Notwithstanding this unambitious declaration of the young author, he had that within which would not suffer him to rest so easily; and the fame he had now reaped within a limited circle made him but more eager to try his chance on a wider field.  The hundred copies of which this edition consisted were hardly out of his hands, when with fresh activity he went to press again,—­and his first published volume, “The Hours of Idleness,” made its appearance.  Some new pieces which he had written in the interim were added, and no less than twenty of those contained in the former volume omitted;—­for what reason does not very clearly appear, as they are, most of them, equal, if not superior, to those retained.

In one of the pieces, reprinted in the “Hours of Idleness,” there are some alterations and additions, which, as far as they may be supposed to spring from the known feelings of the poet respecting birth, are curious.  This poem, which is entitled “Epitaph on a Friend,” appears, from the lines I am about to give, to have been, in its original state, intended to commemorate the death of the same lowly born youth, to whom some affectionate verses, cited in a preceding page, were addressed:—­

    “Though low thy lot, since in a cottage born,
     No titles did thy humble name adorn;
     To me, far dearer was thy artless love
     Than all the joys wealth, fame, and friends could prove.”

But, in the altered form of the epitaph, not only this passage, but every other containing an allusion to the low rank of his young companion, is omitted; while, in the added parts, the introduction of such language as

    “What, though thy sire lament his failing line,”

seems calculated to give an idea of the youth’s station in life, wholly different from that which the whole tenour of the original epitaph warrants.  The other poem, too, which I have mentioned, addressed evidently to the same boy, and speaking in similar terms, of the “lowness” of his “lot,” is, in the “Hours of Idleness,” altogether omitted.  That he grew more conscious of his high station, as he approached to manhood, is not improbable; and this wish to sink his early friendship with the young cottager may have been a result of that feeling.

As his visits to Southwell were, after this period, but few and transient, I shall take the present opportunity of mentioning such miscellaneous particulars respecting his habits and mode of life, while there, as I have been able to collect.

Though so remarkably shy, when he first went to Southwell, this reserve, as he grew more acquainted with the young people of the place, wore off; till, at length, he became a frequenter of their assemblies and dinner-parties, and even felt mortified if he heard of a rout to which he was not invited.  His horror, however, at new faces still continued; and if, while at Mrs. Pigot’s, he saw strangers approaching the house, he would instantly