He died and was buried at St. Boswell's in June, 1860. As we are writing we observe that his autobiography[157] has just been published, concerning which a writer in the _Athenæum_ remarks,[158] "John Younger, shoemaker, fly-fisher, and poet, has left a Life which is certainly worth reading;" and adds, "There is something more in him than a vein of talent sufficient to earn a local celebrity." With this opinion agree the remarks of the _Scotsman_ and the _Sunderland Times_, which said of him at the time of his death, "One of the most remarkable men of the population of the South of Scotland, whether as a genial writer of prose or verse or a man of high conversational powers and clear common-sense, the shoemaker of St. Boswell's had few or no rivals in the South;" and "Nature made him a poet, a philosopher, and a nobleman; society made him a cobbler of shoes." He was certainly a most original character, and his originality and genius appear in every chapter of his Autobiography. [155] Kelso: Rutherford. Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons. [156] Glasgow, 1834. [157] "Autobiography of John Younger, Shoemaker, of St. Boswell's." Kelso: J. & J. H. Rutherford, 1881. [158] 6th May, 1882, p. 564. CHARLES CROCKER, "THE POOR COBBLER OF CHICHESTER". Charles Crocker, who was born in Chichester, 22d June, 1797, was the son of poor parents, who could not afford to send him to school after he was seven years of age, but they were assisted by friends who procured him admission to the Chichester "Greycoat School." He was sent before the age of twelve to work as a shoemaker's apprentice. "This arrangement," he says in the brief sketch of his life which is given in the preface to his poems,[159] "was perhaps rather favorable than otherwise to the improvement of my mind, for the sedentary labor necessary in this kind of employment, while it keeps the hands fully engaged, gives little or no exercise to the mental faculties, consequently the mind of a person so employed may, without any hindrance to his work, find occupation or amusement in intellectual or imaginative pursuits." His youthful days were spent in hard work and study. Spite of his schooling, grammar presented a great difficulty when he began to apply himself seriously to literary work. He even went so far as to commit an entire book to memory in his efforts to master the art. He mentions a lecture on Milton by Thelwall as having given him much help in trying to understand the structure of English verse. Besides Milton, Cowper, Collins, and Goldsmith became favorites, and he committed large portions of their writings to memory, and so learned to frame a style. The first volume of his poems was published in 1830, and the third in 1841. He also wrote "A Visit to Chichester Cathedral," which passed through several editions. Crocker died in 1861.[160] [159] "The Vale of Obscurity, and Other Poems," by Charles Crocker, 3d edition. Chichester: W. H. Mason, 1841.