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it became known to some of his seniors that the little Blue-coat was in the habit of writing verses. His first attempt in this way had been a pious little achievement, entitled, "On the Last Epiphany; or, Christ's coming to Judgment;" and so proud had he been of this performance, and so ambitious of seeing it in print, that he had boldly dropped it, one Saturday afternoon, into the letter-box of Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, a weekly newspaper in high local repute. It accordingly appeared in the columns of that newspaper on the 8th of January, 1763. From that day Chatterton was a sworn poet. Piece after piece was dropped by him during a period of three years into the letter-box of the accommodating Journal. Only one of these, however, is it necessary to mention particularly a little lampoon, printed the 7th of January, 1764, and entitled, "The Churchwarden and the Apparition; a Fable." A Mr. Joseph Thoinas, a brick-maker by trade, chancing, in that year, to hold the office of churchwarden for the parish of St. Mary Redcliffe, had greatly scandalized the public mind by causing the old church-yard to be levelled, and the surplus earth and clay to be carted away, as people said, for his own professional uses. For this outrage on decorum he was much attacked by the local press, and nowhere more severely than in the above-mentioned verses of the little Blue-coat, in whom, by-thebye, there must have been a kind of hereditary resentment of such a piece of sacrilege, for his ancestors, the Chattertons, had been sextons of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe for a period of one hundred and fifty years continuously; and the office had, in fact, only passed out of the family on the death of an older brother of his father, named John Chatterton.

The date does not seem quite certain, but it was probably nearly three years after this occurrence, and when Chatterton would be above fourteen years of age, and one of the senior boys in the Blue-coat School, that he stepped, one afternoon, into the shop of a Mr. Burgum, partner of a Mr. Catcott in the pewter trade.

"I have found out a secret about you, Mr. Burgum," he said, going up to the pewterer at his desk.

"Indeed: what is it?" said Mr. Burgum.

"That you are descended from one of the noblest families in England."

"I did not know it," said the victim. "It is true, though," said Chatterton, and, to prove it, I will bring you your pedigree written out, as I have traced it by the help of books of the peerage and old parchments."

Accordingly, a few days afterwards, he again called, and presented the astonished pewterer with a manuscript copy-book headed in large text, as follows:

"Account of the Family of the De Bergham, from the Norman Conquest to this time; collected from original Records, Tournament-rolls, and the Heralds of March and Garter Records, by T. Chatterton."

In this document the Burgum pedigree was elaborately traced up, through no end of great names and illustrious intermarriages, to one "Simon de Seyncte Lyze, alias Senliz," who had come into England with the Conqueror; married a daughter of the Saxon chief, Waltheof; become possessed, among other properties, of Burgham Castle, in Northumberland; and been eventually created Earl of Northamp

ton.

Pleased with the honours thus unexpectedly thrust upon him, the pewterer gave the Blue-coat five shillings for his trouble. To show his gratitude, Chatterton soon returned with "A Continuation of the Account of the Family of the De Bergham, from the Norman Conquest to this Time.' In the original pedigree, the young genealogist had judiciously stopped short at the sixteenth century. In the supplement, however, he ventures as far down as the reign of Charles II., back to which point the pewterer is left to supply the links for himself. But the chief feature in the pedigree, as elaborated in the second document, is, that in addition to other great names, it contains a poet. This poet, whose name was John De Bergham, was a monk of the Cistercian order in Bristol; he had been educated in Oxford, and was "one of the greatest ornaments of the age in which he lived." He wrote several books, and translated some part of the Iliad under the title of "Romance of Troy." To give Mr. Burgum some idea of the poetic style of this distinguished man, his ancestor, there was inserted a short poem of his in the ancient dialect, entitled "The Romaunte of the

Cnychte;" and to render the meaning of the poem more intelligible, there was appended a modern metrical paraphrase of it by Chatterton himself.

By the éclat of this wonderful piece of genealogical and heraldic ingenuity done for Mr. Burgum, as well as by the occasional exercise in a more or less public manner of his talent for verse-making, Chatterton, already recognised as the first for attainments among all the lads in Colston's school, appears to have won a kind of reputation with a few persons of the pewterer's stamp out of doors, honest people, with small pretensions to literature themselves, but willing to encourage a clever boy whose mother was in poor circumstances.

