Another curious instance of extensive reading and remarkable linguistic talent, somewhat similar to that of Dr. Partridge and the learned shoemaker of Norwich, is that of _Anthony Purver_. He was born at Up Hurstbourne in Hampshire in 1702. His parents were poor, and put their boy apprentice to the art and mystery of making and mending boots and shoes. When his "time was out," he betook himself to the leisurely and healthy employment of keeping sheep, and began to study. His special line in after-life was decided by his meeting with a tract which pointed out some errors of translation in the authorized version of the Bible. This led him to resolve that he would read the Scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek. Taking lessons from a Jew, Purver soon learned to read Hebrew. After this he took up Greek and Latin, until he could read with ease in either language. "On settling as a schoolmaster at Andover," we are told,[129] "he undertook the extraordinary labor of translating the Bible into English, which work he actually accomplished, and it was printed at the expense of Dr. Fothergill in two vols. folio. This learned shoemaker, shepherd, and schoolmaster deeply felt the need of the great work which has been accomplished in our own day by the united scholarship of England and America. In his own way he completed the Herculean task single-handed; and if his translation was not of any general and practical utility, it none the less deserves mention as a monument of self-acquired learning and honorable industry. Purver died in 1777, at the age of seventy-five. [129] "Maunder's Biographical Treasury." London: Longmans. POETS OF THE COBBLER'S STALL. In coming to speak of the _poets_ of the cobbler's stall, the task of selection is found to be by no means an easy one. It is hard enough to tell where to begin; it is harder still to know where to leave off. "This brooding fraternity" of shoemakers, it is said, "has produced more rhymers than any other of the handicrafts."[130] "Crispin's sons Have from uncounted time with ale and buns Cherish'd the gift of song, which sorrow quells; And working single in their low-built cells, Oft cheat the tedium of a winter's night With anthems."[131] [130] _Quarterly Review_, January, 1831, p. 76. [131] Charles Lamb, "Album Verses," 1830, p. 57.