dge,
and proved excellent divines; only I, poor William Lilly, was not so
happy, fortune then frowning on my father's condition, he not in any
capacity to maintain me at the university.'

So this poor scholar, first of his class, bright visions of the
university, and of what might lie beyond, all fading into darkness, went
down to his father's house in the country, where his acquirements were
useless. He says: 'I could not work, drive plough, or endure any country
labor; my father oft would say, 'I was good for nothing,' and 'he was
willing to be rid of me.' A sorrowful time for the poor young fellow,
without any outlook toward a better. But at last, one Samuel Smatty, an
attorney, living in the neighborhood, took pity on the lad, and gave him
a letter to Gilbert Wright, of London, who wanted a youth who could read
and write, to attend him. Thereupon Lilly, in a suit of fustian, with
this letter in his pocket, and ten shillings, given him by his friends,
took leave of his father, who was then in Leicester jail for debt, and
set off for London with 'Bradshaw, the carrier.' He 'footed it all
along,' and was six days on the way; spending for food two shillings and
sixpence, and nothing for lodgings; but he was in good heart, I think,
for almost the only joyous expression in his autobiography is this one,
relating to this time: 'Hark, how the wagons crack with their rich
lading!'

Gilbert Wright, who had been 'servant to the Lady Pawlet in
Hertfordshire,' had married a widow with property, and lived afterward
'on his annual rents;' or on his wife's, and 'was of no calling or
profession.' This man had real need of a servant who could read and
write, for he himself could do neither; but he was, however, 'a man of
excellent natural parts, and would speak publicly upon any occasion very
rationally and to the purpose.' Lilly was kindly received by Master
Wright, who found, it seems, employment enough for him. 'My work was to
go before my master to church; to attend my master when he went abroad;
to make clean his shoes; sweep the street; help to drive bucks when he
washed; fetch water in a tub from the Thames--I have helped to carry
eighteen tubs of water in one morning;--weed the garden. All manner of
drudgery I willingly performed.'

Mrs. Wright, who brought money to her husband, brought also a jealous
disposition, and made his life uncomfortable. 'She was about seventy
years of age, he sixty-six,' 'yet was never any woman