form that might once have been commanding, but it was a little bowed by time—perhaps by care. He had a noble Roman style of countenance; a head that would have pleased a painter; and though some slight furrows on his brow showed that wasting thought had been busy there, yet his eye still beamed with the fire of a poetic soul.

"I inquired his name, and was informed that it was Roscoe. I drew back with an involuntary feeling of veneration.

"It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.

"Born in a place apparently ungenial to the growth of literary talent; in the very marketplace of trade; without fortune, family connections, or patronage; self-prompted, self-sustained, and almost self-taught, he has conquered every obstacle, achieved his way to eminence, and, having become one of the ornaments of the nation, has turned the whole force of his talents and influence to advance and embellish his native town.

"Indeed, it is this last trait in his character which has given him the greatest interest in my

eyes, and induced me particularly to point him out to my countrymen. Eminent as are his literary merits, he is but one among the many distinguished authors of this intellectual nation. They, however, in general, live but for their own fame, or their own pleasures.

"Mr. Roscoe, on the contrary, has claimed none of the accorded privileges of talent. . . . There is a daily beauty in his life, on which mankind may meditate and grow better. .

"He has shown how much may be done for a place in hours of leisure by one master spirit, and how completely it can give its own impress to surrounding objects. Like his own Lorenzo de' Medici, on whom he seems to have fixed his eye as on a pure model of antiquity, he has interwoven the history of his life with the history of his native town, and has made the foundations of its fame the monuments of his virtues. Wherever you go in Liverpool, you perceive traces of his footsteps in all that is elegant and liberal. By his own example and constant exertions he has effected that union of commerce and the intellectual pursuits, so eloquently recommended in one of his latest writings [Address on the opening of the Liverpool Institution], and has practically proved how beautifully they may be brought to harmonize, and to benefit each

other. The noble institutions for literary and scientific purposes, which reflect such credit on Liverpool, and are giving such an impulse to the public mind, have mostly been originated, and have all been effectively promoted, by Mr. Ros

"In America we know Mr. Roscoe only as an author-in Liverpool he is spoken of as a banker; and I was told of his having been unfortunate in business. I could not pity him, as I heard some rich men do. I consider him far above the reach of my pity. Those who live only for the world, and in the world, may be cast down by the frowns of adversity; but a man like Roscoe is not to be overcome by the reverses of fortune.

"I was riding out with a gentleman, to view the environs of Liverpool, when he turned off, through a gate, into some ornamented grounds. After riding a short distance, we came to a spacious mansion of freestone, built in the Grecian style. A fine lawn sloped away from it, studded with clumps of trees, so disposed as to break a soft fertile country into a variety of landscapes. The Mersey was seen winding a broad, quiet sheet of water through an expanse of green meadow land; while the Welsh mountains, blended with clouds, and melting into distance, bordered the horizon.

"This was Roscoe's favorite residence during the days of his prosperity. It had been the seat of elegant hospitality and literary retirement. The house was now silent and deserted. . The windows were closed-the library was gone. "I inquired after the fate of Mr. Roscoe's library, which had consisted of scarce and foreign books, from many of which he had drawn the materials for his Italian histories. It had passed under the hammer of the auctioneer, and was dispersed about the country.

"Some of Mr. Roscoe's townsmen may regard him merely as a man of business; others as a politician; all find him engaged like themselves in ordinary occupations, and surpassed, perhaps, by themselves on some points of worldly wisdom

But the man of letters, who speaks of Liverpool, speaks of it as the residence of Roscoe.

VII

FRANCIS BAILY

1774-1844

NE of the most useful men of the last cen

O tury, and yet one of the least known, was

Francis Baily, banker, author, and astronomer. Few men are so able to round out a career with that degree of completeness which is the true though not the popular-measure of success, than was the London banker who now claims our attention. He was the son of a country banker, was liberally educated and from the first was keenly interested in physical science. An early acquaintance with Dr. Priestley stimulated his fondness for scientific research. He deliberately chose a business career and "served his time" in London. He then spent two years in America, mainly in travel. He first associated himself with his father in Newbury, England, and later with a friend of his father in London. In 1814 he had made himself felt in the metropolis, as is evident from the fact that the committee of the Stock Exchange to prepare the evidence against the perpetrators of the De Beranger ("Lord Cochrane") fraud turned over to Baily the laborious task. The Penny Cyclopædia says