THE MAIDEN EFFORT. 131 



three metrical attempts of a prior date, I never men- 

 tioned the last, being resolved that if it were refused 

 no one but myself should know of its ill fortune. 



Punctual to the hour of publication I examined the 

 next week's paper and rejoiced to perceive some verses 

 in the critical corner, I was however doomed to new dis- 

 appointment, they were not mine but some extracted 

 from the " Noctes " of Blackwood : I threw down the 

 tantalizing journal in anger, fully satisfied that the 

 editor was an unjust blockhead, totally forgetting my 

 own opinion of the merits of the verses when I sent 

 them and the note I had appended to my transcript. 

 I was always fond of reading in bed, and, at the period 

 to which I allude, usually spent three or four hours 

 each night in that occupation ; the venerable uncle in 

 whose house I was domesticated possessed an excellent 

 library to which I had free access and this proved a source 

 of delight which I never failed to profit by. About five 

 weeks after I had sent my fated lucubration to try its 

 fortune, I retired to my bed-room and read till about 

 two o'clock in the morning, then getting tired of the 

 volume I was perusing (Watkins's small Encyclopaedia) 

 I took up the newspaper of the same day, which I had 

 brought up stairs with me on retiring for the night, but 

 was not aware at the time what particular paper it was 

 What were my sensations when I perceived my own 

 verses at the first glance ? I could hardly credit my 

 sight, and starting up in bed rubbed my eyes well, to 

 be assured I was not in a doze there they were most 

 assuredly, my own verses, without a single typographical 

 error and furthermore the compositor had taken the 

 supererogatory trouble of shoving up the emphatics. 

 I felt an indescribable satisfaction, a sort of be- 

 wildering delight that almost amounted to extacy ; my 

 opinion of the editor was rapidly changed ; I consider- 

 ed him a very dear, good man, I could have embraced 

 him and kissed him at the moment. In the hey-day 

 of my joyous stimulation I thought I would go and 

 knock up my relative, in order to show him what a 

 clever fellow I had become so unexpectedly, and had 



