chapter. Frequently, while awake in the night, I have repeated it in silence for two or three hours together, without adding or missing a word." In referring to another of his works, he tells us, in like manner, that "the pen itself has rewarded its own labour, for the pleasure of writing is inconceivable."

The History of Birmingham was published in 1782, and Hutton was immediately elected a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society of Edinburgh. A second edition of the work was called for the following year, and it has ever since maintained a high reputation among the class of productions to which it belongs. Its author, although nearly sixty years of age when this his first publication appeared, lived to add to it a long list of other works. Having now fairly made his appearance before the world as a literary man, he took advantage, with his characteristic activity and eagerness, of every opportunity of supporting his new character. For instance, having been called to the metropolis in 1785, to give his evidence on a trial, he converted the incident into the matter of a book, which he published soon after his return home, under the title of 'A Journey to London.' In the same manner, a few years after, having gone with his family on a trip to Blackpool, a watering-place in Lancashire, he wrote and published its history. Of his other works, the principal are his Histories of the Court of Requests, and of the Hundred Court of Birmingham, his History of the Battle of Bosworth Field, his History of Derby, and his Description of the Roman Wall. In order the better to prepare himself for the composition of this last work, by a personal inspection of the celebrated remnant of antiquity to which it relates, he performed a journey of above six hundred miles, entirely on foot, at the age of seventy-eight. Of this journey, which occupied thirty-five days, his daughter, who accom

R

panied him on horseback, has published a very interesting account.

Another of the works of his old age was a volume of poems. Indeed, verse-making seems to have been the favourite amusement of his leisure, especially after he retired from business, on reaching his seventieth year. In 1793, we find him recording twentysix poetical effusions among the results of his literary industry; and, for a long while, every succeeding year added its contribution of the same species of intellectual produce. He used to tag his rhymes while taking his daily walks between his country house and his shop in town, which, although now given up to the charge of his son, he continued to visit with nearly as much regularity as ever. Under date of 1795, he writes, "Walking and assisting my son employed the body; studying and writing, the mind." Soon after this, his wife's health, which had long been in a declining state, became alarmingly infirm; and much of his time was occupied in bestowing the most affectionate attentions upon the beloved companion of his life. 'My practice," says the kindhearted old man, " had been to rise about five, relieve the nurse of the night by holding the head of my dear love in my hand, with the elbow resting on the knee. At eight, I walked to business at Birmingham, where I stayed till four, when I returned. I nursed her till eight, amused myself with literary pursuits till ten, and then went to rest.” Mrs. Hutton had suffered severely from the alarm into which she was thrown by the brutal conduct of the rioters, who, in the year 1791, were so unaccountably allowed to commit, for several days, every species of outrage and devastation in the town of Birmingham, and by whom her husband's house was burned to the ground, and his property destroyed, to the amount of many thousands of pounds. Of these

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dreadful proceedings, so 'deeply disgraceful both to the mad perpetrators and to the unresisting lookerson, Mr. Hutton has left us a narrative, eloquent with indignation, and most interesting, from its graphic detail of atrocities now happily so foreign to the im→ proved habits and character of the people. His wife never recovered from the shock she received on this occasion, driven as she and her family were from their home, and literally obliged to fly for their lives, and to implore a shelter from strangers, while yet doubtful if a shilling remained to them in the world to pay for the accommodation they craved.

This singular man died in 1815, at the great age of ninety-two. The history of his life, written by himself in the short space of little more than two months, while in his seventy-fifth year, has been given to the world since his death by his daughter, and is altogether one of the most interesting pieces of autobiography extant. The literary performances of Hutton, like those of Franklin, (which we shall dwell upon in a succeeding chapter) claim our admiration both as having been produced amidst the interruptions of a very busy life, and as being almost entirely the result of self-education and a selfacquired taste for intellectual enjoyments. He affords us, also, another instructive example, in addition to several we have already quoted, in proof of how possible it is for a man, even after being somewhat advanced in life, to overcome, to a certain extent at least, the disadvantages of the most neglected youth. Hutton had, according to his own account, reached his twenty-third year before he began to take a liking to books. Yet we

have seen both how strongly attached he afterwards became to reading, and what a respectable figure he succeeded in making as an author; although he may almost be said not to have taken

up his pen till the period of life at which most other writers have laid theirs down. We thus see that even the circumstances usually accounted most adverse to the attainment of eminence, are all surmountable by zeal and perseverance; that excellence is, in any position, almost the infallible result of the determination to excel; and that upon a man himself chiefly, and not upon his outward fortunes, does it depend whether he make the delights of knowledge and philosophy his own, or spend his life in mental torpor, and go to his grave without having known what it is to enjoy the highest and most distinguishing capacities of his nature.

The name of William Hutton naturally calls to our recollection that of ROBERT DODSLEY. Dodsley was born in 1703, at Mansfield, in the county of Nottingham, only about twenty miles distant from Derby, the native place of Hutton. His parents were very poor, and his education, consequently, of the scantiest description. He was in the first instance bound apprentice to a stocking-weaver; but after some time he abandoned this employment, and, having gone into service, became eventually footman to the Honourable Mrs. Lowther. In this situation, having addressed a copy of verses to Pope, he obtained the notice of that celebrated writer; and, under his encouragement, was induced to publish by subscription a volume of poems, to which he gave the title of The Muse in Livery.' It attracted a good deal of the public attention, and was followed soon after by a satirical comedy, called 'The Toyshop,' which Pope was kind enough to read in manuscript, and to employ his influence in getting represented. Its success was so great that the profits enabled the author to emerge from his humble situation, and to set up as a bookseller in Pall Mall. His difficulties were now over, and the way to independence was be

fore him. By his prudence and steadiness he made his business, in course of time, an extremely valuable one, and became at last, one of the most eminent London publishers of his day. But he neither forgot in his prosperity the humble station from which he had risen, nor neglected the cultiva❤ tion of those powers to which he owed his elevation. One day, when his friend Pope happened, in conversing with him, to mention a certain individual celebrated for the good table he kept, "I knew him well," said Dodsley, "I was his servant." With all his attention to business, he found time for literature and authorship; and continued till nearly the close of his life to give to the world a succession of works, almost all of which enjoyed considerable popularity, and some of which may be said to have secured for him a durable name among the writers of his country. His collection of maxims, in particular, entitled The Economy of Human Life,' is well known, and was so highly esteemed on its first appearance as to be suspected to have proceeded from the pen of the celebrated Lord Chesterfield. This was long a popular work, not only in England but in other countries; so much so, that there are enumerated about a dozen different translations of it into the French language alone. Dodsley died

in 1764.

The names of many other literary booksellers might be added, some of them nearly as much self-educated men as Hutton and Dodsley. Mr. JOHN ALMON, who died at an advanced age in 1805, and was well known as a political and miscellaneous writer during the latter half of the last century, made a considerable fortune as a bookseller in London, the greater part of which, however, he lost by an unlucky speculation in which he was induced to engage after he had retired from business. He was originally a book