The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-25 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 25. 1867.

BdaLr DAYS OP POIIBON.
—o—
the Cambia. Imays.)
Richard Parson was bees au Christmas-day, 1769,
at last &mem. aese Nee% Welshes% in Norfolk, the eldest
am of Mr. Haggle Peesea, pith ark of the plane. His
bier was by trade • waded weaver, sad combined with
this the ofilces of Feria els& end apprifor to the arable.
Co.. Ho is described as thew la hie way, though sem-
tagly not diellagatied by may peel smeriewity of intallset,
ml eammetst seaselled In aumer. imesa's mother was
the despest of a alesanaher aped Pabst, of the =r neigh-
lege of Venice. Oho is said le have been a very
amdAl clever women, lively obi lighehassted, sad, m
Imbue OD frequently the aro* her am= d.the =
of al the landly. eles had ameldwable beery
Wag familiar with Shakspeue sad Woe ileadeel 'WY
settees, much of which wee webs le Ye having had the
me eta library la a gastlema's hems whim she had ame
W savioe. Belie the snidest of oar arvatim, thafhill
these other adobe who survival blew, who all men to
hem had a fall elms of the minis at phi had,. Hairy,
the semi am, war bees to 1761, wad was drat seat to Nor-
! wish, he • men who, by a curious coincidence, was celled
Phew, M hens the bliss of an smissman. He the want
Is Deleelbs, b MEW acted as an excimenan for has
Mb Owlet snag; monied the daughter of • boar
then; led than test • fora at Layerbritton, live same hese
Osleheetw. It Is MEW et Ids, that the paamtWf alike of
Me samesidoe ef /11111101411 brio! psi a deia at oar
Ohm, It or pepesed Sal he bee p •
le be so psi a aseemilmh ad .trim of soliZt=
as to be able to maloseee a eatiegeoey etaleamat. The pro-
posal am adopted, sod Henry Parma ma Masi bee puir-
pp, and eammellehed the task. Hs died of a deollw
1796. Thome, the pewee son, was ham to 1770, and b
ems ma usher at the schools of Faitenham sad North Wat•
ahem fa 61111011111:S. He afterwards returned to Fairealem,
manisd • satire deb piece, and set op • bcardinvechsel.
Hs is said to have beer wry popular both as a ochoolosesbr
Ned to other respect. at FIaiISIIIXO, end to have bee re-
Mistm • prodigy of bent. A new house wee built for
y one of the principal parishioner., who observed that
Me base which he then occupied was too small for his
thriviag school. He occupied it however, for only half a
pee, sad died in 1792 of a rapid decline. Their only sieb,
who was the youngest of the family became the wife of
=Ream, Esq., brewer, of Coitishall, in Norfolk. In an
which appeared in the Morton. Chronsek, on Porson's
death, she is spoken of sea highly amiable and IWO= Oohed
CrMrs. Hawes mpreseed her wish that such Unsay
am suppressed, stating that, from her situation in early
life, It was impossible that she should parer my acmes-
Oakmont*. I wish not to be brought before the piddle ;
my only ambition is, at the close of life, to ham daredthe
character of having been a
i pod wife to my knoleaml sad a
mother to my children! This, which ia given by Mr.
in his " Bezegenariaa," besides dispkylag great
asadrety and good feeling, bean • remariable reeeMblueoe
the emeheents of her brother, who, throughout lb, darted
few thiage more than direct battery and praise.
NOP. Ike Person, the mother, died in 176 t, and the falter fa

