
 " The fierce, untameable side of brute nature has never received a 
 more robust and vigorous interpretation, and the various incidents 
 in which pa7-ticidar character is shown are set forth with rare dra- 
 matic p07ver. For excellence that will endure, zve incline to place 
 this very near the top of the list of Christmas books." Jlnd the 
 Art Journal observes, ''''Rarely, if ever, have we seen animal 
 life more forcibly and beautifully depicted than in this really 
 splendid volume. " 
 Also, an Edition in royal folio, handsomely bound in Morocco 
 
 elegant, Proofs before Letters, each Proof signed by the Engravers. 
 
 Price 8/. 8.f. 
 
 Wollaston. — LYRA DEVONIENSIS. By T. v. Wollaston, 
 M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 3J-. 6d. 
 
 "It is the work of a Jiian of refined taste, of deep religious sentiment, 
 a true artist, and a good Christian." — Churcii Times. 
 
 Woolner. — my beautiful lady. By Thomas Woolner. 
 
 With a Vignette by Arthur Hughes. Third Edition. Fcap. 
 
 8vo, 5j. 
 
 " No man can read this poetn without being struck by the fitness and 
 finish of the worhnanship, so to speak, as well as by the chastened 
 and unpretending loftiness of thought which pei-vades the whole" 
 — Globe.
 
 BELLES LETTRES. 25 
 
 Words from the Poets. Selected by the Editor of " Rays 
 of Sunlight." With a Vignette and Frontispiece. i8mo. limp., \s. 
 " The si-lc'ction aims at popularity, and discrz'es it." — GUARUIAN, 
 
 Yonge (C. M.)— Works by Charlotte M. Yonge. 
 THE IIKIK OF REDCLYFFE. Twentieth Edition. With Illus- 
 trations. Crown Svo. 6j. 
 
 HEARTSEASE. Thirteenth Edition. With Illustrations. Crown 
 
 Svo. 6j. 
 THE DAISY CHAIN. Twelfth Edition. With Illustrations. 
 
 Crown Svo. 6j-. 
 
 THE TRIAL: MORE LINKS OF THE DAISY CHAIN. 
 
 Twelfth Edition. With Illustrations. Crown Svo. ds. 
 DYNEVOR TERRACE. Sixth Edition. Crown Svo. 6j. 
 HOPES AND FEARS. Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. 6j-. 
 THE YOUNG STEPMOTHER. Fifth Edition. Crown Svo. ds. 
 CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY. Third Edition. 
 
 Crown Svo. 6j. 
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. Fourth Edition. 
 Crown Svo. 6j. 
 " We think the authoress of ' The Heir of Redely ffe' has surpassed 
 
 her previous efforts in this illuminated chronicle of the olden time." 
 
 — British Quarterly. 
 
 THE CAGED LION. Illustrated. Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 " Prettily and tenderly wjitten, and 'will zvith young people especially 
 be a great favourite.'''' — Daily News. ^^ Everybody should read 
 this." — Literary Churchman. 
 iTIIE 'CIIAPLET OF PEARLS; or, THE WHITE AND 
 
 BLACK RIBAUMONT. Crown Svo. 6s. New Edition. 
 
 " Miss 'yonge has brought a lofty aim as well as high art to the con- 
 struction of a story which may claim a place among the best efforts 
 in historical romance." — Morning Post. " The plot, in truth, 
 is of the very first order of me)-it." — SPECTATOR. " We have 
 seldom read a more charmitig story." — Guardian. 
 THE PRINCE AND THE PAGE. A Tale of the Last Crusade. 
 
 Illustrated. iSmo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 " A tale which, -we are sure, ivill give pleasure to viany others besides 
 the young people for whom it is specially intended. . , . This 
 extremely prettily-told story does not reqiiire the guarantee afforded 
 by the name of the author of ' The Heir 0/ Redely ffe' on the title- 
 page to ensure its becoming a universal favourite." — DUBLIN 
 Evening Mail. 
 
 THE LANCES OF LYNWOOD. New Edition, with Coloured 
 Illustrations. iSmo. 4J. 6d. 
 
 " The illustrations are very spirited and i-ich in colour, and the 
 story can hardly fail to charm the youthful reader. " —MANCHESTER 
 Examiner. 
 
 -THE LITTLE DUKE : RICHARD THE FEARLESS. New 
 Edition. Illustrated. 1 81110. 2s. 6d.
 
