JOHN HOWARD CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS Howard's Parentage-Date and Place of Birth-School Days -Apprenticeship-Howard his own Master-"Look among the Cabbages" - Foreign Tour - Marriage— Death of Mrs. Howard, OF F the childhood and early life of John Howard but few particulars have come down to us. His father was a wealthy upholsterer in the city of London, residing at one time at Enfield, and later on at Clapton; and the fact that he was fined for Sheriff in the year 1742 testifies to his prosperous circumstances. His mother's name is said to have been Cholmley. According to his monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, the inscription for which was written by his kinsman Mr. Whitbread, he was born at Hackney on the 2nd of September 1726, and though the statements as to place and date have both been questioned, yet, if Hackney be understood as including Clapton, it is probable that the inscription is correct. Howard's own authority may be claimed for the statement that he was born at Lower Clapton, "in an ancient house which had been many years in possession of his father and grandfather";1 and if he was accurate in informing a friend in November 1787 that he was then sixty-one years the year of his birth must have been 1726.2 of age, 1 Dr. Aikin, Howard's personal friend and earliest biographer, "believes" that he was born at Enfield, "about the year 1727 (View of the Character and Public Services of John Howard, p. 9). Enfield is also given as the place of his birth in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1790 (vol. lx. part 1. p. 369); and Field, in The Correspondence of John Howard, says: "I have been favoured with a copy of the family register, part of which is in Howard's own handwriting, and this records that he was born at Enfield,” p. 1. In spite of this, however, it is probable that Clapton was really the place. It is given in the notice in the Universal Magazine for 1790 (vol. lxxxvi. p. 170), characterised by Howard's friend, the Rev. S. Palmer, as "much the best" notice of him that had appeared (ib. p. 236); and in this particular matter Palmer himself was able to corroborate the assertion of the biographical notice, by the assurance that he had "more than once heard" Howard himself speak of the house at Clapton as that in which he was born (ib. p. 319). This, taken with the evidence of the monument, seems to be conclusive. 2 See the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. lx. part L. p. 287). The date 1726 is also confirmed by a paper of directions Howard's mother, who had previously borne to his father a daughter, died while he was still in infancy, and being a delicate child he was sent, for the sake of his health, to Cardington, near Bedford, where his father owned some property; and thus in very early days began his connection with the place which was to be famous as his home in later years. As the boy grew, his father, being a strict Independent, sent him for his education to a dissenting school at Hertford, kept by a Mr. Worsley. Beyond the fact that he remained here for seven years we know little or nothing of his school days. But in after years he certainly felt that the choice of the school had not been a happy one, for he is reported to have said, with more indignation than he usually expressed, that he left it "not fully taught any one thing." 1 On which Howard drew up with regard to his burial, in case he should die during his Eastern tour to investigate the condition of lazarettos in 1786. In this he gives a proposed inscription for his monument: "John Howard, died 1786, aged 59. Christ is my hope." The paper was sent to Mr. Whitbread on Oct. 26, from Venice, but it contains internal evidence of having been written early in the year, some months before Howard's birthday, and was probably composed in the spring at Malta. He contemplates the possibility of dying "either here, or at Zante, Smyrna, or Constantinople"; and as he left Malta for Zante and Smyrna towards the end of April it must have been written before this, when his age would be 59, if he was born on Sept. 2, 1726. 1 Aikin's View, etc., p. 12. his removal from Hertford he was placed for a time under the care of a Mr. John Eames, a man of considerable reputation, and tutor in philosophy and languages at a dissenting Academy in London. But Howard cannot be said to have been fortunate in his education; and it is evident that in after years he felt his deficiencies somewhat acutely. Dr. Aikin's statement, that he "was never able to speak or write his native language with grammatical correctness," is fully borne out by his own letters, the spelling of which is distinctly original; and in preparing his books for publication we know that he was glad to avail himself of the help of others whose literary attainments were greater than his own. "His acquaintance," Aikin adds, "with other languages (the French perhaps excepted) was slight and superficial." An exception must certainly be made as regards French, for Howard's own accounts of his travels not only supply ample proof of the facility with which he could converse in the language, but also show that he had no difficulty in actually passing himself off as a Frenchman, as occasion required. It is probable, however, that his knowledge of this and other languages was acquired later, and picked up by him in the course of his travels. Indeed, it would have been something quite unusual had he left school with anything more 1 Aikin's View, etc., p. 13. than a "slight and superficial" acquaintance with any modern language besides his own mother tongue. School days ended, Howard was apprenticed to a wholesale grocer in Watling Street; but on his father's death, a few years later, he was left practically his own master, and in possession of ample means, of which his guardians left him entire control on his coming of age, although, according to his father's will, he was not to come into his property until the age of twenty-four, Business was not to Howard's liking, and accordingly before his time was up he bought himself out, intending apparently to live a life of ease and comfort, with Clapton as his head-quarters. To this period belongs the earliest anecdote that has come down to us of him, and, slight as the incident is, it may be mentioned here as illustrative of the kind-heartedness and whimsical humour which were characteristic of the man throughout his life. Many years later an old gardener, who had been for long in the service of the Howards at Clapton, used to relate, that during some alterations which were being made in the house, his young master used to come every other day to superintend the work, and that he timed his visits so as to be there when the baker's cart was passing, when he would purchase a loaf, and, tossing it over the wall into the garden, exclaim to the gardener, "Harry, |