early life was very much what would be impeded
from the ornation of ho parents he was pin io the loom at
onto, eledprobably helped his mothar In the cornrisid• la
harvest Urea He war sent in due course to the
school at ll•ppeaborgh, • neighbouring village, kept 6112!
Summers, who mama to have been • very superior man,
being • good Latin scholar as wall as posemaing the °nit-
ro/7 iroquiressote of a village settcolniarter, fur which he
kod been (shoaled, owing to his left hand being paralysed.
=lHe berms alb:ewer& master of the grammar school at
and died at an advanced age in 1831. When the
4 took Richard to Mr. Summers he said—" I have
brought my boy Richard to you, and just went him to
maks WO his own name, and then I shall take him into
the loom." Hs, however, took a good deal of paiss with
the boy, making him at night report the lemons he had
learnt during the day, end thus, probably, laying the foun-
dation of his narikiled memory. Porno had previously
been, fora abort time before going to Mr. Summers, at a
school in the origlikorkg village of Barton, kept by a Mr.
John Woodrow.- With Woodrow, however, he nooks* for
sly six weeks, being =Mk to box the rough treatment of
the boys. He sake to have been s sickly child, both hie
health and his taper lianas be steedfor the Wane by
Ma attack of hooks' caulk at the age of four ; and wee
kem any youth a very bed sleeper.
With Mr. Bcruarre he nomeined three years continniag to
kleploy rsemrhable aptitude for whatever war brought balm
Nat ortnedloo7orprelady arithmetic, of which he continued all
Me tl4vwyboad, end pomoomahip , his Mill to this Met
MOM especially doe to Mr. Bummers. It I. plobable that
then oust in several private hoods some Invents camped-
Ikea in verve, whack wen whim at Ihis period of his lifer
The writer presemee a est of knot, " Os • Moonlight
Night," weldor' whim Person wee twelve, but by no meek
etiperior to the asdlvy style of boys' eurchea. Mr. Nonia,
hie pains, however, chocked his poetical tent, telling
km Is write no More verse% as posts wen always poor. Mr.
dews spats, many years after Foveae. &db. ,of the
hoy'saatreorkonry memory; end stated that, In fifty yams
of scholia* lik ha had rover ran any boys so clever as the
Wee kothen Ponca. AR the family were remarkable kw
mensely,
mod hat by so meek equal to Richard. He would
=l.ldy a loom without making a odarrise,
he had learnt one or two years before, sad
had arm sewn fa the Minim. For look. he bad only Lthe
his katar's cottage sopplied—• book or two of
Greenwood'. " Ragland," Jewell's " Apology," and—za
„h. of Clambers's " Cyclopedia," picked up from a
wreaked combo. and eight or ten volitoser of the tbitermi
• . And his love of calligraphy seems to have shown
at a vory early age la practising on th• energise of his
ilithar's books, though the story of his Warning writing end
his kitten at the mann time, by hi. father's oaring them on
the ground with • stick and making hi. son copy them, is
pisliehly apocryphal. To Mr. Summers, Pomo was tinny*
eery grateful, and
visited him in later life whenever he was
fa the neighbourhood ; and the old gentleman, who lived to
the age at 82, retained to the lilt his enthusiasm for his
Pur
in onbotthirway and thinly•peopled a villags
as X= so
It the remorkablir aptitude of the boy became
mated; sod he Me ebeelli yorragsrldr. Hewitt,f the
carers of Rod Rumba and two villages, took
&my elf his oinciation, having and his brother
with►hha at his hour* at Borten genes the week, andsendieg
them home kw the Snaky. ll•eentkued thus till the age
of thirteen, when hie farm Es • youthful prodigy came under
the bodice of Mr. Nark, at Rieke Park (a place some four
idles trail last Rostea), the founder of the Ronda Paw
Issemehly at Cambridge. It was to Mr. Hewitt that Pore=
owed this iatiednodak He took him to Mr. Norris, end
bagged him to kaiaks lido his acquirements and smite.
Mr. Norris, seeing nothing in the personal appearance of the
lad to indicate talent, raid, " Well, I me nothing particular
in this henry-looking boy, but I °talkie in your account of
W talents.'

ths ems time, however much disposed to interest him-
self hi Wolf of the youth, he sea well 11./16/0 how easily the
madly et kis muter might have or, rested hie pretensions
to metier acquirements and promise, and thus deturmined on
rear* Ida to some person whom elation and asquireeuents
lilted Ids move ousrially for the task of inquiring into his
powers. He sent Thorson to a Mr. Carthew, a clergyman
sod
dsmistrate of Woodbridge, in Suffolk. begging him to
the task of examining him; by Mr. Carthew, who
felt himself reluctant to undertake this responsibility (he
had been taught up and practised ea a country eolicitor
before be took hely orders_ ) he wee referred to Lsoebert, then
Omsk professor at Cambridge, who WY muftis' to inves-
tigate thoroughly the boy • qualilicationa. Ile was saved-
ingly sent et once to Cambridge, and examined by Lambert
himself, Posiethweite, and Collier, the two tutor. of
Trinity College, and Atwood, then amistant tutor,
and looked upon no one of the first mathematicians
in the Us/lenity. It had bee intended, if their report
wee [amanita% !hat PIK% should be sent to the

Chartedonees ea the foundation, if a nomination could be
tilenimed. The examination was pretty strict; and d the
ezendaere gm so favourable • report of the boy's know-
ledge end abilities, that Mr. Norris at once determined upon
providing for hie education, so as to fit him for the Palm-
eity ; end it being found impossible to get him into the
Charterhooss, he wee entered on the foundation of Eton in
August, 1774.
♦ great deal of Internet seems to have been raised about
the lad at Cambridge. A letter from Mr. Hewitt, *rinse
en this occasion to Professor Lambert, gives an intending
,mesh of hie manneas and studies. Ho speaks of having
had the orderly and good boy" under hie cure for almost
twdyeass, during which time be had been chiefly employed
on Cerderlas Colloquies, Caviar, Ovid. Horace, and Virgil,
cad Mathematics, "In which science,- says Mr. Hewitt,
"Penes had made such proficiency before be came to me
se to be able to solve questions out of the Lather' Diary, to
the greed astonishment of • va7 able mathematician in tame
parts." Is Greek be wee Olaf Waring the verbs. His per.
sonal *promo, at Mistime 110111 not seem to have been pre-
possessing. Mr. Carlisew, Is a letter written also on this
occasion to Lambert, says, "Yea will find the lad rather an
anwinning cab the otherwise ; but you will, I doubt not,
woke allowance foe the awitersednees of Lis manners."

