passion. "I could fancy," said his eldest sister, "I see him in his
little chair with a large book upon his knee, and my mother calling,
'Henry, my love, come to dinner,' which was repeated so often
without being regarded, that she was obliged to change the tone of
her voice before she could rouse him."

At the age of six he was placed under the care of the Rev. John
Blanchard, who kept the best school in Nottingham, where he learnt
writing, arithmetic, and French; and he continued there for
several years. During that time two facts are related of him which
prove the precocity of his talents. When about seven, he was
accustomed to go secretly into his father's kitchen and teach the
servant to read and write; and he composed a tale of a Swiss
emigrant, which he gave her, being too diffident to show it to his
mother. In his eleventh year he wrote a separate theme for each of
the twelve or fourteen boys in his class; and the excellence of
the various pieces obtained his master's applause.

Henry was destined for his father's trade, and the efforts of his
mother to change that intention were for some time fruitless. Even
while he was at school, one day in every week, and his leisure
hours on the others, were employed in carrying meat to his father's
customers; but a dispute between his father and his master having
caused him to be removed from school, one of the ushers, from
malice or ignorance, told his mother that it was impossible to make
her son do any thing. The person who reported so unfavourably of
his abilities, little knew that he had then given ample evidence of
his talents, in some poetical satires which his treatment at school
had provoked, but which he afterwards destroyed.