an attempt
to excite a riot in a methodist chapel; for which his companions were
prosecuted, and he fled, as I have mentioned.

My father was a good seaman, and was soon made second in command in the
Lyon, a large armed transport in the service of government: while my
mother (then with child of me) returned to her native place, Ashburton,
where I was born, in April, 1757.

The resources of my mother were very scanty. They arose from the rent of
three or four small fields, which yet remained unsold. With these,
however, she did what she could for me; and as soon as I was old enough
to be trusted out of her sight, sent me to a school-mistress of the
name of Parret, from whom I learned in due time to read. I cannot boast
much of my acquisitions at this school; they consisted merely of the
contents of the "Child's Spelling Book;" but from my mother, who had
stored up the literature of a country town, which about half a century
ago, amounted to little more than what was disseminated by itinerant
ballad-singers, or rather, readers, I had acquired much curious
knowledge of Catskin, and the Golden Bull, and the Bloody Gardener, and
many other histories equally instructive and amusing.

My father returned from sea in 1764. He had been at the siege of the
Havanna; and though he received more than a hundred pounds for prize
money, and his wages were considerable; yet, as he had not acquired any
strict habits of economy, he brought home but a trifling sum. The little
property yet left was therefore turned into money; a trifle more was got
by agreeing to renounce all future pretensions to an estate at
Totness;[C] and with this my father set up a second time as a glazier
and house-painter. I was now about eight years old, and was put to the
free-school, kept by Hugh Smerdon, to learn to read and write, and
cypher. Here I continued about three years, making a most wretched
progress, when my father fell sick and died. He had not acquired wisdom
from his misfortunes, but continued wasting his time in unprofitable
pursuits, to the great detriment of his business. He loved drink for the
sake of society, and to this love he fell a martyr; dying of a decayed
and ruined constitution before he was forty. The town's people thought
him a shrewd and sensible man, and regretted his death. As for me, I
never greatly loved him; I had not grown up with him; and he was too
prone to repulse my little advances to familiarity, with coldness, or
ange