A DOCTOR OF DIVINITY 11 



inspire on the glittering little lake at their base — saw the 

 white, chalky road winding through the hills in an 

 opposite direction, skirting the little village of Buriton, 

 where is now standing the house in which the historian 

 Gibbon commenced his immortal work ; then, crossing 

 the brook, I have walked through the village of Steep, 

 to admire the overhanging Avoods and deep ravines of 

 Stonor Hill, from whose top, as from a precipice, may be 

 seen one of the finest landscapes this or any other county 

 can afford. 



]\Iy father, then growing in wealth and prosperity, 

 perceiving, perhaps, that I did not make the jorogress he 

 had been led to expect, about this time fell in by accident 

 with a reverend divine, who, whatever might have been 

 his doctrine, knew Avell how to practise good living ; and 

 to his care, in a convivial hour, was entrusted my future 

 education. 



This Doctor — for he was a D.D. — was eminent as a 

 preacher, though I do not know that he held any benefice, 

 and kejDt an academy in some rej^ute at Fulham. He, I 

 have heard say, was a well-disposed man, of good average 

 acquirements, and with a fair share of colloquial as well 

 as pulpit oratory, which he was fond of displaying to those 

 whom he honoured with his company, and who might 

 benefit by his homilies — but they were not his scholars ; 

 he left them generally to the care of his ushers ; and 

 never shall I forget the torments I suffered from the 

 punishment the senior pedagogue from some particular 

 dislike, or from the love of inflicting pain, thought proper 

 frequently to visit me with — unknown, I was sure, to his 

 principal . 



