himself.' It is common slang and heeds little explanation. Hook 'fancied
himself' from an early period, and continued to 'fancy himself,' in
spite of repeated disgraces, till a very mature age. At Harrow, he was
the contemporary, but scarcely the friend, of Lord Byron. No two
characters could have been more unlike. Every one knows, more or less,
what Byron's was; it need only be said that Hook's was the reverse of it
in every respect. Byron felt where Hook laughed. Byron was morbid where
Hook was gay. Byron abjured with disgust the social vices to which he
was introduced; Hook fell in with them. Byron indulged in vice in a
romantic way; Hook in the coarsest. There is some excuse for Byron, much
as he has been blamed. There is little or no excuse for Hook, much as
his faults have been palliated. The fact is that goodness of heart will
soften, in men's minds, any or all misdemeanours. Hook, in spite of many
vulgar witticisms and cruel jokes, seems to have had a really good
heart.

I have it on the authority of one of Hook's most intimate friends, that
he was capable of any act of kindness, and by way of instance of his
goodness of heart, I am told by the same person that he on one occasion
quitted all his town amusements to solace the spirit of a friend in the
country who was in serious trouble. I, of course, refrain from giving
names: but the same person informs me that much of his time was devoted
in a like manner, to relieving, as far as possible, the anxiety of his
friends, often, indeed, arising from his own carelessness. It is due to
Hook to make this impartial statement before entering on a sketch of his
'Sayings and Doings,' which must necessarily leave the impression that
he was a heartless man.

Old Hook, the father, soon perceived the value of his son's talents;
and, determined to turn them to account, encouraged his natural