TALENT FOR RECITATION. 447 
could not entertain the slightest sentiment of distrust. 
One day however, Watt was at a loss how to extricate 
his characters from the labyrinth into which he had im- 
prudently thrown them. One of his friends perceived, 
by the uncommon number of pinches of snuff he took, 
that the narrator wished thereby to excuse frequent 
pauses, and gain time for reflection. He therefore ad- 
dressed this indiscreet question to him: “ Are you per- 
haps relating to us a story of your own creation?” 
“ That doubt astonishes me,” wittily replied the old man; 
* during the twenty years that I have had the happiness 
of passing my evenings with you, I have done nothing 
else! It is possible that they really wished to represent 
me as emulous of Robertson or of Hume, whilst all my 
ambition was limited to follow, however far behind, the 
steps of Princess Scheherazade in the Thousand and 
One Nights!” 
Each year, during a very short visit to London, or to 
other towns at a less distance from Birmingham, Watt 
examined minutely all the novelties that had appeared 
since his preceding visit. I do not except even the sight 
of the industrious fleas or the puppet-shows; for the 
illustrious engineer went to them with all the delight of 
a school-boy. While perusing, even at the present day, 
the itinerary of these annual excursions, we should find 
luminous traces of Watt’s presence. At Manchester for 
example, we should see the hydraulic ram serving, ac- 
cording to his own proposition, to raise the water of con- 
densation from a steam-engine up to the reservoir feeding 
the caldron. 
Watt generally resided on an estate near Soho called 
Heathtield, which he acquired about -the year 1790. 
The filial veneration of my friend Mr. James Watt, for 
