By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 117 



to protect the child ; its strange bedfellow was discovered and 

 handed over to the less tender nursing of the huntsman. 



The insertion of this Wiltshire anecdote in Mr. Wheble's periodi- 

 cal happened to turn the conversation upon that county, when the 

 Editor told Britton that some years before, when living at Salisbury, 

 he had conceived the idea of publishing a work in two volumes, to 

 be called " The Beauties of Wiltshire," but had been prevented 

 from continuing it. He now suggested the thought to the contri- 

 butor of the fox story, urged him to undertake it, and offered 

 pecuniary assistance. Being at the time without any sort of tie or 

 profitable occupation, Britton caught eagerly at the suggestion ; 

 the more so as it would give him again and again the opportunity 

 of revisiting and exploring his native county. Such was the real 

 beginning of his literary life. 



The task was accepted ; without any previous qualifications 

 whatever for performing it, other than those of ardour and perse- 

 verance. He knew nothing of the labour required for real topo- 

 graphy, had never studied works upon the subject, and those he 

 now looked into seemed dry and uninviting. Warner's "Walk 

 through Wales" appeared to be more to the purpose, and taking 

 this for his model he commenced a pedestrian tour. Armed with a 

 few maps and books, a limited wardrobe and an umbrella, he 

 rambled several hundred miles about the Midland Counties, passing 

 through Wiltshire on his return. His whole expenses during 

 several months amounted only to eleven pounds sixteen shillings 

 and ninepence ! Of this his first excursion Mr. Britton retained to 

 the last a very vivid and minute recollection ; and has devoted no less 

 than 100 pages of his "Autobiography" to notices of the ditfcrent 

 places ho visited, and the literary or otherwise eminent persons to 

 whom he obtained introduction. One of these notices, presenting 

 ut the same time a fair sample of the general style of his book, 

 will be more particularly acceptable to Wiltshire readers. It 

 describes his reception at Bowood.' 



" Up to the ago of twenty-six, I had never conversed with a 

 nobleman, or scarcely with a gentleman in the higlier ranks of 



1 Aulobiogiuphy, vol. i. p. 353. 



