a citizen of Charleston, whose parents had come from England
just before the Revolution. Mr. Prince had married Miss French,
daughter of an officer in the Revolution, whose family were from Switzerland.
It was the influence of his mother also that helped to form
the poet's character, and his intense and passionate love of nature.
Her beautiful face and form, her purity and goodness, her delight in all
the sights and sounds of the country, her childish rapture in wood and field,
her love of flowers and trees, and all the mystery and gladness of nature,
are among the cherished memories of all her children, and vividly described
by the poet's sister.

William Henry Timrod, father of the poet, died of disease contracted in
the Florida war, and his family thereafter were in straitened circumstances.
Nevertheless, the early education of his gifted son was provided for.
Paul H. Hayne, the poet, was one of his earliest friends and schoolmates
at Charleston's best school. They sat together, and to his brother boy-poet
he first showed his earliest verses in exulting confidence.
This friendship and confidence lasted through life, and Hayne has tenderly
embalmed it in his sketch of the poet. We have this faithful picture of him
at that time: --

"Modest and diffident, with a nervous utterance, but with melody
ever in his heart and on his lip. Though always slow of speech,
he was yet, like Burns, quick to learn. The chariot wheels
might jar in the gate through which he tried to drive his winged steeds,
but the horses were of celestial temper and the car purest gold."

His school-fellows remember him as silent and shy, full of quick impulse,
and with an eager ambition, insatiable in his thirst for books,
yet mingling freely in all sports, and rejoicing unspeakably