io REMINISCENCES OF 



stance, the new bequest made him part owner of a 

 brig called "Mercury," which, a few years after, 

 ended her own career, and the chief part of his 

 investment among the rocks south of the Scar- 

 borough Spa. 



Meanwhile my school life was a succession of 

 broken attendances, alternating with longer or 

 shorter holidays. Each midsummer vacation was 

 ushered in by public recitations, the preparation for 

 which seriously interfered with scholastic work 

 during the greater part of June. On these occa- 

 sions I became familiar with Home's Tragedy of 

 " Douglas," "The King and the Miller of Mansfield," 

 and somewhat later with Scott's " Lady of the 

 "Lake." 



After each of these performances, several weeks 

 were regularly spent at Lebberston. Instructions, I 

 doubt not, were given to Mr. Smith, the farmer, to 

 keep me in the open air as much as possible. 

 Hence he gave me to understand that I was en- 

 trusted with a special office connected with the well- 

 being of the farm. I was furnished with a tin 

 canister containing gravel, and it was my duty to 

 wander round the cornfields rattling my canister, in 

 order to frighten away the birds, and prevent them 

 from consuming the grain. Many of these lonely 

 hours were spent in the indulgence of vague dream s, 

 characteristic of the boyish ambition for being 

 "somebody." Now, I was Norval, the Lord of 

 Douglas ; dock stalks supplied me with swords, my 



