ithin this interval; it is uncertain, however,
whether this assertion is to be accepted as genuine, or as made for
some purpose of fun. His first published writing appeared in the
_Dundee Advertiser_ in 1814--his age being then, at the utmost, fifteen
and a half; this was succeeded by some contribution to a local
magazine. But as yet he had no idea of authorship as a profession.

[Footnote 2: "Two years," according to the _Memorials_; but the dates
for this portion of Hood's life are not accurately given in that work.
Hood completed the fifteenth year of his age in May, 1814. It is
certain, from the dates of his letters, that his sojourn in Scotland
began not later than September, 1815; and the writer of the _Memorials_
himself affirms that Hood "returned to London about 1820," in or before
July. If so, he was in Scotland about _five_ years; and, from the fact
that he had written in a Dundee newspaper in 1814, one might even
surmise that the term of six years was nearer the mark. At any rate, as
he had reached Scotland by September, 1815, he was there soon after
completing his sixteenth year: yet Mr. Hessey (_Memorials_, p. 23) says
that he was articled to the engraving business "at the age of fifteen
or sixteen," and his apprenticeship, according to Mr. Hood, junior,
lasted "some years" even _before_ his transfer from Mr. Sands to Mr. Le
Keux. The apprenticeship did not begin until after the father's death;
but the year of that death is left unspecified, though the day and
month are given. These dates, as the reader will readily perceive, are
sometimes vague, and sometimes contradictory. In the text of my notice,
I have endeavored to pick my way through their discrepancies.]

Towards the middle of the year 1820, Hood was re-settled in London,
improved in health, and just come of age. At first he continued
practising as an engraver; but in 1821 he began to act as a sort of
sub-editor for the _London Magazine_ after the death of the editor,
Mr. Scott, in a duel. He concocted fictitious and humorous answers to
correspondents--a humble yet appropriate introduction to the insatiable
habit and faculty for out-of-the-way verbal jocosity which marked-off
his after career from that of all other excellent poets.

His first regular contribution to the magazine, in July, 1821, was a
little poem _To Hope_: even before this, as early at any rate as 1815,
he was in the frequent practice of writing correctly and at some length
in ve