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THE family to which the poet Cowper belonged was that which rose to the highest legal eminence in the person of Lord Chancellor Cowper. His lordship's nephew, the Rev. John Cowper, D.D., was rector of Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire; at which place William, the future poet, was born on the 10th of November (old style) 1731. In childhood he lost the tender mother to whom some of his own tenderest verses are devoted. The boy first went to school at the age of six, and remained there two years: he was made miserable by the cruelties of an elder lad. Hence he was removed to the house of an oculist for another couple of years, as fears were entertained for his sight. At the age of ten he became a pupil in Westminster School, and stayed there till his nineteenth year: he was diligent in his studies, and entered into boyish sports with spirit.

The career of law having been chosen for him, principally in consideration of the legal patronage which lay in the family, he was articled, on leaving Westminster School, to a solicitor for three years: one of his fellow-clerks in this situation was the youth who rose to be Lord Thurlow. Cowper learned but little law; removed to chambers in the Middle Temple; and in 1754 was called to the bar. He fell into an extraordinary state of dejection soon after entering the Temple, having in fact a congenital tendency to insanity. This disorder lasted nearly a year, but received

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