coming disconcerted him, nor even if a lady, with an oblique glance of her eye, caught two or three lines of his MS., did he feel himself inclined to blush, though naturally the shyest of mankind.

On the walls of his study hung among other things a couple of engravings from paintings by Vernet-one of Marseilles, the other of the Isle of Visida, Bay of Naples; also two French prints, both on Iliad subjects, in one of which Agamemnon was represented addressing Achilles exactly in the attitude of a dancing-master turning miss in a minuet.

128. The Death of Unwin.-November 29, 1786.

Scarcely had Cowper and Mrs. Unwin got comfortably settled in their new abode before they received. a great shock. Mr. Unwin had been travelling with Mr. Henry Thornton, when, on his return, he was seized with typhus fever at Winchester, and the news that he was dangerously ill was speedily followed by tidings of his death.

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Unwin was a man of sincere piety, warm and constant affections, and singularly amiable manners, those rare persons who are liked at first sight, and loved in proportion as they are known." His cheerfulness and ready wit would alone have made him an agreeable companion. The day after Cowper last saw him (in August, 1786), whilst he (the poet), Mrs. Unwin, and Lady Hesketh were seated quietly together, the last made the remark, "Now we want Mr. Unwin." Her

reason, Cowper observes, at least one of her reasons, for saying so being that they had spent near half an hour together without laughing-an interval of gravity that seldom occurred when Mr. Unwin was present.

But now, and so suddenly that neither, at first, could scarcely realize the fact, Mrs. Unwin was bereaved of her only and beloved son, and Cowper his endeared friend.

In December Cowper devoted some time to the melancholy employment of composing a Latin inscription for Mr. Unwin's tombstone. A relative of Mr. Unwin's having objected, however, to one of the expressions in it, this epitaph of Cowper's was not used, the following, in English, being put in its place. It is on the flat stone that covers his remains in Winchester Cathedral :

IN MEMORY OF THE

REV. WILLIAM CAWTHORNE UNWIN, M.A.

RECTOR OF STOCK, IN ESSEX.

He was educated at the Charter-house, in London, under the Rev. Dr. Crusius; and, having gone through the education of that school, he was at an early period admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge. He died in this city, the 29th of Nov. 1786, aged forty-one years, leaving a widow and three young children.

Mr. Bull writes in December: "Poor Mrs. Unwin and Mr. Cowper! I rode over to smoke a pipe yesterday, and sympathize a little with them. They bore it better than I expected."

129. The "Ladies of the Inkbottle" and the good-natured Padre.

To his late friend Cowper had written (August 24, 1786): "Lady Hesketh transcribes for me at present. When she is gone, Mrs. Throckmorton takes up that business, and will be my lady of the ink-botttle for the rest of the winter. She solicited herself that office." When neither Lady Hesketh nor Mrs. Throckmorton were at elbow, Mrs. Unwin tendered her services, chiefly, however, in respect to the minor poems, many of which are in her beautiful Italian hand.

But Cowper's most industrious helper was Dr. Gregson, Mr. Throckmorton's chaplain, styled more familiarly Griggy," or "The Padre." On December 21, 1786, Cowper writes to Lady Hesketh : "I have already invited the good Padre in general terms, and he shall positively dine here next week, whether he will or not. I do not at all suspect that his kindness to Protestants has anything insidious in it, any more than I suspect that he transcribes Homer for me with a view for my conversion. He would find me a tough piece of business, I can tell him, for, when I had no religion at all, I had yet a terrible dread of the Pope. How much more now!"

Three days later the poet says: "The Padre is to dine with us on Thursday next. I am highly pleased with him, and intend to make all possible advances to a nearer acquaintance. Why he is so silent in company I know not. Perhaps he is reserved, like some other people; or perhaps he holds it unsuitable to his function to be forward in mixed conversation. Certain it is

that he has enough to say when he and I are together. He has transcribed the ninth book for me, and is now transcribing the twelfth, which Mrs. Throckmorton left unfinished." By May, 1788, Cowper and "Griggy" were as great as two inkle-weavers," and Cowper explains the term by observing "that inkle-weavers contract intimacies with each other sooner than other people, on account of their juxtaposition in weaving of inkle. Hence it is that Mr. Gregson and I emulate those happy weavers in the closeness of our connection. We live near to each other, and while the Hall is empty are each other's only extraforaneous comfort."

130. "Johnny Higgins."

Another friend Cowper made at Weston was Mr. John Higgins, a young man of eighteen, and nephew to that Mr. Charles Higgins who received from Scott the yearly rent of a hamper of pears. In December, 1786, Cowper did not know Mr. John Higgins " even by sight." But hearing about this time that young Higgins was a great admirer of his poems, which he had studied to such an extent that he was able to repeat any of them by heart, Cowper invited his neighbour to "dish of tea," and hence sprang up an intimacy productive of pleasure to both. Among his other accomplishments "Johnny Higgins," as Cowper now styled him, was very clever with his pencil; and as "" some little return for the ornament he gave to Cowper's study, Mrs. Unwin would sometimes indulge him with a sight of many of the poet's lesser efforts

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