XVI LIFE OP 



ing four hours in the servants' hall, his perseverance con- 

 quered their idle insolence, and he got possession of the 

 manuscript. And here he, as well as his brother, sick of 

 " dancing attendance'' upon the great, would have relin- 

 quished all thoughts of the dedication ; but they were 

 urged to make one more trial : — a letter to her Grace was 

 procured, with which Neville obtained audience, wisely 

 leaving the manuscript at home ; and the Duchess, with 

 her usual good nature, gave permission that the volume 

 should be dedicated to her. Accordingly her name ap • 

 peared in the title page, and a copy was transmitted to 

 her in due form, and in its due morocco livery, of which 

 no notice was ever taken. Involved as she vvas in an 

 endless round of miserable follies, it is probable that she 

 never opened the book ; otherwise her heart was good 

 enough to have felt a pleasure in encouraging the author. 

 Oh, what a lesson would the history of that heart hold 

 out! 



Henry sent his little volume* to each of the then ex- 



* The following is the original preface to the volume;— The follow- 

 ing attempts in verse are laid before the public with extreme dilti- 

 dence. The Author is very conscious that the juvenile efforts of a youth 

 who has not received the polish of academical discipline, and who lias 

 been but sparingly blessed with opportunities for the prosecutiui of 

 scholastic pursuits, must necessarily be defective in the accuracy and 

 finished elegance which mark the works of the man who has passed 

 his life in the retirement of his study, furnishing his mind with images, 

 and at the same time attaining the power of disposing those images to 

 the best advantage. 



The unpremeditated effusions of a boy, from his thirteenth year, em- 

 ploved,not in the acquisition of literary information, but in the more 

 active business of life, must not be expected to exhibit any considerable 

 portion of the correctneFs of a Virgil, or the vigorous compression of a 

 Horace. Men are not, 1 believe, frequently known to bestow much 

 labour on their amusements; and these poems were, most of them, 

 written merely to bejraile a leisure hour, or to fill up the languid in- 

 tervals of studies of //severer nature. 



n«5 TO oiKUo; i^yov uyaTouu. " Every one loves his own work," 

 savs the Stagyrite ; but it was no overweening affection of this kind 

 which induced this publication. Had the Author relied on h;s ov/n 

 judgment only, these poems would not, in all probability, ever have 



^ Perhaps it may be asked of him, what are his motives for this publi- 

 cation ? He answers— simply these: the facilitation through its means 

 of tho'se studies which, from his earliest infancy, have been the prin- 

 cipal objects of his ambition; and the increase of the capacity to pur- 

 sue those inclinations which may one day place him m an honourable 

 station in the scale of society, ,^,..^ ^ ^ • x. 



The principal poem in this little collection (Chfton Grove) is, he 

 fears deficient in numbers, and harmonious coherency of parts. It is, 

 however, merely to be regarded as a description of a nocturnal ramble 

 in that charming retreat, accompanied with such reflections as ibe 

 scene naturally suggested. It was written twelve months ago, when 



