196 Memoir of WiUiam Roscoe, Esq. 



couragement of young Holden, who, seeing the aptitude and in- 

 dustry of his friend, strenuously urged him to pursue the path 

 which his own genius had opened to his aspirations after literary 

 distinction. 



In fact, Roscoe owed very little of his acquirements to any 

 instructor. What he drew from the conversation of his early 

 associates, there is every reason to believe he amply repaid in 

 kind ; and, with the single exception of Burns, I do not know 

 any of our distinguished writers who is less indebted to others 

 for assistance in the road to literary eminence than William 

 Roscoe — certainly few of them could with more truth exclaim, 

 in the language of Phemius^ when a suppliant to Ulysses, — 



During the time of his apprenticeship, Mr Roscoe formed an 

 agreement with his friends Clarke, Lowndes, and Holden, to 

 meet early in the morning, before the hours of business, for the 

 purpose of reading together some Latin author, and discours- 

 ing on what they read. The example of these youthful stu- 

 dents cannot be too earnestly inculcated on the rising generation 

 of this place, while the success of one at least of them in the 

 fields of literature is a striking proof of what may be obtained 

 by such appropriation of hours too often lost to mental improve- 

 ment. While classic authors thus engaged his morning leisure, 

 Roscoe continued earnestly to cultivate Itahan literature. It 

 would seem that, before his twentieth year, he had read, in the 

 original, several of the Italian historians, and, at that time even, 

 had set his mind on becoming the biographer of Lorenzo de** 

 Medici, the great patron of the early restorers of ancient learn- 

 ing. 



He had, from an early period of his life, felt the force of poe- 

 tic inspiration, and had undoubtedly cultivated the Muses with 

 high promise of brilliant success, ere he had attained his twen- 

 tieth summer. A considerable number of his early verses re- 

 main, which breathe an ardent spirit of poetry. Some of these 

 are addressed to a young lady of the same age, whose poetical 

 genius had excited his warmest admiration, and who appears to 

 have no less admired the talents of Roscoe. One of her MS. 

 poems, written about 1772, contains the following lines, which 



