64 Poetry. [Chap. XX, 



But whatever may be the origin of the poems 

 which have passed under the name ofOssian, they 

 doubtless possess merit of a wonderful kind. 

 Amidst the obscurity which remarkably pervades 

 them, and the frequent, and even disgusting, re- 

 currence of the same images, such as the extend- 

 ed heath by the seashore ; the mountain covered 

 with mist; the torrent rushing through a solitary 

 valley ; the scattered oaks ; the tombs of the war- 

 riors overgrown with moss ; and the melancholy 

 notes resounding from the hall of shells ; still these 

 celebrated productions abound with rich beauties; 

 with energy of- style, force of description, pathos, 

 tenderness, and in some instances with sublimity 

 of the highest order. 



In 1777 were published " Poems supposed to 

 have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, 

 and others, in the fifteenth Century." These 

 poems were first brought to light by Thomas 

 Chatterton, a youth of humble origin, and small 

 advantages of education *, who professed to be 



forge compositions bearing so many marks of antiquitj', both in 

 the style, the sentiments, and the historical facts. On the othei* 

 hand, it is no less difficult to believe that manuscript copies of 

 these poems, in the form in vrhich we now see them, should have 

 existed from very remote antiquity. 



* Thomas Chatterton Mas born in the cit}^ of Bristol, Novem- 

 ber 20th, 1752; His father was the master of a free school in 

 that city, and was too poor to ^ive his son any of the advantages 

 of a liberal education. His acquirements, therefore, were chiefly 

 made up of such an acquaintance with English literature as a niiiKi 

 of wonderful force, ardour, and ambition might be expected to 

 gain under the constant pressure of poverty and other difficulties, 

 and in the short space of less than eighteen years. He begai^ 

 to \Vrite poetry about the eleventh year of his age ; and was but 4 



