His next remove was to Colston's charity school, at the age of eight years, where he was taught reading, writing and arithmetic, at the daily rate of nine hours in Summer and seven in winter. Such

at least was the prescribed discipline of the school, although far more tedious than a boy of his capacity required. One of his masters, Phillips, whom he has celebrated in an elegy, was a frequent writer of verses in the magazines, and was the means of exciting a degree of poetical emulation among his scholars, but to this Chatterton appeared for some time quite indifferent. About his tenth year he began to read from inclination, sometimes having his books from a circulating library, and sometimes borrowing them from his friends; and before he was twelve, had gone through about seventy volumes, principally history and divinity. Before this time he had composed some verses, particularly those entitled Apostate Will, which, although they bear no comparison with what he afterwards produced, discover at that early age a disposition to personal satire, and a consciousness of superior sense. It would be more remarkable, were it true, that while at this school he is said to have shown to his master Philips, one of those manuscripts which he pretended had been found in a chest in Redcliffe Church, but as neither Phillips, nor another person to whom this treasure was exhibited, could read it, the commencement of his Rowleian impostures must be postponed to a later period. At school he had gathered some knowledge of music, drawing, and arithmetic, and with this stock he was bound apprentice, July, 1767, to Mr. John Lambert, an attorney at Bristol, for seven years. His apprenticeship seems to have been of the lower order, and his situation more resembling that of a servant than a pupil. His chief employment was to copy precedents, which frequently did not require more than two hours in a day. The

rest of his time was probably filled up by the desultory course of reading which he had begun at school, and which terminated chiefly in the study of the old English phraseology, heraldry and miscellaneous antiquities of the two last he acquired, not a profound knowledge, but enough to enable him to create fictions capable of deceiving those who had less. His general conduct during his apprenticeship was decent and regular. On one occasion only his master thought him deserving of correction for writing an abusive letter, in a feigned hand, to his old schoolmaster.

In the beginning of October 1768, the completion of the new bridge at Bristol suggested to him a fit opportunity for playing off the first of his public deceptions. This was an account of the ceremonies on opening the old bridge, said to be taken from an ancient manuscript, a copy of which he sent to Farley's Bristol Journal, in a short letter signed Dunhelmus Bristoliensis. Such a memoir, at so critical a time, naturally excited attention, and Farley, who was called upon to give up its author, after much inquiry, discovered that Chatterton had sent it. Chatterton was consequently interrogated, probably without much ceremony, where he had obtained it. And here his disposition showed itself in a manner highly affecting in one so young, for he had not yet reached his sixteenth year, and according to all that can be gathered, had not been corrupted either by precept or example. To the threats,' we are told, of those who treated him (agreeably to his appearance) as a child, he returned nothing but haughtiness, and a refusal to give any account. By milder usuage he was somewhat softened, and appeared inclined to give all the information in his power.' The effect, however, of this mild usage was, that instead of all or any part of the information in his power, he tried two different falsehoods: the first, that he

was employed to transcribe the contents of certain ancient manuscripts by a gentleman, who had also engaged him to furnish complimentary verses inscribed to a lady with whom that gentleman was in love.' But as this story was to rest on proofs which he could not produce, he next asserted, 'that he had received the paper in question, together with many other manuscripts, from his father, who had found them in a large chest in the upper room over the chapel, on the north side of Redcliffe Church. As this last story is the foundation of the whole controversy respecting Chatterton, it will be necessary to give the circumstances as related in his life, written for the Biographia Britannica, and prefixed to the recent edition of his works.

Over the north porch of St. Mary Redcliffe church, which was founded, or at least rebuilt by Mr. W. Canynge, (an eminent merchant of Bristol, in the fifteenth century, and in the reign of Edward the Fourth) there is a kind of muniment room, in which were deposited five or six chests, one of which, in particular, was called Mr. Canynge's coffer; this chest, it is said, was secured by six keys, two of which were intrusted to the minister and procurator of the church, two to the mayor, and one to each of the church wardens. In process of time, however, the six keys appear to have been lost; and about the year 1727, a notion prevailed that some title deeds, and other writings of value, were contained in Mr. Canynge's coffer. In consequence of this opinion, an order of vestry was made, that the chest should be opened under the inspection of an attorney and that those writings which appeared of consequence be removed to the south porch of the church. The locks were therefore forced, and not only the principal chest, but the others, which were also supposed to contain writings, were all broken open.

The deeds immediately relating to the church were removed, and the other manuscripts were left exposed, as of no value. Considerable depredations had, from time to time, been committed upon them, by different persons; but the most insatiate of these plunderers was the father of Chatterton. His uncle being sexton of St. Mary Redcliffe, gave him free access to the church. He carried off, from time to time, parcels of the parchments, and one time alone, with the assistance of his boys, is known to have filled a large basket with them. They were deposited in a cupboard in the school, and employed for different purposes, such as the covering of copy-books, &c.; in particular, Mr. Gibbs, the minister of the parish, having presented the boys with twenty Bibles, Mr. Chatterton, in order to preserve these books from being damaged, covered them with some of the parchments. At his death, the widow, being under a necessity of removing, carried the remainder of them to her own habitation. Of the discovery of their value by the younger Chatterton, the account of Mr. Smith, a very intimate acquaintance, which he gave to Dr. Glynn, of Cambridge, is too interesting to be omitted.

When young Chatterton was first articled to Mr. Lamberton, he used frequently to come home to his mother, by way of a short visit. There, one day, his eye was caught by one of these parchments, which had been converted into a thread paper. He found not only the writings to be very old, and the characters very different from common characters, but that the subject therein treated was different from common subjects. Being naturally of an inquisitive and curious turn, he was very much struck with their appearance, and, as might be expected, began to question his mother what those thread papers were, how she got them, and whence they came. Upon further inquiry, he was

led to a full discovery of all the parchments which remained. The bulk of them consisted of poetical and other compositions, by Mr. Canynge, and a particular friend of his, Thomas Rowley; whom Chatterton, at first, called a monk, and afterwards a secular priest of the fifteenth century. Such, at least, appears to be the account which Chatterton thought proper to give, and which he wished to be believed. It is, indeed, confirmed by the testimony of his mother and sister. Mrs. Chatterton informed a friend of the dean of Exeter, that on her removal from Pyle street, she emptied the cupboard of its contents, partly into a large long deal box, where her husband used to keep his clothes, and partly into a small oak box, of a smaller size, carrying both, with their contents, to her lodgings, where, according to her account, they continued neglected and undisturbed, till her son first discovered their value: who, having examined their contents, told his mother that he had found a treasure, and was so glad, nothing could be like it." That he then removed all these parchments out of the large long deal box, in which his father used to keep his clothes, into the square oak box; that he was perpetually ransacking every corner of the house for more parchments, and, from time to time, carried away those he had already found, by pockets full; that one day, happening to see Clarke's History of the Bible covered with one of those parchments, he swore a great oath, and, stripping the book, put the cover to his pocket, and carried it away at the same time stripping a common little Bible, but finding no writing upon the cover, replaced it again very leisurely. Upon being informed of the manner in which his father had procured the parchments, he went himself to the place, and picked up four more.

Such is the story of the discovery of the poems attributed to Rowley, which Chatterton made up