of cows, and occasionally to do some light work in the garden or the
potato field; and as these occupations seldom filled more than part
of the day or the week, he had all the rest of the time to himself. A
characteristic part of Clare's nature began to reveal itself now.
While he had little leisure to himself, and much hard work, he was
not averse to the society of friends and companions either, as in the
case of Turnill, for study, or, as with others, for recreation; but
as soon as he found himself to a certain extent his own master he
forsook the company of his former acquaintances, and began to lead a
sort of hermit's life. He took long strolls into the woods, along the
meres, and to other lonely places, and got into the habit of
remaining whole hours at some favourite spot, lying flat on the
ground with his face towards the sky. "The flickering shadows of the
sun, the rustling of the leaves on the trees, the sailing of the
fitful clouds over the horizon, and the golden blaze of the sun at
morn and eventide were to him spectacles of which his eye never
tired, with which his heart never got satiated." (Martin.)




HIS EARLIEST RHYMES

The age at which Clare's poetic fancies first wrought themselves into
verse cannot be definitely fixed. We know from his steadfast friend
and first editor, the late Mr. John Taylor, publisher to the London
University, that his fondness for poetry found expression before even
he had learnt to read. He was tired one day with looking at the
pictures in a volume of poems, which he used to say he thought was
Pomfret's, when his father read him one piece in the book to amuse