At the age of nine, Porson was placed under the care of the above-mentioned Mr. Summers, by whom he was well grounded in Latin. He remained with him three years. At twelve, he was taken under the care of Mr. H. who was then employed in the education of his own children; with him he also continued three years. By him he was introduced to Mr. Norris, of Witton, the adjoining parish to Bacton; and this gentleman became his professed patron. First by his example, and afterwards by his strenuous recommendation, a subscription was set on foot for the general purposes of educating Porson, and of maintaining him at the university. The individuals who interested themselves about him, were highly respectable, both with regard to their rank, their character, and their number. Among them was Bishop Bagot, one other Bishop, whose name has escaped, Sir George Baker, Dr. Poynter, Dr. Hammond Prebendary of Norwich, &c. Sir George Baker was the Treasurer. But there was a lady among them, whose zeal and anxiety concerning Porson, surpassed perhaps that of her gentlemen coadjutors. This was Mrs. Mary Turner, the grand-daughter of Sir Charles Turner; she was related to Mr. Norris, by whom Porson was introduced and recommended to her. She afterwards became his principal protector. Her house was always open to him, and whenever he returned from Eton, to pass his holidays in Norfolk, he enjoyed at Mrs. Turner’s house the most constant and unrestrained hospitality. She was afterwards entirely alienated from him; for which the following reasons have been alledged. She was very piously disposed, and was exceedingly anxious that Porson should go into the church. The decision to which he came, of not subscribing to the articles, and consequently of resigning his Fellowship, was to her utterly incomprehensible, and exceedingly shocked and distressed her. But the publication of his Letters to Travis gave the _coup de grace_ to our unlucky friend. Some officious person represented this work to the old lady, as a calumnious attack upon Christianity, and as malignantly intended to call in question the truth of the Gospel.—It could only be the work of an apostate, an infidel, an abandoned reprobate. These circumstances prevailed upon Mrs. Turner to alter her will, in which she had left him a very considerable sum of money.—He had only a legacy of 30_l._ We must now go back to our chronological order. Amicus dulcis ut æquum est Quum mea compenset vitiis bona; pluribus hisce Si modo plura mihi bona sunt, inclinet, amari Si volet—hac lege in trutina ponetur eadem. CHAPTER XXXV. In the year 1774, when Porson was about fourteen years of age, and had been under the care of Mr. H. for two years, he had already discovered a most extraordinary quickness of parts.