 BELLES LETTERS. 
 
 Yonge (C. M.) — continued. 
 A STOREHOUSE OF STORIES. First and Second Series. 
 Globe Svo. 3^. 6d. each. 
 
 Contents of First Series : — Histoiy of Philip Quarll — 
 Goody Twoshoes— The Governess— Jemima Placid— The Perambu- 
 lations of a Mouse— The Village School— The Little Queen- 
 History of Little Jack. 
 " Miss Yonge has done great service to the infantry of this generation 
 
 by putting these eleven stories of sage simplicity -within their reach." 
 
 — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 Contents of Second Series : — Family Stories — Elenients of 
 Morality — A Puzzle for a Curious Girl — Blossoms of Morality. 
 
 A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS OF ALL TIMES AND ALL 
 COUNTRIES. Gathered and Narrated Anew. New Edition, 
 with Twenty Illustrations by Frolich. Crown Svo. cloth gilt. ds. 
 (See also Golden Treasury Series). Cheap Edition, i^. 
 " We have seen no prettier gift-book for a long time, and none ivhich, 
 both for its cheapness and the spirit in -which it has been compiled, 
 is more deserving of praise." — Athen.^um. 
 LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE. Pictured by 
 Frolich, and narrated by Charlotte M. Yonge. Second 
 Edition. Crown 4to. cloth gilt. 6^. 
 
 '''Lucy's Wonderful Globe' is capital, and -will give its youthful 
 
 readers more idea of foreign countries and custovis than any nmnbcr 
 
 of books of geography or travel." — Graphic. 
 
 CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. From Rollo to 
 
 Edward II. Extra fcap. Svo. i^s. Second Edition, enlarged. 5^. 
 
 A Second Series. THE WARS IN FRANCE. Extra fcap, 
 
 Svo. 5.f. 
 
 '■'■Instead of dry details," says the NONCONFORMIST, "-we have 
 living pictures, faithful, vivid, and striking." 
 
 P's and Q's ; OR, THE QUESTION OF PUTTING UPON. 
 
 With Illustrations by C. O. MURRAY. Second Edition. Globe 
 
 Svo. cloth gilt. 45-. dd. 
 
 " One of her most successfid little pieces . . . . fust -what a narrative 
 should be, each incident simply and naturally related, no preaching 
 or moralizing, and yet the moral coining out most powerfully, and 
 the -whole story not too long, or -with the least appearance of being 
 spun out." — Literary Churchman. 
 THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE; or, UNDER WODE, 
 
 UNDER RODE. Second Edhion. Four vols, crown Svo. 20J. 
 
 " A domestic story oj English professional life, zvhich for szueetness 
 of tone and absorbing interest from first to last has never been 
 rivalled."— ii'iMiV,A.-&D. " Miss Yonge has certainly added to 
 her already high reputation by this charming book, which, although 
 in four volumes, is not a single page too long, but keeps the reader's 
 attention fixed to the end. ^Indeed -we are only sorry there _ is not 
 another volume to come, a^id part -with the Under-wood family with 
 sincere regret." — Court Circular.
 
 GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 27 
 
 Yonge (C. yi.)— continued. 
 
 LADY HESTER; or, URSULA'S NARRATIVE. Second 
 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 
 " We shall not anticipate the interest by epitotnizing the plot, but wt 
 shall only say that readers -uill find in it all the gracefulness, 1 it;ht 
 feeli)!'^, and delicate perception zuhich they have been long accustomtd 
 to look for in Miss Yonge' s writings," — GUARDIAN. 
 
 MACMILLAN'8 GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 
 
 Uniformly printed in iSmo., with Vignette Titles by Sir 
 Noel Paton, T. Woolner, W. Holman Hunt, J. E. 
 MiLLAis, Arthur Hughes, &c. Engraved on Steel by 
 Jeens. Bound in extra cloth, 45. dd. each volume. Also 
 kept in morocco and calf bindings. 
 
 " Messrs. Macmillan have, in their Golden Treasury Series, especially 
 provided editions of standard works, volumes of selected poetry, and 
 original compositions, which entitle this series to be called classical. 
 Nothing can be better than the literary execution, nothing more 
 elegant than the material workmanship."— BRmsK Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and 
 
 LYRICAL POEMS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 Selected and arranged, with Notes, by Francis Turner 
 
 Palgrave. 
 
