there was a great scholar, though he was but a
youth then, living in this town some years ago, and he was very curious
in plants and flowers and such like. I have heard the parson say, he
knew more of those innocent matters than any man in this county. At that
time I was not in so flourishing a way of business as I am at present. I
kept a little inn in the outskirts of the town; and having formerly been
a gamekeeper of my Lord--'s, I was in the habit of eking out my little
profits by accompanying gentlemen in fishing or snipe-shooting. So, one
day, Sir, I went out fishing with a strange gentleman from London, and,
in a very quiet retired spot some miles off, he stopped and plucked some
herbs that seemed to me common enough, but which he declared were most
curious and rare things, and he carried them carefully away. I heard
afterwards he was a great herbalist, I think they call it, but he was a
very poor fisher. Well, Sir, I thought the next morning of Mr. Aram, our
great scholar and botanist, and thought it would please him to know of
these bits of grass: so I went and called upon him, and begged leave to
go and show the spot to him. So we walked there, and certainly, Sir, of
all the men that ever I saw, I never met one that wound round your heart
like this same Eugene Aram. He was then exceedingly poor, but he never
complained; and was much too proud for any one to dare to offer him
relief. He lived quite alone, and usually avoided every one in his
walks: but, Sir, there was something so engaging and patient in his
manner, and his voice, and his pale, mild countenance, which, young as
he was then, for he was not a year or two above twenty, was marked with
sadness and melancholy, that it quite went to your heart when you met
him or spoke to him.--Well, Sir, we walked to the place, and very much
delighted he seemed with the green things I shewed him, and as I was
always of a communicative temper, rather a gossip, Sir, my neighbours
say, I made him smile now and then by my remarks. He seemed pleased with
me, and talked to me going home about flowers, and gardening, and such
like; and after that, when we came across one another, he would not shun
me as he did others, but let me stop and talk to him; and then I asked
his advice about a wee farm I thought of taking, and he told me many
curious things which, sure enough, I found quite true, and brought me
in afterwards a deal of money But we talked much about gardening, for
I l