IlENlcY KIHKE WUITE. 



Law seemed to be the only practical line. His affection- 

 ate and excellent mother made every possible effort to 

 etTect his wishes, his father being very averse to the plan, 

 and at length, after overcoming a variety of obstacles, 

 he was fixed in the office of Messrs Coldham and Enfield, 

 attorneys and town-clerks of Nottingham. As no pre- 

 mium could be given with him, he was engaged to serve 

 two years before he was articled, so that though he en- 

 tered this office when he was fifteen, he was not articled 

 till the commencement of the year 1802. 



On thus entering the law, it was recommendsd to him 

 by his employers, that he should endeavour to obtain 

 some knowledge of Latin. He had now only the little 

 time which an attorney's office, in very extensive prac- 

 tice, afforded ; but great things may be done in '* those 

 hours of leisure which even the busiest may create," * 

 and to his ardent mind no obstacles were too discourag- 

 ing. He received some instruction in the first rudiments 

 of this language from a person who then resided at Not- 

 tingham under a feigned name, but was soon obliged to 

 leave it, to elude the search of government, who were 

 then seeking to secure him. Henry discovered him to 

 be Mr Corraick, from a print affixed to a continuation of 

 Hume and Smollett, and published, with their histories, 

 by Cooke. He is, I believe, the same person who wrote 

 a life of Burke. If he received any other assistance, it 

 was very trifling; yet, in the course of ten months, he 

 enabled himself to read Horace with tolerable facility, 

 and had made some progress in Greek, which indeed he 

 began first. He used to exercise himself in declining 

 the Greek nouns and verbs as he was going to and from 

 the office, so valuable was time become to him. From 

 this time he contracted a habit of employing his mind in 

 study during his walks, which he continued to the end of 

 his life. 



He now became almost estranged from his family ; 

 even at his meals he would be reading, and his evenings 

 were entirely devoted to intellectual improvement. He 

 had a little room given him, which was called his study, 



* Turner's Preface to the History of the Anglo-Saxons. 



