time than to spend it in producing frigid imitations of Beppo.

He was not unpopular among his fellow-pupils, who regarded him
with pride and admiration, tempered by the compassion which his
utter inability to play at any sort of game would have excited in
every school, private or public alike. He troubled himself very
little about the opinion of those by whom he was surrounded at
Aspenden. It required the crowd and the stir of a university to
call forth the social qualities which he possessed in so large a
measure. The tone of his correspondence during these years
sufficiently indicates that he lived almost exclusively among
books. His letters, which had hitherto been very natural and
pretty, began to smack of the library, and please less than those
written in early boyhood. His pen was overcharged with the
metaphors and phrases of other men; and it was not till maturing
powers had enabled him to master and arrange the vast masses of
literature which filled his memory that his native force could
display itself freely through the medium of a style which was all
his own. In 1815 he began a formal literary correspondence, after
the taste of the previous century, with Mr. Hudson, a gentleman
in the Examiner's Office of the East India House.

Aspenden Hall: August 22, 1815.

Dear Sir,--The Spectator observes, I believe in his first paper,
that we can never read an author with much zest unless we are
acquainted with his situation. I feel the same in my epistolary
correspondence; and, supposing that in this respect we may be
alike, I will just tell you my condition. Imagine a house in the
middle of pretty large grounds, surrounded by palings. These I