Edgmond, Salop.
_Chatterton._--Dr. Gregory, in his _Life of Chatterton_, p. 100. (reprinted
by Southey in the first volume of his edition of Chatterton's _Works_, p.
lxx.), says: "Chatterton, as appears by the coroner's inquest, swallowed
arsenick in water, on the 24th of August, 1770, and died in consequence
thereof the next day."
Mr. Barrett, the historian of Bristol, one of Chatterton's best friends and
patrons, who, from his profession as a surgeon, was likely to have made,
and seems to have made, inquiries as to the circumstances of his death,
says, in his _History of Bristol_, not published before 1789, and therefore
not misled by any false first report, that Chatterton's principles impelled
him to become his own executioner. He took a large dose of opium, some of
which was picked out from his teeth after his death, and he was found the
next morning a most horrid spectacle: with limbs and features distorted as
after convulsions, a frightful and ghastly corpse" (p. 647.). I do not know
whether this contradiction has ever been noticed, and shall be obliged to
any correspondent who can give me information. I believe that Sir Herbert
Croft's _Love and Madness_ was the authority followed by Dr. Gregory, but I
have not the book.