les, some as exercises, others voluntarily, (for
poetry was now become my delight) and not a few at the desire of my
friends. When I became capable, however, of reading Latin and Greek
with some degree of facility, that gentleman employed all my leisure
hours in translations from the Classics; and indeed I do not know a
single school book, of which I did not render some portion into English
verse. Among others JUVENAL engaged my attention, or rather my master's,
and I translated the tenth Satire for a holyday task. Mr. Smerdon was
much pleased with this (I was not undelighted with it myself) and as I
was now become fond of the author, he easily persuaded me to proceed
with him, and I translated in succession the third, the fourth, the
twelfth, and I think the eighth Satires. As I had no end in view but
that of giving a temporary satisfaction to my benefactors; I thought
little more of these, than of many other things of the same nature which
I wrote from time to time, and of which I never copied a single line.

On my removing to Exeter College, however, my friend, ever attentive to
my concerns, advised me to copy my translation of the tenth Satire, and
present it, on my arrival, to the Rev. Dr. Stinton (afterwards Rector)
to whom Mr. Taylor had given me an introductory letter: I did so and it
was kindly received. Thus encouraged, I took up the first and and second
Satires (I mention them in the order they were translated) when my
friend, who had sedulously watched my progress, first started the idea
of going through the whole, and publishing it by subscription, as a
means of increasing my means of subsistence. To this I readily acceded,
and finished the thirteenth, eleventh, and fifteenth Satires: the
remainder were the work of a much later period.

When I had got thus far, we thought it a fit time to mention our design;
it was very generally approved of by my friends; and on the first of
January, 1781, the subscription was opened by Mr. Cookesley at
Ashburton, and by myself at Exeter College.

So bold an undertaking so precipitately announced, will give the reader,
I fear, a higher opinion of my conceit than of my talents: neither the
one nor the other, however, had the smallest concern with the business,
which originated solely in ignorance. I wrote verses with great
facility, and I was simple enough to imagine that little more was
necessary for a translator of Juvenal! I was not, indeed, unconscious of
my inaccurac