By the Rev. J. E. Jachon. 119 



to my friends. From persons at Chippenham and from public 

 report, I had been led to consider the Marquis as naturally high, 

 stern, and haughty to strangers, and with this impression I ap- 

 proached him with a full recognition of the embarrassed situation 

 of poor dear Goldsmith, in his interview with the Duke of Newcastle. 

 Fortunately I found him very diifereut from anticipation, for he 

 was bland, courteous, and aifable. Hence I was soon relieved from 

 all painful restraint, and told my "round unvarnished tale" of birth- 

 place near Bowood, of being parentless, friendless, and almost 

 homeless, but ambitious to do something to mitigate those misfor- 

 tunes. — After I had been indulged and honoured with nearly an 

 hour's most exciting converse, his lordship called his librarian, Mr. 

 Matthews, directed him to provide me with such books and maps 

 as might be useful, allot me a bedroom, and send a person to show 

 me the house, the pleasure-grounds, the cascade, the park, and 

 other objects. Relieved from the painful suspense of doubt, anxiety, 

 and alarm, my heart expanded, my mind was exhilarated, and every 

 thing, scene, and person, seemed super-naturally exquisite and 

 charmed. Had his lordship repulsed my first overtures, and sent 

 me from his house with cold pride or indifference, it is probable that 

 ' The Beauties of Wiltshire ' would never have appeared before the 

 public, nor its author ever have become known in the annals of 

 literature. To Lord Lansdowne, therefore, am I indebted for the 

 condescension and kindness he manifested towards an unknown and 

 very humble person ; who has laboured hard from that time to the 

 present in the fields of literature and art to produce a succession 

 and amount of books, which may be considered to equal, if not 

 surpass, those of any other English author, in quantity and quality 

 of embellishment, typography, and in varied matter and manner 

 of tlieir miscellaneous contents." 



Half a guinea a week was his allowance from Whcblo for 

 writing tlio " licuutm of Wiltshire." It appeared in two volumes 

 in 1801. After all it contained only an account of a few places, 

 cliiefly in the south of the county, and was not a book likely to 

 bring any reputation to its author. Of this no one was better 

 aware than tlie author himself in after life; biil the circumslancos 



