LIFE 



OF 



HENRY KIEKE WHITE. 



BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 



It fell to my lot to publish, with the assistance of my 

 friend Mr Cottle, the first collected edition of the works 

 of Chatterton, in whose history I felt a more than ordi- 

 nary interest, as being a native of the same city, familiar 

 from my childhood with those great objects of art and 

 nature by which he had been so deeply impressed, and 

 devoted from my childhood with the same ardour to the 

 same pursuits. It is now my fortune to lay before the 

 world some account of one whose early death is not less 

 to be lamented as a loss to English literature, and whose 

 virtues were as admirable as his genius. In the present 

 instance, there is nothing to be recorded but what is 

 honourable to himself, and to the age in which he lived ; 

 little to be regretted, but that one so ripe for heaven 

 should so soon have been removed from the world. 



Henry Kirke White, the second son of John and 

 Mary White, was born in Nottingham, March 21st, 

 1785. His father is a butcher; his mother, whose 

 maiden name was Neville, is of a respectable StaiFord- 

 shire family. 



From the years of three till five, Henry learnt to read 

 at the school of Mrs Garrington ; whose name, unim- 



