where I stood. Up I got, and was in London about nine o'clock in the evening."
It so happened that going to the fair he had put all the money he possessed in the world into his pocket. He had been years slowly amassing it; but it all went, save one half-crown, by the time he had paid his fair, and had alighted on Ludgate Hill.
Fortunately, there was a gentleman in the coach who had dealt with his father at Weyhill Fair. He was a hop merchant in Southwark, and seeing the danger the young man was in, he took him to his own house, and endeavoured to induce him to return home. But against this young Cobbett's pride rebelled. Finding him so determined, the hop merchant gave up pressing him, and found him a situation as a lawyer's clerk in Gray's Inn.
Here he began to learn something of the slavery of self-will. He had to work from five in the morning until eight or nine at night, and sometimes all night long. However, this new occupation taught him to spell correctly, and gave him an insight into the law.
Walking about one Sunday in St James's Park, his eye caught a placard describing in glowing colours the glory and profit of entering His Majesty's service as a marine.
He was sick of the high stool and dark office in Gray's Inn; so without much thought he started for Chatham to enlist. He took the king's shilling, but to his surprise he learnt the next morning that he had not enlisted in the marine service at all, but that the regiment he had joined was a marching one, the main body of which was then serving in Nova Scotia. The Captain was an Irishman, and with a very little touch of the auctioneer's art quite enchanted the young recruit with a description of the country, and made him wild to be off without a moment's delay; instead of which he was compelled to remain a whole year in the barracks at Chatham. This delay proved to be of great advantage to him, for it gave him leisure to commence that course of self-education which raised him to the position he afterwards occupied. He subscribed to a library in the neighbourhood, and so keen was his appetite for knowledge that he had soon read the greater part of the books some twice over. His intelligence quickly made itself felt. The commandant of the garrison, General Deberg, em-