 " This delightful little volttme, the Golden Treasury, which contains 
 many of the best original lyrical pieces and songs in our language, 
 grouped with care and skill, so as to illustrate each other like the 
 pictures in a wsll-arranged gallery." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 The Children's Garland from the best Poets. 
 
 Selected and arranged by Coventry Patmokk. 
 
 " It includes specimetis of all the great masters in the art of poetry, 
 selected with the matured judgment of a man concentrated on 
 obtaining insight into the feelings a7ui tastes of childhood, and 
 desirous to awaken its finest impulses, to cultivate its keenest sensi- 
 bilities." — Morning Post. 
 
 The Book of Praise. From the Best English Hymn \Vriters. 
 Selected and arranged by Lord SelhoURNE. A New and En- 
 larged Edition. 
 
 *^ All previous compilations of this kind must undeniably for the 
 present give place to the Book of Praise. . . . The selection has 
 been made throughout with sound judgment and critical taste. The 
 pains involved in this compilation must have been immense, em- 
 bracing, as it does, every writer of note in this special proz'ince oj 
 English lite^-ature, and ranging over the most 'widely divergent 
 tracks of religious thought." — SATURDAY Review.
 
 28 GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 
 
 The Fairy Book ; the Best Popular Fairy Stories, Selected 
 and rendered anew by the Author of " John Halifax, 
 Gentleman." 
 
 '* A delightful selection, in a delightful external form ; full of the 
 physical splendour and vast opulence of pj'oper fairy tales.'" — 
 Spectator. 
 
 The Ballad Book, a Selection of the Choicest British Ballads. 
 Edited by William Allingham. 
 
 ' ' His taste as a fudge of old poetry will be found, by all acquainted with 
 the various readings of old English ballads, true enough to justify 
 his undertaking so critical a /ffj-/^."— Saturday Review. 
 
 The Jest Book. The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings. Selected 
 and arranged by ]\lARK Lemon. 
 
 " The fullest and best jest book that has yet appeared.'" — SATURDAY 
 Review. 
 
 Bacon's Essays and Colours of Good and Evil. 
 
 With Notes and Glossarial Index. By \V. Aldis Wright, 
 
 M.A. 
 
 *' The beautiful little edition of Bacon^s Essays, Jtotu before us, docs 
 credit to the taste and scholarship of Mr. Aldis Wright. . . . Is 
 puts the reader in possession of all the essential literary facts and 
 chronology necessary for reading the Essays in connection with 
 BacojUs life a7id times." — Spectator. 
 
 The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to 
 come. By John Bunyan. 
 " A beautiful and scholarly reprint." — SPECTATOR. 
 
 The Sunday Book of Poetry for the Young. 
 
 Selected and arranged by C. F. Alexander. 
 
 *^ A well-selected volufne of Sacred Poetry." — SPECTATOR. 
 
 A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Countries. 
 
 Gathered and narrated anew. By the Author of "The Heir of 
 
 Redclyffe." 
 
 "... To the young, for 7vhoi)i it is especially intended, as a most 
 interesting collection of thrilling tales zvell told ; and to their elders, 
 as a useful handbook of 7-eference, atid a pleasant one to take up 
 whe7i their wish is to while away a weary half hour. We have 
 see7i no prettier gift-book for a long time." — Athen^um. 
 
 The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited, with 
 
 Biographical Memoir, Notes, and Glossary, by Alexander 
 Smith. Two Vols. 
 
 '* Beyond all question this is the most beautiful edition of Burns 
 yd out." — Edinburgh Daily Review. 
 
 The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Edited from 
 the Original Edition by J. W. Clark, M.A. Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. 
 ' ' Mutilated ami modified editions of this English classic are so much
 
 GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 29 
 
 the rule, that a cheap and pretty copy of it, rif^dly exact to the 
 origitta/, will be a prize to many book-buyers." — Examiner. 
 
 The Republic of Plato. Translated into English, with 
 Notes by J. LI. Davies, M.A. and D. J. Vaughan, M.A. 
 *^ A danitv and cheap little editiott." — Examiner. 
 
 The Song Book, Words and Tunes from the best Poets and 
 Musicians. Selected and arranged by John IIullah, Professor 
 of Vocal Music in King's College, London. 
 
