_It should be explained that Tom Bridges was a gyp at St. John’s
College_, _during Butler’s residence at Cambridge_.
WE now come to the most eventful period in Mr. Bridges’ life: we mean the
time when he was elected to the shoe-black scholarship, compared with
which all his previous honours sank into insignificance.
Mr. Bridges had long been desirous of becoming a candidate for this
distinction, but, until the death of Mr. Leader, no vacancy having
occurred among the scholars, he had as yet had no opportunity of going in
for it. The income to be derived from it was not inconsiderable, and as
it led to the porter fellowship the mere pecuniary value was not to be
despised, but thirst of fame and the desire of a more public position
were the chief inducements to a man of Mr. Bridges’ temperament, in which
ambition and patriotism formed so prominent a part. Latin, however, was
not Mr. Bridges’ forte; he excelled rather in the higher branches of
arithmetic and the abstruse sciences. His attainments, however, in the
dead languages were beyond those of most of his contemporaries, as the
letter he sent to the Master and Seniors will abundantly prove. It was
chiefly owing to the great reverence for genius shown by Dr. Tatham that
these letters have been preserved to us, as that excellent man,
considering that no circumstance connected with Mr. Bridges’ celebrity
could be justly consigned to oblivion, rescued these valuable relics from
the Bedmaker, as she was on the point of using them to light the fire.
By him they were presented to the author of this memoir, who now for the
first time lays them before the public. The first was to the Master
himself, and ran as follows:—
Reverende Sir,
Possum bene blackere shoas, et locus shoe-blackissis vacuus est.
Makee me shoeblackum si hoc tibi placeat, precor te, quia desidero
hoc locum.
Your very humble servant,
THOMASUS BRIDGESSUS.
We subjoin Mr. Bridges’ autograph. The reader will be astonished to
perceive its resemblance to that of Napoleon I, with whom he was very
intimate, and with anecdotes of whom he used very frequently to amuse his
masters. We add that of Napoleon.