of the author. I shall therefore not trouble you with a history of predictions which foretold the future greatness of your humble servant, nor with a minute account of the aspects of the planets at the very auspicivus and important crisis when first I inhaled the air of this bustling orb. "Whatever star did at my birth prevail, Whether my fate was weigh'd in Libra' scale; Or Capricorn with angry rays, Those tyrants of the western skies." HORACE. For, extraordinary as it may appear, it has never yet occurred to me, that any of the adepts in the astrological science have made a calculation of my nativity: 'tis probable this high honour is by the planets destined to adorn the sublime lucubrations of the very ingenious Mr Sibley, in the next edition of his stup-endous work! And here, for the honour of the craft, let me remark, that this most sublime genius has, with myself, to boast (and who would not boast of their genealogy in having a prince for their ancestor?) in being a son of the renowned prince Crispin. A volume has been written with the title of "The Honour of the Taylors; or the History of Sir John Hawkwood." But were any learned writer to undertake- -the honour of the shoemakers, or the history how insignificant a figure would the poor taylors make, when compared with the honourable craft! of "Coblers from Crispin boast their public spirit, Should I live to see as many editions of my Memoirs published, as there have been of the Pilgrim's Progress, I may be induced to present the world with a folio on that important subject. But to begin------ Were I inclined to pride myself in genealogical descent, I might here boast, that the family were originally settled at White Lackington, in Somersetshire, which obtained its name from one of my famous ancestors, and give you a long detail of their grandeur, &c., but, having as little leisure as inclination to boast of what, if true, would add nothing to my merits, I shall for the present only say, that I was born at Wellington in Somersetshire, on the 31st of August, (old style) 1746. My father, George Lackington, was a journeyman shoemaker, who had incurred the displeasure of my grandfather for marrying my mother, whose maiden name was Joan Trott. She was the daughter of a poor weaver in Wellington; a good honest man, whose end was remarkable, though not very fortunate: in the road between Taunton and Wellington, he was found drowned in a ditch, where the water scarcely covered his face: he was, 'tis conjecturel, This happened some years before the marriage of my father and mother. My grandfather, George Lackington, had been a gentleman-farmer at Langford, a village two miles from Wellington, and acquired a pretty considerable property. But my father's mother dying when my father was but about thirteen years of age, my grandfather, who had two daughters, bound my father apprentice to a Mr Hordly, a master-shoemaker in Wellington, with an intention of setting him up in that business at the expiration of his time. But my father worked a year or two as a journeyman, and then displeased his father by marrying a woman without a shilling, of a mean family, and who supported herself by spinning of wool into yarn, so that my mother was delivered of your friend and humble servant, her first-born, and hope of the family, in my grandmother Trott's poor cottage; and that good old woman carried me privately to church, unknown to my father, who was (nominally) a Quaker, that being the religion of his ancestors. About the year 1750, my father having three or four children, and my mother proving an excellent wife, my grandfather's resentment had nearly subsided, so that he supplied him with money to open a shop for himself. But that which was intended to be of very great service to him and his family, eventually proved extremely unfortunate to himself and them; for, as soon as he found he was more at ease in his circumstances, he contracted a fatal habit of drinking, and of course his business was neglected; so that after several fruitless attempts of my grandfather to keep him in trade, he was, partly by a very large family, but more by his habitual drunkenness, reduced to his old state of a journeyman shoemaker. Yet so infatuated was he with the love of liquor, that the endearing ties of husband and father could not restrain him: by which baneful habit himself and family were involved in the extremest poverty. "To mortal men great loads allotted be; HERRICK. So that neither myself, my brothers, or sisters, are indebted to a father scarcely for anything that can endear his memory, or cause us to reflect on him with pleasure. "Children, the blind effects of love and chance, DRYDEN. My father and mother might have said with Middleton, "How adverse runs the destiny of some creatures We only can get children and no riches; And, till our state rise, make our blood stand still," But to our mother we are indebted for everything. "She was a woman, take her for all in all, I shall not look on her like again." Never did I know or hear of a woman who worked and lived so hard as she did to support eleven children: and were I to relate the particulars, it would not gain credit. I shall only observe that, for many years together, she worked nineteen or twenty hours out of every twenty-four; even when very near her time, sometimes at one hour she was seen walking backwards and forwards by her spinning-wheel, and her midwife sent for the next Whenever she was asked to drink a half-pint of ale, at any shop where she had been laying out a trifling sum, she always asked leave to take it home to her husband, who was always so mean and selfish as to drink it. Out of love to her family she totally abstained from every kind of liquor, water excepted; her food was chiefly broth, (little better than water and oatmeal,) turnips, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, &c; her children fared something better, but not much, as you may well suppose. When I reflect on the astonishing hardships and sufferings of so worthy a woman, and her helpless infants, I find myself ready to curse the husband and father that could thus involve them in such a deplorable scene of misery and distress. It is dreadful to add, that his habitual drunkenness shortened his days nearly one half, and that about twenty years since he died, unregretted by his own children; nay more, while nature shed tears over his grave, reason was thankful: "A parting tear to nature must be paid, Nature, in spite of us, will be obey'd." Thankful that the cause of their poverty and misery was taken out of the way, "The pious tear the sons and daughters shed; Thus they, whom long he wrong'd, bewail'd him dead ' And bear their sorrows as beseems the wise." COOKE. Read this, ye inhuman parents, and shudder! Was a law made to banish all such fathers, would it not be a just, nay even a mild law? I have my doubts whether children should not be taught to despise and detest an unnatural brutal parent, as much as they are to love and revere a good one. Here, sir, permit me to drop so gloomy a subject, and relate an uncommon circumstance that happened about this time. Mr James Knowland, who for many years kept the sign of the Eight Bells in Wellington, had a son that appeared weakly and infirm; when he was about nine years old, he was taken very ill, and (to all appearance) died; he had lain in the coffin five days, when, in bringing him down stairs in order to bury him, they thought that something moved in the coffin, and on opening it, they found him alive, and his eyes open. About two years after this, the boy was again taken ill, and in a day or two after, was to all appearance dead; but his father resolved not to have him interred until he became offensive; he lay in this state six days, and again came to life. I am, sir, yours. LETTER III. "So have I wander'd ere those days were past, DEAR FRIEND, VILLAGE CURATE. As I was the eldest, and my father for the first few years a careful hard-working man, I fared something better than my brothers and sisters. I was put for |