66 6

'Come,' he would say, 'you and I will take a walk in the meadow. I have got the cleverest thing for you that ever was; it is worth half-a-crown merely to have a sight of it, and to hear me read it to you.' When we were arrived at the place proposed, he would produce his parchment, shew it and read it to me. There was one spot in particular, full in view of the church, in which he always seemed to take a peculiar delight. He would frequently lay himself down, fix his eyes upon the church; and seem as if he were in a kind of ecstasy or trance. Then, on a sudden and abruptly, he would tell me, that steeple was burnt down by lightning;29

one by the tower. He survived his patron,c and died at Westbury in Gloucestershire."

29 Mr. Jacob Bryant, in his attempt to invalidate the fact of Chatterton being the sole author of the poems attributed to Rowley, makes the following remarks, at p. 534 of his Observations. "It is remarkable that in the course of the evidence afforded by Mr. Smith, there is mention made of Redcliffe Church spire being destroyed by lightning. But how could either Mr. Smith or Chatterton have been apprized of this, as there was no history nor any known record concerning such an event? It is true that since the death of the latter, there has been a publication by Mr. Nasmith, of William of Worcestre; this came out in the year 1778, and we find the fact there mentioned. 'Latitudo (lege altitudo) Turris de Radclyfe continet 300 pedes: de quibus 100 pedes sunt per fulmen dejecti.' p. 120. As the only history in which this is mentioned came out after the death of Chat

"Wythe him I lyved at Westburie six yeeres beefore he died."— ROWLEY'S Works, p. 346.

that was the place where they formerly acted plays;' (meaning, if I remember right, what is now called the

terton, he could not have his intelligence from hence, but it must have come from one of the manuscripts of Rowley." So much importance was attached to this fact by Mr. Bryant, that at page 581 of his Observations, he again remarks, with reference to the burning of the spire, "Rowley must have been in some degree an eye witness of the event; but Chatterton had no history of it, no record excepting what must have come from Rowley. He could not have mentioned it without some previous intimation from that quarter; for no account was elsewhere to be had." This statement of Mr. Bryant has about as much foundation in truth as a great many other of his assertions, for Mr. B., in his Observations, has taken every opportunity of detracting from the literary reputation and vilifying and blackening the character of Chatterton; the phrases "puerile ignorance""the unlettered boy"-" the boy of Bristol"—"the young man of Bristol"-" the blunders of the ignorant boy, who was continually hunting in Kersey's Dictionary in a most servile manner," were, to say the least, uncharitable; a harsher term would not be misapplied. As it respects the spire, Mr. Bryant's assertion, that Chatterton could not have had his intelligence from any other than Rowley, is easily contradicted. Chatterton, whilst residing in Bristol, used to visit a Mr. Katar, in whose parlour hung a print of St. Mary Redcliff Church, engraved by Toms from a drawing by William Halfpenny, and published by the latter in the year 1746, seven years previous to the birth of Chatterton. Under this print is the following inscription. "This church was founded by Simon de Burton, merchant, (who was several times mayor of this city, then a burrough town,) in ye 22nd year of ye reign of King Edward ye first, one thousand two hundred and ninety-four. In the year 1446, the steeple

Parade;) I recollect very assuredly that he had a parchment in his hand at the very time when he gave me this description, but whether he read this history out

of the said church was blown down, in a great storm of thunder and lightning, wch did much damage to the same; but was by Mr. Wm. Canynge, a worthy merchant, (who was several times mayor of ye said town,) wth the assistance of diverse other wealthy inhabitants, at a great expense, new covered, glazed, and repaired. In the year 1467, ye said Wm. Canynge was commanded by ye king to marry, wherefore he gave up the world, and took orders upon him of the bishop of Worcester, and was made priest, and sung his first mass at our lady of Redcliff, after wch he was dean of Westbury certain years, where he founded an almshouse for six poor women. The sd Wm. Canynge deceased, and was buried worshipfully in ye south end of ye middle ile of ye sd church, near his wife. The said Wm. Canynge founded one chauntry to ye honour of God and S. Katherine, and another chauntry to the honour of God and S. George, and endowed lands for ye maintenance of the same. He likewise founded an almshouse on Redcliff Hill. He was very liberal to all fraternities in Bristol. He gave a considerable sum of money to be distributed among the poor, lame, and blind. The present incumbent is the reverend and learned Thos. Broughton, A. M. Published May, 1746, by Benjamin Hickey, Bristol." This fully accounts for Chatterton's knowledge of the circumstance, for it is most improbable that he should have seen the print without reading the inscription; indeed the existence of the print itself is a sufficient refutation of Mr. Bryant's assertion, that no account of the matter was to be had but in the writings of Rowley. The identical print, which belonged to Mr. Kater, is now in the possession of Mr. Arthur Biggs, who has kindly furnished me with the necessary information respecting it.

of that parchment I am not certain." From the account of the mother of Chatterton, it appears that when he first examined the contents of the old parchments, he told her "that he had found a treasure, and was so glad, nothing could be like it." That he then removed all these parchments out of the large deal box, in which his father used to keep his clothes, into the square oak box; that he was perpetually ransacking every corner of the house for more parchments, and, from time to time, carried away those he had already found, by pockets full; that one day happening to see Clarke's History of the Bible covered with one of those parchments, he swore a great oath, and stripping the book put the cover into his pocket, and carried it away; at the same time stripping a common little bible, but finding no writing upon the cover he replaced it very leisurely.30 Of all the manuscripts, however, that have been produced, none are sufficiently large to cover a small book; and if Chatterton had really found any valuable matter upon the parchments, so many of which he carried to Mr. Lambert's office with him, it is most probable that he would have produced them, as his voucher, when so closely questioned by his friends respecting them. It is very possible that he learned the characters, which he afterwards asserted to be Rowley's hand writing, from these papers; but

30 Milles.

from the evidence adduced by Mr. Rudhall, who states, with reference to the parchment on which the bridge account was written, that "when Chatterton had written on the parchment, he held it over the candle, to give it the appearance of antiquity, which changed the colour of the ink, and made the parchment appear black and a little contracted;" and also that of Mr. Gardner,31

31 Mr. Edward Gardner.-In the year 1798 he published at Bristol, "Miscellanies, in prose and verse," by Edward Gardner, in 2 vols. 12mo. At the end of his work Mr. G. has printed "Original Poems of the late unfortunate Thomas Chatterton, to which is prefixed, a short Sketch of the Con. troversy concerning the Poems attributed to Rowley."

Mr. G. thus introduces the poems: "The following poems may certainly be regarded as a literary curiosity. The name of Chatterton is well known in the learned world; the agitation of the question concerning the authenticity of the poems attributed to Rowley, a priest of Bristol, who is said to have flourished in the fifteenth century, has rendered his fame immortal.

"I was acquainted with this unfortunate youth during the space of three months previous to his departure from Bristol to London, in the spring of the year 1770. Being at that time extremely young, I could be but a slender judge of the extent of his literary acquirements, or of any transactions which may tend to throw light on the Rowleian controversy; yet I distinctly remember two circumstances, which strongly operate against the claim of the Bristol priest.

"I saw him once rub a piece of parchment with ochre, and afterwards rub it on the ground, at the same time say-ing, that was the way to antiquate it, (I remember the very word,) or to give it the appearance of antiquity.

"I heard him once affirm, that it was very easy for a