CHATTERTON, THOMAS (1752-1770).--Poet, _b._ at Bristol, posthumous _s._
of a schoolmaster, who had been a man of some reading and antiquarian
tastes, after whose death his mother maintained herself and her boy and
girl by teaching and needlework. A black-letter Bible and an illuminated
music-book belonging to her were the first things to give his mind the
impulse which led to such mingled glory and disaster. Living under the
shadow of the great church of St. Mary Redcliffe, his mind was impressed
from infancy with the beauty of antiquity, he obtained access to the
charters deposited there, and he read every scrap of ancient literature
that came in his way. At 14 he was apprenticed to a solicitor named
Lambert, with whom he lived in sordid circumstances, eating in the
kitchen and sleeping with the foot-boy, but continuing his favourite
studies in every spare moment. In 1768 a new bridge was opened, and C.
contributed to a local newspaper what purported to be a contemporary
account of the old one which it superseded. This attracted a good deal of
attention. Previously to this he had been writing verses and imitating
ancient poems under the name of Thomas Rowley, whom he feigned to be a
monk of the 15th century.
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