34 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



house. This office was pleasantly situated in the midst of 

 a large garden, in front of the dwelling-house of the firm, 

 the resident member of which was a Mr. Elson. Of the 

 four clerks, the third was William Charles St. John, a 

 lad of about twenty years of age, a native of the neigh- 

 bouring town of Harbour Grace, where his parents resided. 

 His father, Mr. Oliver St. John, belonged to a Protestant 

 Tipperary family, which claimed relationship alike with 

 Cromwell and with Lord Bolingbroke. As the young St. 

 John was destined for many years to be my father's most 

 intimate friend, I will now transcribe his portrait as I find 

 it recorded among my father's notes : — 



" Charley was a youth of manly height, with features 

 " of the Grecian type, exquisitely chiselled, formed in a 

 " very aristocratic mould, to which an aquiline nose of 

 "unusual dimensions gave character. A mouth of 

 " feminine smallness ; a finely cut chin ; a lofty forehead ; 

 * dark eyes and hair, the latter copious, and rather 

 "crisp than lank, completed the physiognomy of my 

 " new acquaintance, which was continually animated 

 " and lighted up by arch smiles, and by the frolic wit 

 "and merry repartee which his prolific brain was 

 "constantly forging. I saw in him a new type of 

 " character ; he was a fair sample of the Irish youth at 

 " his best. Sarcastic and keen, ready in reply, un- 

 " abashed, prompt to throw back a Roland for every 

 " Oliver, full of fun and frolic, as ready at a practical as 

 " at a verbal joke, possessing a strong perception of the 

 " ludicrous side of everything, cool and self-possessed, 

 " already a well-furnished man of the world, St. John 

 " presented as great a contrast as can well be imagined 

 " to me. I was thoroughly a greenhorn ; fresh from my 

 " Puritan home and companionships ; utterly ignorant of 

 " the world ; raw, awkward, and unsophisticated ; simple 



