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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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<* Mr . * Catcott says that Qiatterton Uec 4 occasionally to have such fits o £ depression of spirits that he used to walk out with him into the country In hopes of amusing his mind by the scenery of the landscapes in the neighbourhood of Bristol , and of refreshing his exhausted
spirits by the freshness of the air and the agreeable motion of gentle exercise . At those dines he never could prevail on Chatterton to taste any thing strong- He used occasionally to tell Catcott that he should some day or other destroy himself , **
On the blank pages of th « volume Mr . Seward has written th < £ following miscellaneous o&servarions * ** Chatterfcan was very sfiout m has person , but short . His eyes were grey , of a lustre that made them appear almost transparent . Mr . Catcott says * that
when you looked fall in the boy * s face his eyes always withdrew from inspection , and he hemg clown his head . 3 Y £ r $ , Newton , who has a countenance strongly indicative of sense , says she resembled , her brother very much in her face . Her second son , who died a few years ago , was said to have been very like his uncle .
Chattcrtxjn , when detected in any falsehood , used to stammer excessively and stamp with his feet . When Mr . Barrett was putting together his materials for the History of Bristol , the boy came to him and fcold him he had found a list of tlie Abbots of St . Austin $
Convent m that city , and presented him with k in a paper apparently as old , and & writing apparently of the same hand with that of the poems . On examining however this tist by the register of the
cathedral of W < ells { in which diocese Bristol theft was ) the names were found to be entirely of the boy ^ s taking . He had made too for IMr . B . an ideal drawing of 64 Castle of Bristow with its keep , donjon , 3 cc . ' *
"Chattcrton ' s pocket-book , once ( I beiieve ) in the possession of Mr . Barrett , w < ould lead very much to the detection of the imposture . He had there givea some words a very particular signification , ' an 4 had , I believe , coined many more , ^ This book , when he quitted Bristol he Left behind him and wrote to hie mother with great earnestness to * ave it restored to him ,
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« Of the controversy , Dr . Johnson used to say •** ' It cut both ways Kke a twoedged sword . ** The language k certainly that of no time , yet the stores of imagery , the knowledge of human
tiature , and the general power of composition that prevail universally in these poejtns seem to be far beyond the faculties of a boy of Chatterton * s age aod o £ Chatterton ^ s ^ opportunities of improvir ^; hiirtsclf .
«* 15 y his « kter's acconnt his ardour for studly was unremitting , he would liardly give himself time to < kink his tea an 4 eat the few vegetables upon which he supported hmiself , ** There is at Bristol a large book on tfac subject of geoeral antiquities with many anhotatioas in the margin in Chatter £ oa * £ hand .
«< This lad in Ms fate and in hh talents seems very much to resemble youa ^ Servin , who is mentioned ia Sully ^ s Memoirs , previous to his netting out for England , ** When Chatterton had oatce bnoaglut te Mr . Barrett a book of the poem of the
Battle oi Hastings , which Mr . Barrel praised very nauck , the boy cried out , this I wrote myself , i will however in a fevr days , bring- you an original book of * fk > wlie ' s . He pretended to havekqpt fiis word by bringing Mr * Barrett another poem written in the same style witk that he had owned he wrote , *
As SuHy ' s character of y < mng Serving who accornpacjsed him to LI » inland has been mucb iidsaircvi . it may be worth wiiile to quote it from Mrs * Leivox ' s TransLaitioa o £ fhc * ' Memoirs- *' xc a man of . genius no lively ,
and on understanding so extensive , as rendered him scarce ignorant of a « a » y thing that oouM be known ; © f so vast and ready a comprehension , that he immediately made himself master o £ what he attempted ; and of no prodigious a mettiorv that he never forgot wfiat
he had once learned ; he possessed a $ parts of pliilosophy and the mathematics , particularly fortification and drawing ; even in theology he was $ o w « H skilled , that he was an excellent preacher whenever he had a mind to exert that talent , and an able disputant for and against the reformed religion indifferently ; he not only understood Creefc , Hebrew , and all the languages whicfo
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Particulars relative to Cbalterton . i § 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/13/
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