an exceeding good temper, and bids fair to discover more sense than we suspected would ever fall to her lot."

Mrs. Unwin seems from the first to have taken a great interest in the girl, but now by her foolish partiality she thoroughly spoilt her. In March, 1787, she is styled in Dr. Grindon's ledger "Miss Hannah,” showing that she was regarded rather as one of the family than as a servant-for when referring to a servant of Mrs. Unwin, Mr. Grindon always put "Mrs. U.'s maid."

For some time Hannah conducted herself tolerably well, for Cowper writes as follows to Lady Hesketh on April 14, 1789: "She is truly a good girl, and in no part of her behaviour blamable. Her chief occupation at present in the day-time is to make black lace for a cloak (of Mrs. Unwin's), which she does, by the account of the judicious in those matters, exceedingly well. In the evening she works at her needle. Ever since the first week or ten days of Mrs. Unwin's lameness she has slept on the floor in a corner of her closet, that she might be at hand to assist her as often as she wanted help; and though sometimes called from her pallet twice or thrice in a night, has risen always with an affectionate readiness that no artifice can imitate."

151. The King's Recovery.-February, 1789.

In the summer of 1788, owing to political and domestic anxieties, the health of King George III. had

begun to break down. At the beginning of the autumn he was for some days in danger from a violent fever; and when it subsided he was found to be bereft of his reason. It was then suggested that the Prince of Wales should assume the reins of government as regent. But the two parties in the State, the Pittites and the Foxites, differed in their opinion as to what powers should attend that office. Pitt, in the hopes, as he said, that the king's illness would not be of long duration, insisted that the authority entrusted to the regent should be restricted; Fox, on the other hand, who knew that the elevation of the Prince of Wales would be -concurrent with the downfall of Pitt, wished that full powers should be granted. Meantime, whilst the two parties were squabbling, the king, to the great joy of his subjects, with whom the Prince of Wales was unpopular, suddenly began to mend, and his physician, Dr. Willis, prophesied a speedy recovery. Cowper, who loved his king, and honoured Mr. Pitt, was not less gratified than other people. "The king's recovery," he says, "is with us "is with us a subject of daily conversation and of continual joy. It is so providentially timed that no man who believes a Providence at all can say less of it than that This is the finger of God!' Never was a hungry faction so mortally disappointed, nor the integrity of an upright administration more openly rewarded." In every town and village throughout the country there were rejoicings. At Weston "Mr. Frog illuminated the front of his house in the handsomest manner, threw up many rockets, gave a large bonfire and beer to the people." Cowper was there, and as his friends told

him, caught a violent cold on the occasion, though he was himself not very willing to admit it. In the evening there was a dance at the Hall, at which Cowper's protégée, "Miss" Hannah, greatly enjoyed herself, being not a little proud of a "favour" pinned before her, which had been sent her by Lady Hesketh -and the more so because no other "lady in the company was so distinguished.

On the 23rd of April the king, accompanied by the queen and royal family, proceeded to St. Paul's Cathedral to give public thanks to Almighty God. In commemoration of these happy events Cowper wrote two short "Annus Memorabilis, 1789,” and "On the Queen's Visit to London, the Night of the 17th March, 1789."

poems:

During the time of the rejoicings the particular work Cowper had in hand was a review of Glover's"Athenaid," for the Analytical Review, which he had undertaken to oblige Joseph Johnson.

152. The Cuckoo Clock and the Hamper.. -June, 1789.

In June Cowper has a commission for his friend Rose. He says: "I am going to give you a deal of trouble, but London folks must be content to be troubled by country folks; for in London only can our strange necessities be supplied. You must buy for me, if you please, a cuckoo clock; and now I will tell you where they are sold, which, Londoner as you are, it is possible you may not know. They are sold,

I am informed, at more houses than one, in that narrow part of Holborn which leads into Broad St. Giles'. The shop is now in High Holborn, northside. It seems they are well-going clocks, and cheap, which are the two best recommendations of any clock. They are made in Germany, and such numbers of them are annually imported that they are become even a considerable article of commerce."

In the next letter he writes: "Many thanks for the cuckoo, which arrived perfectly safe and goes well, to the amusement and amazement of all who hear it. Hannah lies awake to hear it, and I am not sure that we have not others in the house that admire his music as much as she."

The friendship of Cowper and Rose increased with time. The "Bouton de Rose" was always welcome at Weston, and both Cowper and Beau felt melancholy after his departure. When Rose could not himself come he would often send the poet, which was quite needless, however, something to remember him by. One of these reminders, a well-filled hamper, arrived during Lady Hesketh's stay at Weston in the October of 1789, and while his cousin, "spectatress of the business," sat on the stairs the poet "unpacked and expounded" below, whilst at the same time they diverted themselves with imagining the manner in which Homer would have described the scene. Detailed in his circumstantial way, it would have furnished materials for a paragraph of considerable length in an Odyssey.

"The straw-stuff'd hamper with his ruthless steel
He open'd, cutting sheer th' inserted cords,

Which bound the lid and lip secure. Forth came
The rustling package first, bright straw of wheat,
Or oats, or barley; next a bottle green

Throat-full, clear spirits the contents, distill'd
Drop after drop odorous, by the art

Of the fair mother of his friend-the Rose."

And so on.

"I should rejoice to be the hero of such a tale in the hands of Homer."

By the end of November Cowper had finished the Odyssey first going over. But as he said, though the work was done, it was not finished (December 1, 1789, to Newton). To finish it he set to work backwards, beginning at the last book, with the design to persevere in that crab-like fashion till he should arrive at the first. He says (April 19, 1790): “I find so little to do in the last revisal, that I shall soon reach the Odyssey. I am in high spirits on this subject, and think that I have at last licked the clumsy cub into a shape that will secure to it the favourable notice of the public.