 ** A choice collection of the sterling songs of England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, 7vith the tnusic of each prefixed to the Words. Iloiv much 
 true luholesome pleasure such a book can difjuse, and 'vill diff'use, 
 7ue trust through many thousand families." — EXAMINER. 
 
 La Lyre Francaise. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by 
 OusTAVE Masson, French Master in Harrow School. 
 -7 selection of the best French songs and lyrical pieces. 
 
 Tom Brown's School Days. By An Old Boy. 
 
 " A perfect gem of a book. The best and most healthy book about 
 boys Jor hoys that ever ivas 7i'ritten." — ILLUSTRATED TiMES. 
 
 A Book of Worthies. Gathered from the Old Histories and 
 written anew by the Author of " The Heir ok Redclyffe." 
 With Vignette. 
 
 '■'■ An admirable addition to an admirable series." — WESTMINSTER 
 Review. 
 
 A Book of Golden Thoughts. By Henry Attwei.l, 
 
 Knight of the Order of the Oak Crown. 
 ^^ Mr. Attwell has produced a book of rare value . . . . Happily it 
 is small enough to be carried about in the pocket, and of such a com- 
 panion it would be difficult to weary" — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Guesses at Truth. Py Two Brothers. New Edition. 
 
 The Cavalier and his Lady. Selections from the Works 
 of the Pirst Duke and Duchess of Newcastle. With an Intro- 
 ductory Essay by ICdward Jenkins, Author of *' Ginx's Baby," 
 &c. i8mo. 4^-. (>d. 
 '■'■A charming little volume." — STANDARD. 
 
 Theologia Germanica. — Which setteth forth many fair Linea- 
 ments of Divine Truth, and saith very lofty and lovely things 
 touching a Perfect Life. Edited by Dr. Pi-eiffek, from tlie only 
 complete manuscript yet known. Translated from tlie German, 
 by Susanna Winkworth. With a Preface by the Kkv. Charles 
 Kingsley, and a Letter to the Translator by the Chevalier 
 Bunsen, TXD. 
 
 Milton's Poetical Works. — Edited, with Notes, &c., by 
 Professor Masson. Two vols. i8mo. gj. 
 
 Scottish Song, a Selection of the Choicest Lyrics of Scotland. 
 Compiled and arranged, with brief Notes, by Mary Carlyle 
 Aitkin. i8mu. 4?. 6d.
 
 30 GLOBE LIBRARY. 
 
 _ q 
 
 ^^ Miss Aitkeiis exquisite collectioti of Scottish Song is so alluring, 
 and suggests so many topics, that ivc find it difficult to lay it doiun. 
 The book is one that should fitid a place in every library, lue had 
 almost said in every pocket, and the summer tou7-ist who ivishes to 
 carry with him into the country a volume of genu i7te poetry, 7vill 
 find it difficult to select one containing within so small a compass 
 so much of rarest value,^' — SrECTATOR. 
 
 MACMILLAN'S GLOBE LIBRARY. 
 
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 Books, Wordsworth says, are 
 
 "the spirit breathed 
 By dead men to their kind ; " 
 
 and the aim of the publishers of the Globe Library has 
 been to make it possible for the universal kin of English- 
 speaking men to hold communion with the loftiest " spirits 
 of the mighty dead ; " to put within the reach of all classes 
 confide and accurate editions, carefully and clearly printed 
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 price, of the works of the master-minds of English 
 Literature, and occasionally of foreign literature in an 
 attractive English dress. 
 
 The Editors, by their scholarship and special study of 
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 "make the whole world kin," 
 
 The Saturday Review says : " The Globe Editions are admirable 
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 pendious form, and their cheapness." The British Quarterly 
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 the Globe Editions of Messrs. MacmUlan surpass any popular series
 
 GLOBE LIBRARY. 31 
 
 of our classics hitherto given to the public. As near an approach 
 
 to miniature perfection as has ez'er been vtade,^' 
 
 Shakespeare's Complete Works. Edited by w. d 
 Clark, M.A., and W, Aluis Wright, M, A., of Trinity Collcije- 
 Cambridge, Editors of the "Cambridge Shakespeare." With 
 Glossary, pp. 1,075. 
 
