Perhaps I ought not to have inserted this schoolboy tale; but, besides the strong impression made by the incident at the time, the whole accompaniments of the story are matters to me of solemn and sad recollection.  Of all the little band who were concerned in those juvenile sports or brawls, I can scarce recollect a single survivor.  Some left the ranks of mimic war to die in the active service of their country.  Many sought distant lands to return no more.  Others, dispersed in different paths of life,’my dim eyes now seek for in vain.’  Of five brothers, all healthy and promising in a degree far beyond one whose infancy was visited by personal infirmity, and whose health after this period seemed long very precarious, I am, nevertheless, the only survivor.  The best loved, and the best deserving to be loved, who had destined this incident to be the foundation of literary composition, died ’before his day’ in a distant and foreign land; and trifles assume an importance not their own when connected with those who have been loved and lost.

NOTES

NOTE I

Long the oracle of the country gentlemen of the high Tory party.  The ancient News-Letter was written in manuscript and copied by clerks, who addressed the copies to the subscribers.  The politician by whom they were compiled picked up his intelligence at coffee-houses, and often pleaded for an additional gratuity in consideration of the extra expense attached to frequenting such places of fashionable resort.

NOTE 2

There is a family legend to this purpose, belonging to the knightly family of Bradshaigh, the proprietors of Haigh Hall, in Lancashire, where, I have been told, the event is recorded on a painted glass window.  The German ballad of the Noble Moringer turns upon a similar topic.  But undoubtedly many such incidents may have taken place, where, the distance being great and the intercourse infrequent, false reports concerning the fate of the absent Crusaders must have been commonly circulated, and sometimes perhaps rather hastily credited at home.

NOTE 3

The attachment to this classic was, it is said, actually displayed in the manner mentioned in the text by an unfortunate Jacobite in that unhappy period.  He escaped from the jail in which he was confined for a hasty trial and certain condemnation, and was retaken as he hovered around the place in which he had been imprisoned, for which he could give no better reason than the hope of recovering his favourite Titus Livius.  I am sorry to add that the simplicity of such a character was found to form no apology for his guilt as a rebel, and that he was condemned and executed.

NOTE 4

Nicholas Amhurst, a noted political writer, who conducted for many years a paper called the Craftsman, under the assumed name of Caleb D’Anvers.  He was devoted to the Tory interest, and seconded with much ability the attacks of Pulteney on Sir Robert Walpole.  He died in 1742, neglected by his great patrons and in the most miserable circumstances.