special to do, and at liberty to amuse himself as he liked. From copying letters and precedents, he could turn to Camden's Britannia, an edition of which lay on the office-shelves, to Holinshed's Chronicles, to Speght's Chaucer, to Geoffrey of Monmouth, or to any other book that he could borrow from a library, and smuggle in for his private recreation. Sometimes, also, the tradition goes, his master, entering the office unexpectedly, would catch him writing verses, and would lecture him on the subject. Once the offence was still more serious. An anonymous abusive letter had been sent to Mr. Warner, the head-master of Colston's School; and, by the texture of the paper and other evidences, this letter was traced to the ex-Bluecoat of Mr. Lambert's office, whose reasons for sending it had probably been personal. On this occasion his master was so exasperated as to strike him.

A young attorney's apprentice, of proud and sullen temper, discontented with his situation, ambitious, conscious of genius, yet treated as a boy and menial servant: such was Chatterton during the two years that followed his removal from the Bluecoat School. To this add the want of pocket-money; for, busy as he was with his master's work and his own secret exercises in the way of literature, it is still authentically known that he found time of an evening not only to drop in pretty regularly at his mother's house, but also to do

as other attorneys' apprentices did, and prosecute little amusements, such as all apprentices like to find practicable. Altogether, the best glimpse we have of Chatterton in his commoner aspect as an attorney's apprentice in Bristol is that which we get from a letter written by him, during his first year with Mr. Lambert, to a youth named Baker, who had been his chum at Colston's School, and had emigrated to America. Baker had written to him from South Carolina, informing him, amongst other things, that he had fallen in love with an American belle, of the name of Hoyland, whose charms had obscured his memory of the Bristol fair ones, and begging him, it would also appear, to woo the Muses in his favour, and transmit him across the Atlantic a poem or two, to be presented to Miss Hoyland. Chatterton complies, and sends a long letter, beginning with a few amatory effusions to Miss Hoyland, such as Baker wanted, and concluding thus:

"March 6th, 1768.

"DEAR FRIEND,-I must now close my poetical labours, my master being returned from London. You write in a very entertaining style; though I am afraid mine will be to the contrary. Your celebrated Miss Rumsey is going to be married to Mr. Fowler, as he himself informs me. Pretty children! about to enter into the comfortable yoke of matrimony, to be at their liberty; just à propos to the old saw, 'But out of the

·

frying-pan into the fire.' For a lover, heavens mend him! but for a husband, oh, excellent! What a female Machiavel this Miss Rumsey is! A very good mistress of nature, to discover a demon in the habit of a parson; to find a spirit so well adapted to the humour of an English wife; that is, one who takes off his hat to every person he chances to meet, to show his staring horns! ... O mirabile, what will human nature degenerate into? Fowler aforesaid declares he makes a scruple of conscience of being too free with Miss Rumsey before marriage. There's a gallant for you! Why, a girl with anything of the woman would despise him for it. But no more of this. I am glad you approve of the ladies in Charlestown, and am obliged to you for the compliment of including me in your happiness. My friendship is as firm as the white rock when the black waves war around it, and the waters burst on its hoary top; when the driving wind ploughs the sable sea, and the rising waves aspire to the clouds, turning with the rattling hail. So much for heroics; to speak plain English, I am, and ever will be, your unalterable friend. I did not give your love to Miss Rumsey, having not seen her in private; and in public she will not speak to me, because of her great love to Fowler, and on another occasion. I have been violently in love these three-and-twenty times since your departure, and not a few times came off victorious. I am obliged to you for your curiosity, and shall esteem it very much, not on account of itself, but as coming from you. The poems, &c., on Miss Hoyland, I wish better, for her sake and yours. The 'Tournament' I have only one canto of, which I send herewith; the remainder is entirely lost. I am, with the greatest regret, going to

subscribe myself your faithful and constant friend till death do us part.

"THOMAS CHATTERTON.

"To MR. BAKER, Charlestown, South Carolina."

When Chatterton wrote this letter he was fifteen years and four months old. To its tone, as illustrative of certain parts of his character, we shall have yet to refer; meanwhile let us attend to the mention made in it of the Tournament, one canto of which is said to be sent along with it. The poem here meant is doubtless the antique dramatic fragment published among Chatterton's writings in the assumed guise of an original poem of the fifteenth century, descriptive of a tournament held at Bristol in the reign of Edward I. From the manner of the allusion it is clear that as early as this period of Chatterton's life-that is, before the close of the first year of his apprenticeship-he was in the habit of showing about to some of his private friends poems in an antique style, which he represented as genuine antiques, copied from old parchments in his possession. It was not, however, till about six months after the date of the foregoing epistle that he made his début in the professed character of an antiquarian and proprietor of ancient manuscripts before the good folks of Bristol generally.

In September, 1768, a new bridge was opened at

Bristol with much civic pomp and ceremony. While the excitement was still fresh, the antiquaries of the town were startled by the appearance, in Felix Farley's Journal, of a very interesting account of the ceremonies that had attended the similar opening, several centuries before, of the old bridge, which had just been superseded. This account, communicated by an anonymous correspondent, signing himself "Dunhelmus Bristoliensis," purported to be taken from an old manuscript, contemporary with the occurrence. It described how the opening of the old bridge had taken place on a "Fridaie"; how, on that "Fridaie", the ceremonies had begun by one "Master Greggorie Dalbenye", who went "aboute the tollynge of the tenth clock", to inform "Master Mayor all thyngs were prepared"; how the procession to the bridge had consisted, first, of "two Beadils streying fresh stre", then of a man dressed as a Saxon Elderman", then of “ a mickle strong manne in armour carrying a huge anlace (i.e. sword)", then of "six claryons and minstrels", then of "Master Mayor" on a white horse, then of "the Eldermen and Cittie Brothers" on sable horses, and, finally, of "the preests, parish, mendicant, and seculor, some synging Saincte Warburgh's song, others sounding claryons thereto, and others some citrialles"; how, when the procession had reached the bridge, the manne with the anlace" took his station on a mound