370 
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM HOWITT. 
Mrs. Howitt, and who became assay-master in Jamaica, was the first who intro¬ 
duced platina into Europe. 
Mr. Howitt on his marriage went to reside in Staffordshire, and continued 
there about a year. Mrs. Howitt and himself being of the most congenial taste 
and disposition, determined to publish jointly a volume of Poetry. This appeared 
under the title of The Forest Minstrel , in 1823. It was highly applauded by 
the press, and is sufficiently characteristic of both its writers—the irresistible 
tendency of one to describe natural scenery, and the legendary propensities of 
the other. 
Soon after their marriage they undertook a walk into Scotland, having long 
mutually admired warmly the ballad Poetry and traditions of that country. In 
this ramble, after landing at Dumbarton, they went on over mountain and 
moorland wherever they proposed to go, for one thousand miles, walking more 
than five hundred of it, Mrs. Howitt not only performing the journey without 
fatigue, but to the evident benefit of her health. She had been well prepared 
for such an excursion by her habit of exploring the country around Uttoxeter 
and Needwood Forest, in her maiden days, with her amiable sister, now Mrs. 
Daniel Harrison, of Liverpool. In this ramble they crossed Ben Lomond 
without a guide, and after enjoying the most magnificent spectacle of the clouds 
alternately shrouding and breaking away from the chaos of mountains around 
them, were enveloped by a dense cloud, and only able to effect their descent with 
great difficulty and with considerable hazard. They visited Loch Katrine, 
Stirling, Edinburgh, and all the beautiful scenery for many miles round it, 
traversed Fifeshire, and then, taking Abbotsford in their route, walked through 
the more Southern parts, visiting many places interesting for their historical or 
poetical associations, on to Gretna-Green, where all the villagers turned out brim- 
full of mirth, supposing they were come there to be married, especially as they 
entered the public-house where such matches are completed, and engaged the 
landlord to put them in the way to Carlisle. After visiting the English lakes, 
they hastened homeward, having, as they have been frequently heard to declare, 
enjoyed the most delightful journey imaginable. 
Soon after their return, they settled in Nottingham; Mr. Howitt, though 
actively engaged in business, still devoting his leisure to literary pursuits. Here 
they soon published another joint volume of poems, called The Desolation of 
Eyam , which was received with equal favour by the public. The attention 
which these two volumes excited brought many applications from the Editors of 
Annuals and Magazines, and both Mr. and Mrs. Howitt for some years con¬ 
tributed a great variety of articles to these publications. Of the ballad and 
legendary poems dispersed through them by Mrs. Howitt, we believe Mr. 
Howitt is intending to bring out a beautifully-embellished volume. 