Of his Etas days Person hod not a re plekant recoils°.
lion. Mr. Maltby nventions that he dodo dhe learnt no-
thing while they sad that the only things ha recollected with
&snug were the eat hunts in the Long Charnber. The pru-
des, too, that be had gives of future eacellence seems at this
time rather to haws ices off. His campositioa 'spookily wee

• per b father, Parson al s retained the highest
respect. On hie wifis death Lands a will bequeathing him
• comfortable annuity; Ob val. ems destroyed on the old
man's death. There is a letter to sabres. erittrl. to his
sister as the occasion of his marriage, esteeming a etrong
.andthat this step would not be disapproved of by hie
Whig. . - • '

1' Tale Mr. Hewitt seems to have been a very remarkable
DIM. Hale said to have taught Mr. Summers all he hair;
and with an inoolue of 200 f. a year he brought up five eons
at the Ualversity, four of whom became fellows of :their so
vietise oalleits i ILa &I died sr aadergridaati.

week, and his Ignoranceof quantity kept him far behlndmsny
at his inferno. He la described, too, im being prone to
moons in his verses, and to have been food of mixing Greek
with Ms Latin, se itcyciewere othloo," alto. ; and Dr. Good-
all. he his evidence before the committee of the House of
Comma* spoke of his school nervier as being very in-
feriae to mese thee on of his schoolfellows, and namd the
late Mug* Welletisy se infinitely his superior he oomposi-
tin. He went be late to Eton to have any chance of sac-
• to • sieslanhip at Hints. He wee a popular boy
awe. his sehosildlows, an two cinema which he wrote for
ebe Long Chamber are still remembered.
Lthrgasce,. mad Out of theme Pan into the Fin,"
is sow I. Hie library of Taner- Re *me
at lint le lune earsiewlat dimppointed his Mande,
se Lard Nellenes lorelher, who was et Eton with
heck word that they thought nothing
lelndbelbrf= boy. At the sages U.., his *rivalled roe-
mory was mend et song, as the ages repeated Amy of
his Wee fres esesetry, wiem his book led
hen snit se Ovid put into It gimes, test***
And Mg ban nee same** temarkable, ma,
whim he uneributions from Regairea I. aid In the
tends fur blankly**. at the Ulnae* won resality
=thlt eras.° during his Elea days tbat hie need
addlle EAt MY lower& those weeks to which he
woe sheen,* *prise to the highest poi* by the Ma
espy of Toup'a Loagiaiss, which Dr. Davies, thenft hod
en, pee ter a Inset...lllB entlitssi arms
of been cultivaled
ekes • . sew hid of hie
ilmeeed beg* . Mew* wile nine=2n
ae Metric emorr
pi men of • copy of *hied oars* *hewed to the
bey ie Dr. Davit dominion."
riti" pairou, Mr. Norris, died in 1777, but he found *other
In Sic Glwp Baker, the celebrated physician, who thus
viaarkinly EdaW hie early promise of being • successor to
Beiellsy, as bed be.. peogoostiestad on his entering K Lag's
College an the In of Bentley'. funeral. Banes his heavy
lees la the dug of Mr. Norris, • worm misfortune betel him
while • soloolboy—the formation of an imposthatoe in the
nap, which, though conquered .t the time, made hie health
we* for life, and fora large portion of his days made him
subject to asthma.
At Eton he remained some four years, red in October,
IT 7h through the aid of the same generous friend that had
▪ ied the lon of Mr. Norris, he became • =enter of
T ty College, Cambridge, then under the rule of Dr.
Bishop of Peterborough, who, for 20 years, held
both these impormot poets together. He seem to have
throws himself thoroughly into the readies and spirit of the
being elected Bchdar of the College in 1780, mad
elms,
Valversity Scholar In 1781. The next year (1782)
he gredused ea third senior optime, and obtained soon attar
ties Inc Chandlor's meld ; Sown, efterwards Bishop of
• obtaiabg the mooed. And in the mile year be *a
*Need Fallow at Trinity, • very annual thing at that time
be • Junior Barham d Arts—aa Junior Bachelors, with the
azontioa of three intanoes besides the preterit, were not
allowed to be candidates for fellowships from the year 1867,
when tree Newt= wee elected, till 1818, when Connop
Millivolt boom= a Fellow. There were al VaC•ACilll on
the prawn omen
He seem to have began his critical career while an under-
graduate, sad It waa doubdess during the period of his resi-
de* at Cambridge that his marvellous Marmot learning
were Bid up be future use ; sad now that he had achieved
his hadspendaace, and a position which of all others gave
hire opportunity for pursuing the mediae to which hadh
devoted himself, he tweed his thought, to publication. Ac-
eldest seems rather to have led him to the tragedians, as at
that time the knowledge of the Greek drama was at • very
low *h. If we except Hartland's three plays of
Euripides, sad Muagraves ponderous complete edi-
tion of the same author, sceroely anything bad
been done directly for them by an English
editor since Stanley. time; aed we believe that the first
omission on which Ponon appeared in print we. In a short
critique on *half. 11.F.schylue," in • review started by
W Irked Matt', • Fellow of Trinity, senior by • few years
le Paean.

• Thie story, whkh really belongs to Poison, has rectally
bus gins to the late It r. Creme, in whose life it appears.