It is by no means intended to enter into controversy with the only two accounts of Porson which have hitherto been given with any thing like authority, or materially to contradict their assertions. The first appeared in the Morning Chronicle, the second in the periodical publication called the Athenæum. This latter has usually been assigned to ⸺, a most learned and able contemporary, and who was, beyond all possibility of doubt, accurate as far as circumstances enabled him to be so. The other account was communicated to the editor of the Morning Chronicle by Porson’s sister, who attended his funeral. This lady’s name is H⸺, and her residence is at C⸺, in N⸺. She is probably some four or five years younger than her brother, to whom she bears a strong personal resemblance, more particularly in the lower features of her face, her tone of voice, and peculiarity of smile. After her return from the funeral, she communicated to the editor, the substance of what appeared in that paper on the day following. Its accuracy will hardly be called in question; yet all that she had to tell, must necessarily, as far as her actual knowledge went, be confined to Porson’s boyish days, for after he went to Eton, he had but little intercourse with his family. Neither was she circumstantially correct, as she subsequently acknowledged, on being desired to call to mind whether her brother did not imbibe his very first rudiments from a person of the name of W⸺, who kept the village school at B⸺, in N⸺, where Porson’s father and mother lived. She remembered the fact, but observed, that W. was a plain ignorant shopkeeper, to whom her brother was sent when a child about six years of age, but that he did not continue long with him, it being soon discovered that the pupil could read as fluently as his master. This may or may not have been the truth. That Mr. W⸺ was a plain shopkeeper, and that he kept the village school, cannot be denied; but that he was so ignorant, as the lady’s remark seemed to intimate, may fairly be questioned. He was well known to the writer of this narrative, who had frequently conversed with him on the subject of Porson. He spoke in the highest terms of his early proofs of capacity, and was not a little proud of having been accessory to the formation of the base of that monument, which afterwards lifted its proud eminence so high. Mr. W⸺ had a respectable appointment under the Excise Office, another proof, if one were wanting, that he could not be so exceedingly ignorant. He was also greatly respected by ⸺, the squire of the parish, who was subsequently the patron of Porson, as well as by ⸺, the clergyman, who was Porson’s earliest friend. Thus much for honest Mr. W⸺. _Paullo majora canamus._ Nam et in ratione conviviorum quamvis a plerisque cibis singuli temperemus, totam tamen cœnam laudare omnes solemus: nec ea quæ stomachus noster recusat, adimunt gratiam illis, quibus capitur. CHAPTER XXXIV.