There was in Rochester, among many others, an amiable girl, to whom I felt a warm attachment; she had been principally educated in France, and had acquired all the vivacity of that nation, without losing the stability of her own. I had the pleasure of conducting her and another young lady to see the remains of Rochester castle, said to be built by the Romans; and the name of the city justifies the belief of it, for all the cities or towns in England, whose terminating syllables are chester or caster, were formerly Roman encampments; castra signifying an encampment, and the prefixed syllable designating its situation. We were roaming over the ruins, when something occurred, that occasioned one of the young ladies to withdraw; she descended, took the key from the inner part of the door, and locked me and my favourite within. We were so pleasantly amused with the surrounding prospects, and with observations on the building, that, thinking she had only withdrawn herself for a few minutes, we remained, for some time, perfectly at ease; at last, being anxious about her, we descended, and found she had actually absconded. My little favourite became much irritated, but in about a quarter of an hour, the keystealer returned and released us.

A quarrel, of course, ensued between the two females. There was to be a ball in the afternoon, and I had engaged my little favourite to dance with me; but when me met in the assembly-room, she declined dancing with me. I then told her, that according to the rules of the assembly, she could dance with no one else. Many of the officers from Chatham barracks were them present, several of whom invited her. I told them that if

this lady danced at all, she must dance mith me the two first dances. She persisted, and I persisted, obstinately, till I was called pretty severely to account for preventing her dancing at all. I remained firm, sitting by her side, till at last she said, "Well, if it must be so, I will go down two dances with you, to get another partner afterwards."

While we were dancing, a number of officers, who had not obtained partners, were standing by; one seemed to watch me particularly, and once made an observation which I did not thoroughly understand, but which seemed of an injurious nature, directed to me. I turned to him, and asked him if he had any communications to make to me; he said "No, sir,"-still I was hurt-but the only revenge I took, was to request the major of the regiment, a friend of my father's, to invite me to dine with the mess, the next day; he did so, and I attended. A light conversation, but nothing of a serious consequence took place, respecting the proceedings of the foregoing evening,

I was walking a day or two afterwards, a little distance from the town, in company with a few friends, male and female, when we met a gipsy, who begged. that I would cross my hand with a sixpence, give it to her, and she would tell my fortune. I indulged the frolicksome humour of my mind, and did so. It should be mentioned here, that I had some how or other become a conspicuous character in Rochester, and that the object of these gipsies is to learn every thing they can of a private nature. She had perhaps marked and recognised me. I held out my hand-she told me of some things, that astonished me at the moment, of my quar

rel with a young lady, &c. but promised a speedy reconciliation, which indeed shortly took place.

About this time a friend of mine, an officer in the marines, paid his addresses to my second sister, about two years younger than myself, and frequently seemed desirous of availing himself of my friendship, in pleading his cause to my sister.-I mention this only as introductory to the following remarks.

There is in the English language, a beautiful piece of poetry, inserted among Mr. Cowper's poems, and attributed to him as its author; it is called the Rose. This elegant effusion I always believed to be the off. spring of my sister's muse, till I saw it in Mr. Cowper's works: my reasons for thinking so were these:

Our family were sitting one evening in the parlour, without company, when the conversation turned on the subject above mentioned; my sister, perhaps, thinking that her feelings were too roughly treated, burst into tears, and withdrew. The next morning, at breakfast, she produced in manuscript, The Rose.-We all read it, and were much pleased with it. My sister having been in the habit of writing such little pieces, we attributed it to her: she did not deny it, and in the following Lady's Magazine, I read it for the first time in print.

I went to Cambridge, and for a little while was sedate and regular, and so long as I continued so, preserved the friendship of an amiable young man, the son of commissioner Proby, of Chatham dock-yard, wherein my father's office was. I had before the pleasure of an intimacy with him, but the wildness of my disposition soon broke out, and I was continually frolicking. As he did not attend the same parties with me, but attached himself closely

to his studies; our intimacy, unfortunately for me, soon ended.

I will here digress a little to relate two anecdotes: I was in the habit, while at home, of attending my father occasionally, at his office, to assist him when particularly hurried. One day, when he was paying off a ship's crew, one man attended, who did not answer exactly the description given of him in the ship's books. The commis. sioner, who always attended on these occasions, examined him, and among others, putthis question, "what's the first duty of a sailor when he is sent aloft?" to which the tar bluntly replied, "to take care of himself." The clerks burst into a fit of laughter-the commissioner rebuked them. The sailor was correct, nautically and morally, for if a man does not take care of himself, how can he expect to take care of others?

I think it was the same morning (but no matter) that I, being in the yard adjoining the office, saw a sailor coming out of it with his hat plentifully supplied with guineas; a ragged tar scratching his head, and looking into the hat, says, " dam-me Jack, give me some of those shiners," "with all my heart," replied the former, "here is a handful, and when you are paid off, you shall give me another."

But to return to Cambridge: I had not been there long before I was elected a member of the Eton club, of the Hic et ubique, " Here and every where," so called on account of its meetings being held at different places. And lastly, of the "True Blue." This last was the most respectable club in the university; it consisted only of nine members, selected from four or five hundred of Trinity college. Its establishment was of great

antiquity, but the old records had been chiefly lost, when the name of lord Sandwich was the first on the list of those preserved. The club consisted of three noblemen, three fellow commoners, and three pensioners. On the election of a new member, the secretary's notice to him was this: "Sir we have done you the honour to elect you a member of our club." The ceremony of admission, consisted of a promise of allegiance and faith, a submission to the rules, and after that, the drinking of a pint of wine from a blue goblet, beautifully encased with silver.

Lord Belgrave was then one composing the portion of nobility. To this respected friend, I had afterwards the honour of dedicating my review of the proceedings at Paris, during part of the year 1792.

With these clubs, as well as with private parties, I associated freely; but, with all the apparent negligence of study, my mind was awake to contemplation. I required then but little sleep, for I had, like Alexander, tried to do without it; but I, like him, found that I was mortal, and must have some. I would frolick freely during the evening, but I had procured an alarm-clock, which I used to set at four o'clock, and when it rang I immediately got up and studied my lessons for the day, then went to bed and slept till my school mates called on me to go to lecture.

They used to laugh at me for my laziness, when I not having attended chapel at six, they finding me in bed at seven o'clock, came to call me to attend the mathematical lecture; but at the lecture the laugh ceased, when they found that I was the only one that could readily solve the proposition.