NOTORIETY. 291 



during my summer's residence at Cath- 

 erington. 



In the latter end of the autumn I re- 

 turned to town, determined to shake off 

 the hopelessness which was becoming ha- 

 bitual, and to seek, as common sense and 

 necessity dictated, some means of obtaining 

 a subsistence. 



During my short sojourn at Oxford, I 

 had made acquaintance with two or three 

 celebrated characters who figured conspicu- 

 ously on that road, of whom I have 

 attempted to give a sketch of in the early 

 part of this narrative. Among them was 

 one who stood very high in his own esti- 

 mation. He had risen by a peculiar me- 

 thod, made up of arrogance and persua- 

 sion, vulgarity and venality, strong nerve 

 and recklessness of all consequences to all 

 of which it would be impossible to give 

 the reader an adequate insight and had 

 become a man of great notoriety. 



U2 



