90 EARLY LIFE. 



youthful hands could resist. The number we tore off 

 must have been prodigious ; for I remember a large 

 dark closet in my father's house, of which I kept the 

 key, and which was literally filed with our spolia 

 opima. We had no choice but to hoard them ; for, 

 it is pretty obvious, we could not exhibit or otherwise 

 dispose of them. It was a strange fancy ! and must 

 have possessed some extraordinary fascination ; for 

 it will scarcely be credited, and yet it is true as gos- 

 pel, that so late as March 1803, when we gave a fare- 

 well banquet (I think at Fortune's Hotel) to Homer, 

 on his leaving Edinburgh for ever to settle in London, 

 we, accompanied by the grave and most sedate Hor- 

 ner (set. 25, or, to speak quite correctly, 24 years and 

 7 months), sallied forth to the North Bridge,, and there 

 halted in front of Mr Manderson the druggist's shop, 

 where I, hoisted on the shoulders of the tallest of the 

 company, placed myself on the top of the doorway, held 

 on by the sign, and twisted off the enormous brazen 

 serpent, which formed the explanatory announcement 

 of the business that was carried on within. I forget 

 the end of the adventure, but I rather think the city 

 guard exhibited unusual activity on that occasion, 

 and that we had a hard run for it. Looking back to 

 those pranks reminds me of the inexhaustible fund of 

 spirits we possessed, and how that capital foundation 

 of never-tiring energy and endless restlessness enabled 

 some of us to work on with unfailing strength to the 

 end of life ; and even now, writing at nearly 90 years 

 of age, I can recall those, not boys' but young men's 



