And of you, for the prefent, after informing you, my next fhall contain a faithful account of particulars relative to the early part of my life, with affuring you that I am,

Dear Friend,

Your ever obliged.

LETTER

LETTER II.

Why should my birth keep down my mounting Spirit? "Are not all creatures fubject unto time;

"To time, who doth abufe the world,
"And fills it full of hotch-podge baftardy?
"There's legions now of beggars on the Earth,
"That their original did spring from Kings;
"And many monarchs now, whofe fathers were
"The riff-raff of their age; for time and fortune
"Wears out a noble train to beggary;
"And from the dunghill millions do advance
"To state; and mark, in this admiring world
"This is the course, which in the name of fate
"Is feen as often as it whirls about;

"The river Thames that by our door doth run,
"His first beginning is but small and shallow,
"Yet keeping on his course grows to a sea.

SHAKESPEAR'S Cromwell.

DEAR FRIEND,

IN my laft I hinted that I should confine myself to a plain narrative of facts, unembellished with the meretricious aid of lofty figures, or reprefentations of things which never had existence, but in the brain of the author. I fhall therefore not trouble you with a hiftory of predictions which foretold the future greatness of your humble

B 4

humble fervant, nor with a minute account of the afpects of the planets at the very aufpicious and important crifis when firft I inhaled the air of this bustling orb; for, extraordinary as it may appear, it has never yet occurred to me, that any of the adepts in the aftrological fcience have made a calculation of my nativity; 'tis probable this high honor is by the planets deftined to adorn the fublime lucubrations of the very ingenious Mr. SIBLEY, in the next edition of his ftup-endous work! And here, for the honor of the craft let me remark, that this most fublime genius, has with myfelf, 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 Honor of the Taylors; or the Hiftory of Sir JOHN HAWKWOOD."

But

were any learned writer to undertakeThe honor of the Shoemakers, or the History how infignificant a figure would

of

the

the poor Taylors make, when compared with the honorable craft!

"Coblers from Crifpin boaft their Public Spirit,
"And all are upright downright men of merit."

Should I live to fee as many editions of my Memoirs published, as there have been of the Pilgrim's Progrefs, I may be induced to prefent the world with a Folio on that important fubject.

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 leifure as inclination to boast of what if true would add nothing to my merits, I shall for the prefent only fay, that I was born at Wellington in Somersetshire, on the 31st of Auguft, (old style) 1746. My father George Lackington, was a Jour

neyman

neyman Shoemaker, who had incurred the displeasure of my grandfather for marrying my mother, whofe maiden name was Joan Trott. She was the daughter of a poor weaver in Wellington; a good honest man, whofe end was remarkable, though not very fortunate; in the road between Taunton and Wellington, he was found drowned in a ditch, where the water fcarcely covered his face: He was, 'tis conjectured,

This happened fome 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 confiderable 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 fhoemaker in Wellington, with an intention of fetting him up in that business at the ex

piration