It was probably through the influence of such people that, after having been seven years at the school, he was removed from it in July, 1767, to be apprenticed to Mr. John Lambert, a Bristol attorney. The trustees of Colston's school paid to Lambert, on the occasion, a premium of ten pounds; and the arrangement was, that Chatterton should be bound to him for seven years, during which period he was to board and lodge in Mr. Lambert's house, his mother, however, undertaking to wash and mend for him. There was no salary; but, as usually happens in such cases, there were probably means in Bristol by which a lad writing, as Chatterton did, a neat clerk's hand, could hope to earn, now and then, a few stray shillings. At any rate, he had the prospect of finding himself, at the end of seven years, in a fair way to be a Bristol attorney.

Lambert's office-hours were from eight in the morning till eight in the evening, with an interval for dinner; from eight till ten in the evening the apprentice was at liberty, but he was required to be home at his master's house, which was at some distance from the office, punctually by ten. An indignity which he felt very much, and more than once complained of, was that, by the household arrangements, which were under the controul of an old lady, his master's mother, he was sent to take his meals in the kitchen, and sleep with the footboy. To set against this, however, there was the advantage of plenty of spare time; for, as Lambert's business was not very extensive, the apprentice was often left alone in the office with nothing 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 flirtations, such as all apprentices, literary or otherwise, 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 concluded 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 apropos to the old law, 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, and very politely stands at the door of his wife's chamber whilst her gallant is entertaining her within! 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 it. 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. 1 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 your's. 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.

"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 allude; meanwhile let us attend to the reference made in it to 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 debut 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" going, "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 Citie

Brothers" on sable horses; and, finally, of "the preests, parish, mendicant, aud seculor, some synging Saincte Warburgh's song, others sounding claryons thereto, and otherssome citrialles ;" how, when the procession had reached the bridge, the "manne with the anlace" took his station on a mound reared in the middle of it; how the rest gathered round him, "the preestes and freers, all in white albs making a most goodlie shewe," and singing "the song of Saincte Baldwyn;" how, when this was done," the manne on the top threwe with greet mycht his anlace into the see, and the claryons sounded an auntiant charge and forloyn;" how then there was more singing, and, at the town-cross, a Latin sermon "preeched by Ralph de Blundeville;" and how the day was ended by festivities, the performance of the play of "The Knyghtes of Bristow " by the friars of St. Augustine, and the lighting of a great bonfire on Kynwulph Hill.

The antiquaries of the town were eager to know the anonymous “Dunhelmus Bristoliensis" who had contributed this perfectly novel document to the archives of Bristol; and they succeeded in identifying him with Mr. Lambert's singular apprentice,-the discoverer, as they would now learn, of a similar piece of antiquity in the shape of a pedigree for Mr. Burgum, the pewterer. Examined, coaxed, and threatened on the subject of his authority, Chatterton prevaricated, but at last adhered to the assertion that the manuscript in question was one of a collection which had belonged to his father, who had obtained them from the large chest or coffer in the muniment-room of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe. And here, whether owing to his obstinacy or to the stupidity of the inquisitors, the matter was allowed to rest.

The general impresssion that followed the discovery of the author of the communication relative to the opening of the old bridge, was that Mr. Lambert's apprentice was really a very extraordinary lad, who, besides being a poet in a small way, was also a dabbler in antiquities, and had somehow or other become possessed, as he said himself, of valuable materials respecting the history of Bristol. Accordingly he became, in some sense, a local celebrity. Among the persons that took

him by the hand were one or two of some name and importance in BristolMr. George Catcott, the partner of Mr. Burgum; his brother, the Rev. Alexander Catcott; and Mr. Barrett, a surgeon in good practice. Two of these had a reputation as literary men. The Rev. Mr. Catcott had written a book in support of the Noachian view of the Deluge, and was, besides, according to Chatterton's delineations of him, a kind of oracle on scientific points at Bristol tea-parties, where, "shewing wondering cits his fossil store," he would expound his orthodox theory of springs, rocks, mountains, and strata. What the reverend Catcott was at refined tea-parties, his coarser brother, the pewterer, was at taverns. Chatterton thus hits him off:

"So at Llewellyn's your great brother sits, The laughter of his tributary wits, Ruling the noisy multitude with ease,Empties his pint, and sputters his decrees." Mr. Barrett, the surgeon, on the other hand, was a sedate professional man, of repute as an antiquarian, and known to be engaged in writing a history of Bristol.

