ed hereditary rights of
age. William constituted himself the educational guide of the nursery,
proclaiming theories, delivering lectures, performing experiments,
asserting opinions upon subjects diverse and erudite. Indeed, a
vigorous spirit was housed in William's body, and but for his early
death, this lad also might have brought lustre to the family name.

A real introduction to the world of strife came with the development
of a lively feud between the two brothers on the one side, and on the
other a crowd of young belligerents employed in a cotton factory on
the road between Greenhay and Manchester, where the boys now attended
school. Active hostilities occurred daily when the two "aristocrats"
passed the factory on their way home at the hour when its inmates
emerged from their labor. The dread of this encounter hung like a
cloud over Thomas, yet he followed William loyally, and served with
all the spirit of a cadet of the house. Imagination played an
important part in this campaign, and it is for that reason primarily
that to this and the other incidents of De Quincey's childhood
prominence is here given; in no better way can we come to an
understanding of the real nature of this singular man.

In 1796 the home at Greenhay was broken up. The irrepressible William
was sent to London to study art; Mrs. De Quincey removed to Bath, and
Thomas was placed in the grammar school of that town; a younger
brother, Richard, in all respects a pleasing contrast to William, was
a sympathetic comrade and schoolmate. For two years De Quincey
remained in this school, achieving a great reputation in the study of
Latin, and living a congenial, comfortable life. This was followed by
a year in a private school at Winkfield, which was terminated by an
invitation to travel in Ireland with young Lord Westport, a lad of De
Quincey's own age, an intimacy having sprung up between them a year
earlier at Bath. It was in 1800 that the trip was made, and the
period of the visit extended over four or five months. After this
long recess De Quincey was placed in the grammar school at Manchester,
his guardians expecting that a three years' course in this school
would bring him a scholarship at Oxford. However, the new environment
proved wholly uncongenial, and the sensitive boy who, in spite of his
shyness and his slender frame, possessed grit in abundance, and who
was through life more or less a law to himself, made up his mind to
run away. His fl