culty had been steadily or studiously cultivated. As to
details, it may be remarked that his schooling included some
amount--perhaps a fair average amount--of Latin. We find it stated that
he had a Latin prize at school, but was not apt at the language in
later years. He had however one kind of aptitude at it--being addicted
to the use of familiar Latin quotations or phrases, cited with humorous
verbal perversions.

[Footnote 1: The authority--I might almost say, the _one_
authority--for the life of Hood, is the _Memorials_ published by his
son and daughter. Any point which is not clearly brought out in that
affectionate and interesting record will naturally be equally or more
indefinite in my brief summary, founded as it is on the _Memorials_.]

In all the relations of family life, and the forms of family affection,
Hood was simply exemplary. The deaths of his elder brother and of his
father left him the principal reliance of his mother, herself destined
soon to follow them to the tomb: he was an excellent and devoted son.
His affection for one of his sisters, Anne, who also died shortly
afterwards, is attested in the beautiful lines named _The Deathbed_,--

"We watched her breathing through the night."

At a later date, the loves of a husband and a father seem to have
absorbed by far the greater part of his nature and his thoughts: his
letters to friends are steeped and drenched In "Jane," "Fanny," and
"Tom junior." These letters are mostly divided between perpetual family
details and perennial jocularity: a succession of witticisms, or at
lowest of puns and whimsicalities, mounts up like so many squibs and
crackers, fizzing through, sparkling amid, or ultimately extinguished
by, the inevitable shower--the steady rush and downpour--of the
home-affections. It may easily be inferred from this account that there
are letters which one is inclined to read more thoroughly, and in
greater number consecutively, than Hood's.

The vocation first selected for Hood, towards the age of fifteen, was
one which he did not follow up for long--that of an engraver. He was
apprenticed to his uncle Mr. Sands, and afterwards to one of the Le
Keux family. The occupation was ill-suited to his constantly ailing
health, and this eventually conduced to his abandoning it. He then went
to Scotland to recruit, remaining there among his relatives about five
years.[2] According to a statement made by himself, he was in a
merchant's office w