232 ROBERT WALKER'S EARLY LIFE, 



make me the more desirous to be informed 

 about him. 



PISCATOK. I have been unguarded, perhaps, 

 in exciting so much your curiosity, which, com- 

 monly, it is more easy to raise than to satisfy : 

 but, in this instance, the task I think will not 

 be very difficult. Let me consider; where 

 shall I begin ? Each period of Eobert Wal- 

 ker's life was remarkable. He was, we are told, 

 a weakly child, one of twelve, the youngest ; 

 and that on account of his weakly state, his 

 father, a small statesman, gave him what 

 schooling he could, which, as he was born and 

 brought up in this very township, at Under- 

 crag, you may well imagine was scanty enough. 

 Before he reached manhood, when he was 

 about seventeen, he became a schoolmaster. 

 This was at Grosforth, near Egremont, in Cum- 

 berland, where he remained two or three years. 

 Thence he removed to Buttermere, where 

 he obtained a nomination, and entered deacon's 

 orders. There he acted both as minister and 

 schoolmaster ; and in the latter capacity, to 

 enable him to live on his small salary, after 

 the manner of the country he went from house 

 to house, abiding a fortnight at a time at each. 



