forehead, on which he prided himself,) "are strongly developed in the hinder 66 part of my cranium; particularly that "called philoprogenitiveness *. I sup 66 pose, too, the pugnacious bump might "be found somewhere, because my uncle "had it. 66 "You have heard the unfortunate story of his duel with his relation and "neighbour. After that melancholy event, "he shut himself up at Newstead, and 66 was in the habit of feeding crickets, "which were his only companions. He "had made them so tame as to crawl over him, and used to whip them with * He appears to have mistaken the meaning of this word in the vocabulary of the Craniologists, as in Don Juan. "a whisp of straw, if too familiar. "When he died, tradition says that they left the house in a body. I suppose "I derive my superstition from this "branch of the family; but though I "attend to none of these new-fangled "theories, I am inclined to think that there is more in a chart of the skull "than the Edinburgh Reviewers suppose*. However that may be, I was a wayward youth, and gave my mother a world of trouble,- -as I fear Ada will 66 66 66 66 hers, for I am told she is a little ter66 magant. I had an ancestor too that 66 66 expired laughing, (I suppose that my good spirits came from him,) and two "whose affection was such for each * He had probably been reading the article on Gall and Spurzheim. "other, that they died almost at the 66 same moment. There seems to have "been a flaw in my escutcheon there, 66 or that loving couple have monopolized "all the connubial bliss of the family. 66 "I passed my boyhood at Marlodge near Aberdeen, occasionally visiting the Highlands; and long retained an affec"tion for Scotland;-that, I suppose, I "imbibed from my mother. My love for 'it, however, was at one time much "shaken by the critique in 'The Edin 66 of Minerva;' in which he seems very closely to have followed Churchill. He came to England in 1798. 66 ness,' and I transferred a portion of my "dislike to the country; but my affection 66 for it soon flowed back into its old "channel. 66 "I don't know from whom I inherited verse-making; probably the wild scenery of Morven and Loch-na-garr, and the "banks of the Dee, were the parents of 66 my poetical vein, and the developers of my poetical boss. If it was so, it was "dormant; at least, I never wrote any "thing worth mentioning till I was in "love. Dante dates his passion for "Beatrice at twelve. I was almost as 66 young when I fell over head and ears in "love; but I anticipate. I was sent to "Harrow at twelve, and spent my vaca"tions at Newstead. It was there that I "first saw Mary C— . She was se 66 66 66 veral years older than myself: but, at my age, boys like something older than themselves, as they do younger, later ' in life. Our estates adjoined: but, 66 owing to the unhappy circumstance of "It was a name "Which pleased him, and yet pleased him not ; and why? "Time taught him a deep answer " The Dream. "I have a passion for the name of 'Mary,' "All feelings changed, but this was last to vary— "A spell from which even yet I am not quite free. "But I grow sad!" Don Juan, Canto V. Stanza 4. Yet |