ned for the church--as much, I believe, from
my mother's proneness to Prelacy, (in a very different sense from its
usual acceptation,) she being fond of expatiating on her descent from
one of the Seven of immortal memory, as from my being a formal,
bookish boy, of a reserved and rather contemplative disposition. The
profession did not appear uncongenial to my taste; and although, from
my classical education having been deplorably neglected, there was no
small share of grinding and fag before me, I entered readily into my
father's views; the more especially, as in them was comprehended the
preliminary visit to Germany, the land of my early visions, where I
hoped to be on more intimate terms than ever with my old
acquaintances, the Spirit of the Brocken, the Wild Hunter, &c. &c.;
or, mayhap, to carry to practical results in the heart of the Black
Forest the lessons of natural freedom I had so largely acquired from
Schiller. My father's object in sending me to Heidelberg was not, I
believe, quite of so elevated a character.

After a month's preliminary bustle, I set out. The Lincoln
Light-o'-Heart coach took me up a couple of miles from my
father's--and with me a chest of stores that would have sufficed for
the north-west passage. Furnished with a letter to a friend in London,
who was prepared to forward me by the first vessel offering for
Holland, I accomplished the journey to town satisfactorily. On
arriving in London, I found Mr Sainsbury, the friend already
mentioned, awaiting me at the coach-office in Lad Lane. He was my
father's banker--a little red-faced hospitable man, fond of Welsh
rabbits, Hessian boots, and of wearing his watch-chain down to his
knees. He welcomed me very cordially, said he had not had time as yet
to make the necessary enquiries about my passage; but as he was sure
no vessel would sail for Helvoetsluys for at least a week, he insisted
upon my putting up at his residence while I remained. Oppressed as I
was with fretting and fatigue, it was a matter of indifference to me
at the moment where I stayed while in town. I therefore, with a proper
expression of thanks, accepted the invitation. A job coach conveyed us
in a short time to Mr Sainsbury's abode. He lived at Walworth, at that
period an extensive suburb on the Surrey side of London, but long
since incorporated into the great mass of the metropolis. The street
in which the mansion stood was large, the houses were spacious and
handsome, their t