The two Catcotts, Barrett, and Burgum, with some others, known either through their means or independently of them; Mr. Matthew Mease, a vintner; Messrs. Allen and Broderip, two musicians and church organists; the Rev. Mr. Broughton; Mr. Clayfield, a distiller, "a worthy, generous man;' Mr. Alcock, a miniature painter; together with certain nondescripts, designated as Mr. Cary, Mr. Kator, Mr. Smith, Mr. Rudhall, Mr. Williams, &c., chiefly, as we imagine, young men of mercantile pursuits and literary aspirations,-such, so far as we can collect their names, were the principal acquaintances and associates of Chatterton during his apprenticeship with Mr. Lambert. There are references also to some acquaintances of the other sex,-Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Carty, Miss Webb, Miss Sandford, Miss Bush, Miss Thatcher, Miss Hill, &c., not to omit the most conspicuous of all, and the only one between whom and Chatterton one is able to surmise a sentimental relation, that "female Machiavel, Miss Rumsey," so spitefully alluded to in the letter to the transatlantic Mr. Baker. The Catcotts, Barrett, and Burgum, however, come most into notice. On the Rev. Mr. Catcott, Chatterton, we are to suppose, drops in

occasionally, to listen to a prelection on fossils and the deluge; Burgum and the other Catcott he may sometimes meet at Matthew Mease's, where Catcott acts the chairman; and from Barrett, calling on him at his surgery once a week or so, he receives sensible advices as to the propriety of making poetry subordinate to his profession, as well as (what he greatly prefers) the loan of medical and uncommon books.

It is to this little public of heterogeneous individuals-clergymen, surgeons, tradesmen, vintners, and young apprentices like himself, that Chatterton produces his Rowley poems, and other antique writings. As early as the date of the Burgum pedigree, we have seen, he had ventured to bring out one antique piece, the "Romaunt of the Cnychte," by the so-called John de Bergham. To this had been added, as early as the commencement of 1768, the " Tournament," the poem alluded to in the letter to Baker, as well as, perhaps, other pieces. Further, in the account of the opening of the old bridge (September, 1768), references are introduced to the " Songe of Saincte Warburghe," and the "Songe of Saincte Baldwynne," showing that these antiques must have been then extant. In short, there is evidence that, before the conclusion of his sixteenth year, Chatterton had produced at least a portion of his alleged antiques. But the year that followed, or from the close of 1768 to the close of 1769, seems to have been his most prolific period in this respect. In or about the winter of 1768-9, that is, when he had just completed his sixteenth year, he produced, in the circle of his friends above mentioned, his ballad of "The Bristowe

Tragedie;" his "tragical interlude" of "Ella," in itself a large poem; his "Elinoure and Juga," a fine pastoral® poem of the wars of the Roses; and numerous other pieces of all forms and lengths, in the same antique spelling. Then, also, did he first distinctly give the account of those pieces to which he ever afterwards adhered-to wit, that they were, for the greater part, the compositions of Thomas Rowley, a priest of Bristol of the fifteenth century, many of whose manuscripts, preserved in the muniment room of the church of St. Mary, had come into his hands.

The Catcotts were the parties most interested in the recovered manuscripts; and whenever Chatterton had a new poem of Rowley's on his hands, it was usually to Mr. George Catcott that he first gave a copy of it. To Mr. Barrett, on the other hand, he usually imparted such scraps of ancient prose records, deeds, accounts of old churches, &c., as were likely to be of use to that gentleman in preparing his history of Bristol. So extensive, in fact, were the surgeon's obligations to the young man, that he seems to have thought it impossible to requite them otherwise than by a pecuniary recompense. Accordingly, there is evidence of an occasional guinea or half-guinea having been transferred from the pocket of Mr. Barrett to that of Chatterton on the score of literary assistance rendered him in the progress of his work. From the Catcotts, too, Chatterton seems, on similar grounds, to have now and then obtained something. That they were not so liberal as they might have been, however, the following bill in Chatterton's handwriting will show :

"Mr. G. Catcott,
"To the Executors of T. Rowley.
"To pleasure recd. in readg. his Historic works
his Poetic works

Whether the above was splenetically sent to Calcott, or whether it was only drawn up by Chatterton in a cashless moment by way of frolic, is not certain; the probability, however, is, that if it was sent, the pewterer did not think it necessary to discharge it. Yet he was not such a hard subject as his partner, Burgum, whom Chatterton (no doubt after sufficient trial) represents as stinginess itself.

£5 5 0 £550

£10 10 0"

But it was not only as a young man of extensive antiquarian knowledge and of decided literary talent that Chatterton was known in Bristol. As the transcriber of the Rowley poems, and the editor of curious pieces of information, derived from ancient manuscripts which he was understood to have in his possession, the Catcotts, Barrett, and the rest, had no fault to find with him: but there were other phases in which he

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