hers, to be like him! It would
require a very peculiar genius to add another tale, _ejusdem generis_,
to 'Peter Wilkins' and 'Robinson Crusoe.' I once projected such a thing,
but the difficulty of a pre-occupied ground stopped me. Perhaps La Motte
Fouque might effect something; but I should fear that neither he nor any
other German could entirely understand what may be called the '_desert
island_' feeling. I would try the marvellous line of 'Peter Wilkins,' if
I attempted it, rather than the _real_ fiction of 'Robinson Crusoe.'"

The name of the author of "Peter Wilkins" was discovered only a few
years ago. In the year 1835 Mr. Nicol, the printer, sold by auction a
number of books and manuscripts in his possession, which had formerly
belonged to the well-known publisher, Dodsley; and in arranging them for
sale, the original agreement for the sale of the manuscript of "Peter
Wilkins," by the author, "Robert Pultock, of Clifford's Inn," to
Dodsley, was discovered. From this document it appears that Mr. Pultock
received twenty pounds, twelve copies of the work, and "the cuts of the
first impression"--_i.e._, a set of proof impressions of the fanciful
engravings that professed to illustrate the first edition of the
work--as the price of the entire copyright. This curious document had
been sold afterwards to John Wilkes, Esq., M.P.

Inns of Chancery, like Clifford's Inn, were originally law schools, to
prepare students for the larger Inns of Court.

Fetter Lane did not derive its name from the manufacture of Newgate
fetters. Stow, who died early in the reign of James I., calls it "Fewtor
Lane," from the Norman-French word "fewtor" (idle person, loafer),
perhaps analogous to the even less complimentary modern French word
"foutre" (blackguard). Mr. Jesse, however, derives the word "fetter"
from the Norman "defaytor" (defaulter), as if the lane had once been a
sanctuary for skulking debtors. In either case the derivation is
somewhat ignoble, but the inhabitants have long since lived it down.
Stow says it was once a mere byway leading to gardens (_quantum
mutatus!_) If men of the Bobadil and Pistol character ever did look over
the garden-gates and puff their Trinidado in the faces of respectable
passers-by, the lane at least regained its character later, when poets
and philosophers condescended to live in it, and persons of considerable
consequence rustled their silks and trailed their velvet along its
narrow roadway.

Durin