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bobbing their noses into , and nibfeling the short Soft grass ; soft and slippery is that grass on a sunny day , as my lady ' s velvet pelisse , or the tip of her ear . There , too , stood yet the circle of aged firs , a vegetated Druidical temple ; Jirs they were , none of your prim , straight , smirking looking things that you see * stuck in a modern shrubbery / like a string of boarding-school misses , ranged at question and answer ,
botstotlt , hearty , jolly old fellows ; sturdy in the chest and waist , and arcreh muscular and sinewy arms , thrown out as if they would knock the wind down . You may see something like them at Guy ' s cliff , in the avenue which they form ; but oh they are babies compared to these on my common . Well , so they stood , solemnly waving their dark garments in the breeze , or motionless in their silent and deep worship of nature . Magnificence dreaming ! Nothing there was touched by the hand of civilization , thank God . Yes , one change had been made , and I felt that the milk of human kindness was not all soured within me . This was
a fanciful and beautifying improvement . An extensive old gfavel-pit had been spread with productive earth and mould , without diminishing its depths perceptibly , or changing its outlines in the least ; all the abruptnesses , hillocks , undulations , hollows , and projections , werecarefiilly preserved , then turfed and planted with trees , shrubs , roots , and masses ; which when I saw them , were flourishing with seventeen years of glory ; making one of the most perfect specimens of romantic solitude I ever enjoyed . Who did it ? Take nine-tenths of the saints out of the calendar to make room for him .
But to return from this ramble ; this so far is a tale of leap years . Pardon fne f t did not seek the pun . It lay in my way , and 1 could Hot leap over it . Again ? Excision is the remedy in s ' uch cases ; you have st penknife , sir , or madam : cut as deep as you please—I shall not wink aft eye-lash . In my ninth year I was taken off the common , some friendly or benevolent assistant of my poor father having procured admission for me to a school , in which some thirty boys , all
equally with myself the children of indigent parents , Were fed , clothed , Hogged , and taught , gratis . Luckily there was a very clever man , a fiftrong-thinking man , at the head of this affair : and thodgh my portion of the third class of the gratuities was as great as that which any two of my companions claimed or received , I think all Was pretty fairly and impartially dealt ; for I was never scrapeless—each day infringing the laws—on the forbidden wall—over it—away into the
adjacent fields—on the roof of the house—through the windows—restless for ever , and for ever idle , except by leaps and impulses . Yet I was a prime favourite , and though I did nothing for it , I was usually 6 t the head of my class . Every word of Robinson Crusoe I could repeat from my heart at ten ; and how I longed for a desolate island and a man Friday ! Philip Quarle and Robin Hood were my mythology J and I had swallowed ever \> book of travels in our * juvenile
library * at eleven . But maps , latitudes , and longitudes , and descriptions of far countries were my heaven . On these I was more accurately informed at thirteen than at thirty-five , after seeing and walking over them . I believe it \ vas not stupidity , but stubbornness fat which I was so frequently punished ; I was idle over my tasks , bat had a rapidity in mastering them , wni ^ h frequently tu rned the threatening frown into a smile of approbation . I must be permitted
Untitled Article
£ 34 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/46/
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