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 

 Heathfield, which he acquired about the year 1790. 

 The filial veneration of my friend Mr. James Watt, for 



