‘Next morning early the Irishmen pursued their journey; and when my
father returned, I told him in the hearing of our well-meaning old
hostess how I had been tricked out of my supper. They immediately joined
in reviling the whole Irish nation, concluding as “the great vulgar and
the small” generally do on such occasions, that these two fellows, with
the cunning kind of robbery they had committed, exhibited a faithful
picture of Ireland and Irishmen. ’Till corrected either by great
experience, or conscientious inquiry, the human mind has an almost
invincible propensity, when any vice which most excites disgust or
contempt is remarked in an individual of a particular country, to affirm
that it could belong to no one else, and to ascribe it as a general
characteristic to the nation at large.
‘I believe that my father’s intentions, when we left Cheshire, were to
seclude himself for a time, by working at the shoe-making business; and
that for this purpose he took a circuitous route, with a determination
to settle at whatever market-town he should find there was a probability
of getting employment. This pursuit led us to Northwich, Knutsford,
Congleton, Macclesfield, Sheffield, Chappel in le Frith, in which
country the scenery astonished me, and where I was particularly struck
with three conic barren rocks, which, I remarked to my father, were like
three sugar-loaves. We also went to Buxton, Bakewell, Chesterfield, and
Mansfield, where sickness detained us for a time. This sickness was a
mutual and dangerous fever, which we caught, either by our being unable
to reach a lodging-house, or to pay for a lodging, and by our sleeping,
in consequence, under a damp hedge, an imprudence that had nearly proved
fatal to us; nor have I ever ceased at intervals to feel its effects.
Some time after our recovery from the fever, I was seized by an asthma,
which became so violent, that it was only occasionally I dared venture
from the house. I can give no account how we were maintained, while we
were at Mansfield, nor of the means by which we recovered; but I have a
perfect picture before me, of a decent, cleanly house, good attendance,
and countenances that were kind and cheerful. At the same time, I have
no recollection of conceiving ourselves indebted to charity, or of being
under any apprehensions of future want; so that I can hardly suppose
that the circumstance which first occasioned our illness, arose from
pecuniary distress.
‘After we had recovered sufficient strength, our next remove was to
Nottingham, where we lodged in a house not far from the Park, with the
Castle in view, and the brook that winds along the low grounds beneath
the height on which it is built. A game which I do not remember to have
seen played any where else, and which afforded me no little pleasure,
was that of two men having each a round bright ball of iron or steel, to
which they had the art of giving an elastic right-line direction along
the pathway through the Park; and which, if I am not mistaken, they
called playing at long bowls, he who could first attain the goal being
the winner. Spell and null, bandy, prison-bars, and other field games,
in the address or the activity of which my little heart delighted, long
before I was permitted to be a partaker in them, were here among the
diversions of the summer evening.
‘In many parts, Nottingham is, as I then thought it, a very fine town.
To me, who had seen so many, its market-place seemed to claim an
undoubted and high superiority. Situated on a gently rising ground, that
soon becomes dry after showers, surrounded by inns, shops, and other
buildings, and well supplied with almost every article, it is among the
largest, most convenient, and handsomest in England. A little beyond it
were two remarkable inns, the White Lion, and the Blackamoor’s Head;
each possessed of vast cellarage, wines of I know not what age, with
viands, beds, and other conveniences, such as it gave me the greatest
satisfaction to hear described.
‘One of our four principal rivers, the noble Trent, flows through the
meadows below the town, at no very great distance. The scenery round it,
to my boyish apprehension, was grand. When the day and the stream were
clear, I have often taken a particular pleasure in watching the shoals
of fish of the smaller kind in which it abounded, or in now and then
catching a glimpse of some of greater magnitude, or in seeing them
brought on shore by the dexterous angler. A village, called the
Hermitage, lay on its banks, and thither I delighted to walk, because it
was connected with circumstances, which interested my imagination.—Here,
as well as in other places in the outskirts of the town, there were
houses cut in the rock; and I could not but fancy them to have been
formerly inhabited by a venerable and holy brotherhood of Hermits. These
houses were indeed to me objects of the greatest curiosity. I could
never cease admiring that men should persevere in hewing themselves out
such habitations, and that they should turn a thing so barren to so much
use and profit; for these rocks were in fact high banks of sand-stone,
and on the top of them, that is, on the roofs of their houses, each man
had his garden.
‘I walked much about at Nottingham in company with my father, to whom I
was very eager to communicate all my juvenile pleasures, and of whom I
also made constant inquiries with respect to the objects we saw. He,
however, could oftener make conjectures than give information. I imagine
his reason for taking me thus into the air, was, as he hoped, to arrest
the progress of the asthma which daily increased, and became alarming;
for there were times when I could not walk above a few yards without
standing still to recover breath. Such medical people as my father could
obtain access to, were consulted; but the general opinion was that
unless youth and growth should relieve me, the disease was for life. An
intelligent surgeon happened to think otherwise: he entertained hopes,
he said, provided an issue was made, and carefully kept open on the
inside of each leg below the knee. My father accepted his offer to
perforate the skin, and direct me in dressing the issues; for to my
known prudence this care was readily committed. The success of the
remedy equalled the expectations of the surgeon. The cure, aided no
doubt by my youth and cheerful temperament, was progressively visible
from week to week, and my joy and thankfulness to my medical guide were
great. Whoever he was, I certainly owe him much; but I have forgotten
his name. This must have happened in the year 1756 or 7, but I believe
the latter.