and education a Scotchman,
followed this humble occupation for many years, and afterwards settled
in the town of Kendal. He married a kinswoman of my wife's, and her
sister Sarah was brought up from early childhood under this good man's
eye.[13] My own imaginations I was happy to find clothed in reality, and
fresh ones suggested, by what she reported of this man's tenderness of
heart, his strong and pure imagination, and his solid attainments in
literature, chiefly religious, whether in prose or verse. At Hawkshead
also, while I was a school-boy, there occasionally resided a packman
(the name then generally given to this calling), with whom I had
frequent conversations upon what had befallen him, and what he had
observed during his wandering life, and, as was natural, we took much to
each other; and upon the subject of Pedlarism in general, as _then_
followed, and its favourableness to an intimate knowledge of human
concerns, not merely among the humbler classes of society, I need say
nothing here in addition to what is to be found in 'The Excursion,' and
a note attached to it.

[13] In pencil on opposite page--Sarah went to Kendal on our mother's
death, but Mr. P. died in the course of a year or two. M.W.

Now for the _Solitary_. Of him I have much less to say. Not long after
we took up our abode at Grasmere, came to reside there, from what motive
I either never knew or have forgotten, a Scotchman, a little past the
middle of life, who had for many years been chaplain to a Highland
regiment. He was in no respect, as far as I know, an interesting
character, though in his appearance there was a good deal that attracted
attention, as if he had been shattered in for bane, and not happy in
mind. Of his quondam position I availed myself to connect with the
'Wanderer,' also a Scotchman, a character suitable to my purpose, the
elements of which I drew from several persons with whom I had been
connected, and who fell under my observation during frequent residences
in London at the beginning of the French Revolution. The chief of these
was, one may now say, a Mr. Fawcett, a preacher at a Dissenting
meeting-house at the Old Jewry. It happened to me several times to be
one of his congregation through my connection with Mr. Nicholson of
Cateaton Street, Strand, who, at a time when I had not many
acquaintances in London, used often to invite me to dine with him on
Sundays; and I took that opportunity (Mr. N. being a Dissenter) of