His lodgings were in a very ugly street in the ugliest outskirts of the town; he had to take a long walk through desolate districts (brick-yard, sordid pasture, degenerate village) before he could refresh his eyes with the rural scenery which was so great a joy to him as almost to be a necessity.  The immediate vicinage offered nothing but monotone of grimy, lower middle-class dwellings, occasionally relieved by a public-house.  He occupied two rooms, not unreasonably clean, and was seldom disturbed by the attentions of his landlady.

An impartial observer might have wondered at the negligence which left him to arrange his life as best he could, notwithstanding youth and utter inexperience.  It looked indeed as if there were no one in the world who cared what became of him.  Yet this was merely the result of his mother’s circumstances, and of his own character.  Mrs Peak could do no more than make her small remittances, and therewith send an occasional admonition regarding his health.  She did not, in fact, conceive the state of things, imagining that the authority and supervisal of the College extended over her son’s daily existence, whereas it was possible for Godwin to frequent lectures or not, to study or to waste his time, pretty much as he chose, subject only to official inquiry if his attendance became frequently irregular.  His independent temper, and the seeming maturity of his mind, supplied another excuse for the imprudent confidence which left him to his own resources.  Yet the perils of the situation were great indeed.  A youth of less concentrated purpose, more at the mercy of casual allurement, would probably have gone to wreck amid trials so exceptional.

Trials not only of his moral nature.  The sums of money with which he was furnished fell short of a reasonable total for bare necessities.  In the calculation made by Mrs. Peak and her sister, outlay on books had practically been lost sight of; it was presumed that ten shillings a term would cover this item.  But Godwin could not consent to be at a disadvantage in his armoury for academic contest.  The first mouth saw him compelled to contract his diet, that he might purchase books; thenceforth he rarely had enough to eat.  His landlady supplied him with breakfast, tea, and supper—­each repast of the very simplest kind; for dinner it was understood that he repaired to some public table, where meat and vegetables, with perchance a supplementary sweet when nature demanded it, might be had for about a shilling.  That shilling was not often at his disposal.  Dinner as it is understood by the comfortably clad, the ‘regular meal’ which is a part of English respectability, came to be represented by a small pork-pie, or even a couple of buns, eaten at the little shop over against the College.  After a long morning of mental application this was poor refreshment; the long afternoon which followed, again spent in rigorous study, could not but reduce a growing frame to ravenous hunger.  Tea and buttered bread were the means of appeasing it, until another four hours’ work called for reward in the shape of bread and cheese.  Even yet the day’s toil was not ended.  Godwin sometimes read long after midnight, with the result that, when at length he tried to sleep, exhaustion of mind and body kept him for a long time feverishly wakeful.