Redcliffe, at Bristol,'-That was the origin of Chatterton's list of great painters—and probably of his other inventions. Can it be supposed that Vertue should have seen that old bill, and with his inquisitive and diligent turn, especially about painters, not have enquired whether there was nothing more? Vertue was even a versifier, as I have many proofs in his MSS. and searched much after Chaucer and Lidgate, of whom he engraved portraits—yet all Rowley's remains, it seems, were reserved for Chatterton, who, it cannot be denied, did forge poetry and prose for others; and who, as indubitably, was born a great poet-yet not a line of tolerable poetry in Rowley's own hand can be produced. Did Chatterton destroy the originals to authenticate their existence? He certainly wrote his forgeries on the backs of old parchments, and there is both internal and external evidence against the antiquity of the poetry-but I will not take part in that dispute. Error, like the sea, is always gaining as much territory in one place as it loses in another, and it is to little purpose to make it change possessions."

1

Rivals depreciate the former, and their partizans contest the merit of their competitors. Homer on one hand, Shakspeare and Milton on the other, confirm this hypothesis. The Grecian's glory has rolled down to us with unabated lustre ; he did not lie unknown for centuries. Shakspeare was during his life obscured by the mock pretensions of Ben Jonson; and Milton's Paradise Lost was sold for fifteen pounds."

"Since I wrote the preceding pages, I have been told that a gentleman at Bristol is in possession of my original letters to Chatterton, in my own hand-writing. Will he not be so candid as to produce them, when I declare he has my full consent? They will acquit or condemn me better than my asseverations or reasoning. If they are what I have represented them on recollection after nine years are past, nothing more is necessary to my defence. If the matter or style of them is contemptuous and arrogant, be the shame mine; I deserve it. It is impossible for me to recall words written nine years ago, and which, when written, I most certainly did not expect would be publickly discussed; but I have repeated the transaction so often in that long period of time, and have such perfect remembrance of my own feelings on that occasion, that I have no fear of my sentiments being produced.

'Another reflection occurs to me, and probably will to my accusers. 1 have complained of Chatterton's unwarrantable letter to me, on my not returning his MSS. Shall I not be told that I probably did not restore to him that letter? I believe I did not; I believe I preserved it—but what has become of it in nine years, I cannot say. I have lost, or mislaid it. If I find it, it shall be submitted to every possible scrutiny of the expert, before I produce it as genuine-and

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though I hope to be believed that such letter I did receive, and did mention to several persons 76 long before I was charged with ill-treatment of Chatterton, I desire no imputation should lie on his memory, beyond what his character and my unprovoked 77 assertions render probable. I could not feel regret on his redemand of MSS. on which I had set no esteem. might have preserved copies, both of the poems and of his letters, if I had been willing. No adequate reason can be given why I returned all promiscuously, but his insult and my own indifference. Every part of my Narrative is consistent, not only with truth, but with Chatterton's character and the circumstances of his story. I have not the vanity to think that to palliate my own conduct, I could weave a tale, that, I have the boldness to say, will not be found false in a single fact. Still less should I have let the accusation gather head, and increase to its present bulk, had I apprehended any detection. I have neither gone, written,

76"It should be remembered that I gave this account while Chatterton was living, and he could have contradicted it, if false; for I gave it to any body that questioned me, the moment the MSS. began to be talked of, and I have no doubt but it came to Chatterton's knowledge."

77 "I certainly had received no provocation from Chatterton but his telling me I should not have dared to detain his MSS. if he had not trusted me with his situation. If he gave me that provocation, it was true: if he did not, I had no reason to invent it."

or sent to Bristol. I have left Chatterton's fautors in undisturbed possession of all documents. I have not tried to suppress a single circumstance. On the contrary, I desire the whole of my correspondence with Chatterton may be ascertained. I demand the publication of my letters to him. Let them be either printed, or deposited where every man may have recourse to them. Till that is done, and till they contradict me, I will trust to the candour of the publick, that I shall not stand ill in their opinion, for my conduct towards that unhappy youth. If my letters are suppressed, will it not induce a suspicion that the adherents to the authenticity of Rowley's poems, in anger to me for having been the first to stagger belief in their great Diana, have converted my distrust of their originality into pride and inhumanity ?-But I am in no pain. The publick have been called in as judges; and, not being actuated by the prejudices of those whose interest it may be to support a fraud, or of those whose literary bigotry has attached them to a legend, will be under no difficulty to pronounce sentence. Nor is my cause so necessarily connected with Rowley's poems, as to stand and fall together. If Rowley could rise from the dead and acknowledge every line ascribed to him, he could not prove that I used Chatterton ill. I would take the ghost's word; I am sure it would be in my favour.

'Having thus fulfilled what was due to the publick

and to myself, I declare I will never trouble myself any farther about Chatterton and his writings: much less reply to any anonymous persons that shall chuse to enter into the controversy. I do not think myself of consequence enough to take up the time of the publick; and I have probably too few years to live, to throw away one of the remaining hours on so silly a dispute."

66 APPENDIX. NUMBER II.

Having said that Chatterton alternately flattered and satirised all ranks and parties,' the following list of pieces written by him, but never printed, will confirm that assertion. I have seen those pieces, copies of which are in the hands of a gentleman who favoured me with the list.

"1. Kew Gardens. This is a long satirical rhapsody of some hundred lines, in Churchill's manner, against persons in power, and their friends at Bristol.

"2. The Flight: addressed to a great man; Ld. B- -e. In 40 stanzas of 6 lines each. Thus endorsed: 'Too long for the Political Register-Curtailed in the digressions-Given to Mr. Mortimer.'

"3. The Dowager, a Tragedy. Unfinished-only

two scenes.

"4. Verses addressed to the Rev. Mr. Catcote, on