456 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, 4 * 
AN attempt having been lately made 
by a veteran learned critic, Dr. 
Sherwin, of Bath, to shake the firm obe- 
lisk erected by the admirers of the im- 
mortal boy Chatterton, in which he has 
stumbled rather ungracefully in taking 
his footing: allow me, through the chan- 
nel of your pages, thus, early, to put the 
public right, as to an assertion in that 
pamphlet, which is a compleat misre- 
presentation of the real situation of the 
much injured youth. 
After an advertisement, stating with a 
petrifying indelicacy, that the profits of 
this Essay, calculated to undermine her 
beloved brother’s fame, were originally 
antended to have been given to the sister 
of the late Thomas Chatterton! the 
Preface commences by telling us, that, 
“A splendid tribute has lately been 
paid by an elegant writer, (Percival, 
Stockdale, perhaps in his Essay on the 
English Poets of Eminence) to the me- 
mory and literary merits of the late Mr. 
T. Chatterton. Whether this cireum- 
stance will, or will not have a tendency 
to reduce the inconsiderable number of 
those who still believe im the authen- 
ticity of the poems, attributed to Row- 
ley, the advocates of the old bard, will 
now probably be convinced that they 
have been generally too eager in depre- 
ciating, while their opponents have been 
equally earnest in overrating, the abilities 
of that unfortunate youth. . 
‘« But the latter certainly have not been 
fully sensible, that, short as the young 
man’s career was, the energies of his 
mind were gradually progressive; for 
when they consider him as having been 
equal to the creation of that elegant, 
complicated, innocent, and pleasing 
fabrication, which much acquirement, as 
well as various talent united to raise ; that 
opinion must have been formed upon 
the display of genius and information, 
which, at a riper and later hour, was ex- 
hibited in some of his unquestionable 
compositions; and un the view of the 
subject, they seem altogether to have 
forgotten, or to have overlooked, the con- 
sideration of the fact, that a lage portion 
of these poems was actually in the hands 
of several of bis intimate friends, long 
before this period, and prior to the year 
1768. Lrefer to this particular point of 
time, because then it was that this great 
and wonderful genius, this premature 
phenomenon, under the influence of a 
passion, which generally animates the 
most unfeeling, and inspires every one 
Vindication of Chatterton, from a 
[June 1, 
‘with some portion of the spirit and 
phrenzy of poetry, opened his addresses 
to his mistressin these ungrammatical and 
hobbling numbers. . 
*¢ Accept fair nymph, this token of my love, 
Nor look disdainful on the prostrate swain 3 
By every sacred oath I’Il constant prove, 
And actas worthy for to wear yourchain.”* 
From this boasting onset, from this 
test, which isto be considered as arule to 
judge by, those who have not lately read 
his works, will begin to be alarmed; 
especially when this bold assertion is - 
placed so gravely as a basis for our judg- 
ment, by one who, by his own confes- 
sion, has heen deeply concerned in 
“ some former attacks on the boy ano- 
nymously,” and who although, by this 
contrivance, he has escapea the unfeel- 
ing lashes of the controvertialists, had 
not yet had his critical rage cooled against 
the ashes of defunct genius, or profited 
from the compleat exposure of the errors 
of the poet’s antagonists, by the noble- 
minded editors of the edition of 1803; 
but after ruminating above twenty-five 
years over their disappointed efforts, at 
last, in his own name, resumes this 
“ amusing study,” as he callsit, when all 
his opponents are dead, buried, and re- 
duced to dust, by way of finding oecupa- 
tion for “a life of feisure and literary 
Tetirement.” 
Yes, the lines charged in the indict- 
ment are certainly in the book, at page 
90, perliaps among the worst of jis early 
valentines, (such as those that know 
Bristol, know that every boy writes once 
a year, or gets written for lim); but how 
then is this to prove that he wrote them, 
or that he wrote them in the year 1768, 
or that he wrote them to his mistress, 
remains to be considered. 
_A plain tale puts it all down. 
In the third volume of the work, from 
which he quotes with so much triumph 
these poor verses, are some of Chatter- 
ton’s letters, and among them one to a 
Mr. Baker, of Charles Town, South Ca- 
rolina, dated March 6, 1768, on which 
Chatterton says to his friend Baker 
—‘* The Poems on Miss Hoyland, I wish 
better for her sake and your’s;” under 
which stands a note by the editors, stating 
that, ‘¢the verses to Miss Hoyland relate 
to a lady to whom Baker paid his ad- 
dresses, and that those, (consisting of a 
whole packet, as will be seen) to 
* See the new edition of Chatterton’s 
works, vel. 1. page 903 lines addressed to 
Miss Hoyland. ; 
Miss 
