Munden was the son of a poulterer in Brooke's Market, Holborn, where he
was born in the year 1758. His father died soon afterwards, leaving his
widow with slender means, and Munden was thrust upon the world to seek his
fortune at twelve years of age. He was placed in an apothecary's shop, but
soon left it for an attorney's office. Perhaps, like Dr. Wolcot, he
fancied the clinking of the pestle and mortar said "Kill 'em again! kill
'em again." From the attorney's office, he "fell off," as Hamlet's Ghost
would say, to a law-stationer's shop, and became "a hackney writer:" the
technicality needs not explanation: to hack at anything is neither the
road to fame nor a good meal. He was apprenticed in Chancery Lane: his
master died and was succeeded by an older man, of the square-toed
fraternity, who taxed Munden with being a Macaroni more than a tradesman.
Munden, in consequence, parted from his master, and once more returned to
the office of a solicitor. They who remember Munden, a staid-dressing man
in later years, may smile at his early observance of the glass of fashion.

About this time Munden appears to have first imbibed a taste for the stage,
and with it an admiration of the genius of Garrick; indeed, he had seen
more of Garrick's acting than had any of his contemporaries in 1820, Quick
and Bannister excepted. What a fine president would Munden have been of
the _Garrick Club_, the members of which probably know as much about
Garrick as they care about Thespis. Acquaintance with an actor fed Munden's
_penchant_ for the stage, but did not fill his pocket. Both started for
Liverpool, the actor upon an engagement, but Munden in _hope_ of one; the
latter engaged in the office of the Town Clerk, but only realized his hope
in copying for the theatre, walking in processions, and bearing banners,
at one shilling per night! At length he _acted_ the _first Carrier_ in
_Henry IV_. He next joined a company at Rochdale, which he soon left, and
returning to Liverpool, smothered his dramatic passion for two years, when
he started for Chester, with a light heart, a bundle wardrobe, and a