MEMOIR OF A GENTLEMAN. 255 



with thirty thousand pounds. Need I say, that I abjured 

 business instanter, and that the honoured name of Dawkins 

 disappeared from the list of dry-salters ? For some years, 

 none led a more peaceful and literary life ; and though this 

 may appear a solecism, nevertheless it is positively true. The 

 rejection of my early fugitives had chilled the metrical out- 

 breakings of my imagination. I had almost Cowper's sensi- 

 bility the lethalis arundo, as my Scotch tutor would term it, 

 was deep within my bosom I swore I would never lucubrate 

 again ; never again perpetrate a stanza ; and, like Mr. Daniel 

 O' Council's, I presume that my vow was duly registered in 

 heaven. 



" This sunny portion of my life was, alas ! but transitory. 

 Mine, sir, is a tragic tale. I date the origin of my misfor- 

 tunes on board a Margate steamer, and this melancholy epoch 

 I shudder to recall. Was there no tutelary sprite, no sus- 

 picious spinster, to whisper a cautionary advice ? No ; with- 

 out a single fear I embarked in the Nereid steamer ; and, 

 as the papers stated, ' left the Tower-stairs with a select 

 party, and a band of music, on Friday, the of June, 

 182.' 



" I must here observe, that my blue-stocking aunt, who 

 had actually come out in Leadenhall-street with one small 

 and admired volume, called f Pedrilla, a Tale of Passion,' had 

 been latterly urgent with me to enter into matrimony. 

 * Something told her/ she would say, c that the name of Daw- 

 kins was not doomed to be forgotten, like that of Wood, and 

 Birch, and Bagster. Men of tarts and turpentine might 

 perish, while- could I but procure a talented companion ; 

 could I but unite myself to a congenial soul, God knows what 

 the result would prove ! a gifted progeny might honour me 

 with their paternity ; little Popes and diminutives Landons 

 would thus be given to the world, fated to be glorious in \ 

 their maturity, and lisping in numbers from their very.' 

 cots.' 



" The company on board the Nereid were generally known 

 to me. They were exclusively Eastern ; and there were 

 beauties from the Minories, and nice men from Bishopsgate 

 Within and Without. I was no swain, and as Antigallican in 

 my dancing as Bob Acres. The old women admitted, that, 

 though a good catch, I had no spirit ; the young ones f ad- 

 mired the money, but disliked the man ;' and as I did not 



