compared with which all his previous honours sank into
insignificance.

Mr. Bridges had long been desirous of becoming a candidate for this
distinction, but, until the death of Mr. Leader, no vacancy having
occurred among the scholars, he had as yet had no opportunity of
going in for it. The income to be derived from it was not
inconsiderable, and as it led to the porter fellowship the mere
pecuniary value was not to be despised, but thirst of fame and the
desire of a more public position were the chief inducements to a man
of Mr. Bridges' temperament, in which ambition and patriotism formed
so prominent a part. Latin, however, was not Mr. Bridges' forte; he
excelled rather in the higher branches of arithmetic and the
abstruse sciences. His attainments, however, in the dead languages
were beyond those of most of his contemporaries, as the letter he
sent to the Master and Seniors will abundantly prove. It was
chiefly owing to the great reverence for genius shown by Dr. Tatham
that these letters have been preserved to us, as that excellent man,
considering that no circumstance connected with Mr. Bridges'
celebrity could be justly consigned to oblivion, rescued these
valuable relics from the Bedmaker, as she was on the point of using
them to light the fire. By him they were presented to the author of
this memoir, who now for the first time lays them before the public.
The first was to the Master himself, and ran as follows:-


Reverende Sir,

Possum bene blackere shoas, et locus shoe-blackissis vacuus est.
Makee me shoeblackum si hoc tibi placeat, precor te, quia desidero