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CHAP, in.] THREE YEARS OF IDLENESS.

" come home to you, I wonder you are not more rejoiced to 1751.
"see me."* JBt.38.

He afterwards addressed a clever though somewhat cavalier
letter to her from, his brother's house; which is open to
the objection that no copy exists in his hand-writing,
but which has great internal evidence of his facility, grace,
and humour. Nor is there anything more signally worth
remark in connection with the vagabond vicissitudes which
these pages will have to record, than that, out of all the
accidents which befell the man, the poverty he had to
undergo, the companions with whom he associated, the
sordid necessities which unavoidably conduct so often into
miry ways, no single speck -or stain ever fell on that
enchanting beauty of style. Wherever he might be, or with
whatever clowns for playfellows; in the tavern, in the garret,
or among citizens in the Sunday gardens; when he took the
pen in hand, he was a gentleman. Everything coarse or
vulgar dropped from it instinctively. It reflected nothing,
even in its descriptions of things vulgar or coarse in them-
selves, but the elegance and sweetness which, whatever
might be the accident or meanness of his external lot,
remained pure in the last recesses of his nature.

In substance this letter to his mother confessed that his
intention was to have sailed for America : that he had gone
to Cork for that purpose; converted the horse which his
mother prized so much higher than Ficldleback into cash;
paid for his passage in an American ship; and, the wind
threatening to detain them some days, had taken a little
country excursion in the neighbourhood of the city: but
that, the wind suddenly serving in his absence, his friend

* "His mother," says Mrs. Hudson, "as might be expected, was Mghly
" offended, but his brothers and sisters had contrived to meet him there, and at
" length effected a reconciliation." Percy Memoir, 9.



	CHAP, in.] THREE YEARS OF IDLENESS. " come home to you, I wonder you are not more rejoiced to 1751. "see me."* JBt.38. He afterwards addressed a clever though somewhat cavalier letter to her from, his brother's house; which is open to the objection that no copy exists in his hand-writing, but which has great internal evidence of his facility, grace, and humour. Nor is there anything more signally worth remark in connection with the vagabond vicissitudes which these pages will have to record, than that, out of all the accidents which befell the man, the poverty he had to undergo, the companions with whom he associated, the sordid necessities which unavoidably conduct so often into miry ways, no single speck -or stain ever fell on that enchanting beauty of style. Wherever he might be, or with whatever clowns for playfellows; in the tavern, in the garret, or among citizens in the Sunday gardens; when he took the pen in hand, he was a gentleman. Everything coarse or vulgar dropped from it instinctively. It reflected nothing, even in its descriptions of things vulgar or coarse in them- selves, but the elegance and sweetness which, whatever might be the accident or meanness of his external lot, remained pure in the last recesses of his nature. In substance this letter to his mother confessed that his intention was to have sailed for America : that he had gone to Cork for that purpose; converted the horse which his mother prized so much higher than Ficldleback into cash; paid for his passage in an American ship; and, the wind threatening to detain them some days, had taken a little country excursion in the neighbourhood of the city: but that, the wind suddenly serving in his absence, his friend * "His mother," says Mrs. Hudson, "as might be expected, was Mghly " offended, but his brothers and sisters had contrived to meet him there, and at " length effected a reconciliation." Percy Memoir, 9.