LETTER II.

"Why fhould 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 fpring 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 ftate; 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 fmall and shallow,
Yet keeping on his courfe 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 exiftence, but in the brain of the author. I fhall therefore not trouble you with a history 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.

"Whatever star did at my birth prevail,
"Whether my fate was weigh'd in Libra's scale;
"Or Scorpio reign'd, whofe gloomy pow'r
"Rules dreadful o'er the natal hour;

"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 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 moft fublime genius has, with myself, to boaft (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 poor Taylors make, when compared with the honorable craft!

of

the

"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 present the world with a Folio on that important fubject.

But to begin

Were I inclined to pride myfelf in genealogical defcent, I might here boaft that the family were originally fettled 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 fhall for the prefent only say, that I was born at Wellington in Somersetshire, on the 31st of Auguft, (old ftyle) 1746. My father, George Lackington, was a Journeyman 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 honeft 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,

Drunk when he died."

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

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 bufinefs at the expiration of his time. But my father worked a year or two as a journeyman, and then difpleafed his father by marrying a woman without a fhilling, of a mean family, and who fupported herfelf by fpinning of wool into yarn, fo that my mother was delivered of your friend and humble fervant, her firstborn, 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 refentment had nearly fubfided, fo that he fupplied him with money to open a shop for

bimfelf.