 T/i^ATllEN/liUM says this edition is "a marvel oj beauty, cheapness, 
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 working student, this is the best of all existing Shahespeares." 
 And the Pall Mall Gazette obsenes : " To have produced 
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 and at a price within the reach of every one, is 0/ itself almost 
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 factors." 
 
 Spenser's Complete Works. Edited from the Orij/inal 
 
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 W. Hales, M.A- With Glossary, pp. Iv., 736. 
 
 "IJWthy — and higher praise it needs not — of the beautiful 'Globe 
 
 Series.^ The luork is edited xvith all the care so noble a poet 
 
 desn-c'cs. " — DAILY News. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works. Edited with a 
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 and copious Notes, pp. xliii., 559. 
 
 " ^Fe can almost sympathise zoith a middle-a^ed grumbler, who, after 
 reading Mr. Talgrave's memoir and introduction, should exclaim 
 — * IVhy 7i'as there not such an edition of Scott when I was a school' 
 boy ? ' " — Guardian. 
 
 Complete Works of Robert Burns. — the poems, 
 
 SONGS, AND letters, edited from the best Printed and 
 Manuscript Authorities, with Glossarial Index, Notes, and a 
 Biographical Memoir by Alexander Smith, pp. Ixii., 636. 
 "Admirable in all respects." — Spectator. " The cheapest, the 
 
 7nost perfect, and the most interesting edition which has ever been 
 
 published." — Bell's Messenger. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe. Edited after the Original Editions, with a 
 
 Biographical Introduction by Henry Kingsley. pp. xxxi., 607. 
 
 "^ most excellent and in ei'ery way desirable edition." — Court 
 
 Circular. '' Macmillaii s ' Globe' Robinson Crusoe is a book to 
 
 have and to Xvr/."— Morning Star. 
 
 Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. Edited, with 
 
 Biographical Introduction, by Professor Masson. pp. Ix., 695. 
 
 ''Such an admirable cotnpcndium of the facts of Goldsmith's life, 
 
 and so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed traits of his 
 
 peculiar character as to be a very model of a literary biography 
 
 in /////c'."— Scotsman. 
 
 Pope's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and Intro- 
 ductory Memoir, by Adolpiius William Ward, M.A., Fellow
 
 32 GLOBE LIBRARY. 
 
 of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Professor of History in 
 
 Owens College, Manchester, jjp. Hi., 508. 
 
 The Literary Churchman remarks : " The ediioi's own notes 
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 Dryden's Poetical Works, Edited, with a Memoir, 
 
 Revised Text, and Notes, by W. D. Christie, M.A., of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, pp. Ixxxvii., 662. 
 
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 than ninety pages, as 7?iuch sound criiicis?n and as comprehensive 
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 Cowper's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and 
 
 Biographical Introduction, by William Benham, Vicar of 
 
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 London, pp. Ixxiii., 536. 
 
 ^^Mr. Benham' s edition of Co-wper is one of permattenf value. 
 The biographical introduction is excellent, full of information, 
 singularly neat and readable and modest — indeed too modest in 
 its comments. The notes are concise and accurate, and the editor 
 has beejt able to discover and introduce some hitherto imprinted 
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 Review. 
 Morte d'Arthur. — SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF 
 
 KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS 'NOBLE KNIGHTS OF 
 
 THE ROUND TABLE. The original Edition of Caxton, 
 
 revised for Modern Use. With an Introduction by Sir Edward 
 
 Strachey, Bart. pp. xxxvii., 509. 
 
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 The Works of Virgil. Rendered into Enghsh Prose, with 
 Introductions, Notes, Running Analysis, and an Index. By James 
 Lonsdale, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, 
 Oxford, and Classical Professor in King's College, London ; and 
 Samuel Lee, M.A., Latin Lecturer at University College, 
 London, pp. 288. 
 
 ' ' A more complete edition of Virgil in English it is scarcely possible 
 to conceive than the scholarly work before us." — Globe. 
 
 The Works of Horace. Rendered into English Prose, with 
 
 Introductions, Running Analysis, Notes, and Index. By John 
 
 Lonsdale, M.A., and Samuel Lee, M.A. 
 
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 will be invaluable as a faithful interpretation oJ the mind and 
 
 meaning of the poet, enriched as it is with notes and dissertations 
 
 of the highest value in the way of criticism, illustration, and 
 
 explanation." 
 
 LONDON : R. CLAV, SONS, AND TAYLOK, PRINTERS.
 
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