328 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



every post brought me as many let- 

 ters as if I had been a broad plod- 

 ding son of day-book and ledger. 



My life flowed on much in the 

 same course till my twenty-third 

 year. Five V amour, et vive la has;a- 

 telle, were my sole principles of 

 action. The addition of two more 

 authors to ray library gave me great 

 pleasure — Sterne and M'Kenzie. — 

 Tristram Shandy and the Man of 

 Feeling were my bosom favourites. 

 Poesy was still a darling walk for my 

 mind; but it was only indulged in 

 according to the liumour of the hour. 

 I had usually half a dozen, or more^ 

 pieces on hand. I took up one or 

 other as it suited the momentaiy 

 tone of the mind, and dismissed the 

 work as it bordered on fatigue. 

 My passions, when once lighted up, 

 raged like so many devils, till they 

 got vent in rhyme ; and then the 

 conning over my verses, like a spell, 

 soothed all into quiet ! None of the 

 rhymes of those days are in print, 

 except, Winter, a dirge, the eldest 

 of my printed pieces; The Death 

 of poor Maillie, John Barleycorn, 

 and songs first, second, and third. 

 Song secor.d was the ebullition tf 

 that passion which ended the fore- 

 mentioned school business. 



My twenty-third year was to me 

 an important itra. Partly through 

 whim, and partly that I wished to 

 set about doing something in life, I 

 joined a flax-dresser in the neigh- 

 bouring town (Irvin), to learn his 

 trade. This was an unlucky affliir. 

 My ****»*; and to finish the 

 whole, as we were giving a wel- 

 coming carousal to the new year, 

 the shop took fire, and burnt to 

 ashes ; and I was left, like a true 

 poet, not worth a sixpence. 



I was obliged to give up this 

 scheme ; the clouds of misfortune 



were gathering thick round my fa- 

 ther's head; and what was worst of 

 all, he was visibly far gone in a 

 consumption ; and to crown my 

 distresses, a helle fiUe, whom I 

 adored, and who had pledged her 

 soul to meet me in the field of ma- 

 trimony, jilted me, with peculiar 

 circumstances of mortification. The 

 finishing evil that brought up the 

 rear of this infernal file, was my 

 constitutional melancholy being in- 

 creased to such a degree, that for 

 three months I was in a state of 

 mind scarcely to be envied by the 

 hopeless Avretches who have got 

 their mittimus — Depart from me 

 ye cursed. 



From this adventure I learned 

 something of a town life ; but the 

 principal thing which gave my 

 mind a turn, was a friendship I 

 formed with a young fellow, a very 

 noble character, but a hapless son 

 of misfortune. He was the son 

 of a simple mechanic ; but a great 

 man in the neighbourhood taking 

 him under his patronage, gave him 

 a genteel education, with a view 

 of bettering his situation in life. 

 The patron dying just as he was 

 ready to launch out into the world, 

 the poor fellow in despair went to 

 sea ; where, after a variety of good 

 and ill fortune, a little before I 

 was acquainted with him, he had 

 been set ashore by an American pri- 

 vateer, on the wild coast of Con- 

 naught, stripped of every thing. I 

 cannot quit this poor fellow's story 

 without adding, that he is at this 

 time master of a large West India- 

 man belonging to the Thames. 



His mind was fraught with inde- 

 pendence, magnanimity, and every 

 manly virtue. I loved and admired 

 him to a degree of enthusiasm, and 

 of course strove to imitate him. In 



