364 Leaves from the Journal of the Poor Wiltshire Vicar. 



a prolific and imaginative genius, he was often driven by stress 

 of circumstances to repeat himself, as I noticed in \\\y schooldays : 

 and that lie, like other essayists, sometimes had recourse to the 

 form of a week's diary may be gathered from the 91st Letter of 

 his Citizen of the World. While we recognise the claim of the 

 History of Miss Stanton to contain the germ of the Vicar of 

 Wakefield, I see no reason a priori to doubt the possibility of 

 Goldsmith having written such a trifling sketch as the week's 

 Journal of a Wiltshire Curate as a " pot-boiler " some time about 

 1765, or even earlier, or in 1766, when a milkman, butcher, tailor, 

 or landlady was pressing for a money settlement, or when he had 

 been too lavish in his generosity.^ The romantic plot of the vicar's 

 perplexities, his gentle character, and sudden access of unexpected 

 good fortune, all appear to me to suit Goldsmith well enough. 

 But whether or not the story is really his, is a question I must 

 leave to experts in style. Though the plot (such as it is) might 

 pass muster as Goldsmith's, I think the expression of it hardly 

 worthy of him. 



Besides the three editions already mentioned this little week's 

 journal is said to have appeared in the Cryjit in 1829,' as well as 

 in Mr. Thoms' communication in i\^. and Q., 2 S., iii., 173-4 in 

 February, 1857. 



Dr. Ames also edited it in 1897 in an appendix to his paper on 

 a supposed source of the Vicar of Wakefield. Transactions of 

 E. S. L., xix., (2) pp. 105-6. 



(II.) 



We now come to a longer story in which Wiltshire is found] 

 certainly in evidence. The " Curate " assumes the old-fashionedj 

 or Continental style of " Vicar," as " Cure " expresses to Con tinen tall 

 folk the idea of the parson ; and the week's diary is expanded into] 

 " Leaves from the Journal of a Poor Vicar in Wiltshire," or in the] 



' G. Washington Irving's Life of Goldsmith, chaps, xiii., xvi., xvii. 

 G.E.D[artnell] hi Wilts Arch. Mag., xxix., 75. 



=" N. and Q., 2 Ser., iii., 173-4. Note by W. J. Thoms, 1857. 



