suite of chambers, coal and candle, &c. Porter and cyder, I trust, are
among the _et caeteras_." His salary was L200 a year, with a suite of
rooms. Still, Porson was not just the man for a librarian; for no one
could use books more roughly. He had no affectation about books, nor,
indeed, affectation of any sort. The late Mr. William Upcott, who urged
the publication of Evelyn's diary at Wootton, was fellow-secretary with
Porson. The institution removed to King's Arms Yard, Coleman Street, in
1812, and thence in 1819 to the present handsome mansion, erected from
the classic design of Mr. W. Brooks, on the north side of Moorfields,
now Finsbury Circus.

The library is "one of the most useful and accessible in Great Britain;"
and Mr. Watson found in a few of the books Porson's handwriting,
consisting of critical remarks and notes. In a copy of the Aldine
"Herodotus," he has marked the chapters in the margin in Arabic numerals
"with such nicety and regularity," says his biographer, "that the eye of
the reader, unless upon the closest examination, takes them for print."

Lord Byron remembered Porson at Cambridge; in the hall where he himself
dined, at the Vice-Chancellor's table, and Porson at the Dean's, he
always appeared sober in his demeanour, nor was he guilty, as far as his
lordship knew, of any excess or outrage in public; but in an evening,
with a party of undergraduates, he would, in fits of intoxication, get
into violent disputes with the young men, and arrogantly revile them for
not knowing what he thought they might be expected to know. He once went
away in disgust, because none of them knew the name of "the Cobbler of
Messina." In this condition Byron had seen him at the rooms of William
Bankes, the Nubian discoverer, where he would pour forth whole pages of
various languages, and distinguish himself especially by his copious
floods of Greek.

Lord Byron further tells us that he had seen Sheridan "drunk, with all
the world; his intoxication was that of Bacchus, but Porson's that of
Silenus. Of all the disgusting brutes, sulky, abusive, and intolerable,
Porson was the most bestial, so far as the few times that I saw him
went, which were only at William Bankes's rooms. He was tolerated in
this state among the young men for his talents, as the Turks think a
madman inspired, and bear with him. He used to write, or rather vomit,
pages of all languages, and could hiccup Greek like a Helot; and
certainly Sparta neve