of 1815 to his death. The family which
he represented must have occupied a very good position in society. I
have heard that he sold two good estates to defray the expenses which
he incurred in his personal labours for Abolition: and his brother was
Governor of Sierra Leone (I know not at what time appointed). Thomas
Clarkson was at St John's College; and, as I gather from circumstances
which I have heard him mention, must have been a rather gay man. He
kept a horse, and at one time kept two. He took Orders in the Church;
and on one occasion, in the course of his Abolition struggle, he
preached in a church. But he afterwards resolutely laid aside all
pretensions to the title of Minister of the Church, and never would
accept any title except as layman. He was, however, a very earnest
reader of theology during my acquaintance with him, and appeared to be
well acquainted with the Early Fathers.

The precise words in which was announced the subject for Prize Essay
in the University were "Anne liceat invitos in servitutem trahere."

After the first great victory on the slave trade question, he
established himself in a house on the bank of Ullswater. I have not
identified the place: from a view which he once shewed me I supposed
it to be near the bottom of the lake: but from an account of the storm
of wind which he encountered when walking with a lady over a pass, it
seemed to be in or near Patterdale. When the remains of a mountaineer,
who perished in Helvellyn (as described in Scott's well-known poem),
were discovered by a shepherd, it was to Mr Clarkson that the
intelligence was first brought.

He then lived at Bury St Edmunds. Mrs Clarkson was a lady of Bury. But
I cannot assign conjecturally any dates to his removals or his
marriage. His only son took his B.A. degree, I think, about 1817.

I think it was in 1814 that he began his occupation of Playford
Hall--a moated mansion near Ipswich, formerly of great importance
--where he lived as Gentleman Farmer, managing a farm leased
from the Marquis of Bristol, and occupying a good position among the
gentry of the county. A relative of mine, with whom I was most
intimately acquainted, lived in the same parish (where in defiance of
school rules I spent nearly half my time, to my great advantage as I
believe, and where I still retain a cottage for occasional residence),
and I enjoyed much of Mr Clarkson's notice. It was by his strong
advice that I was sent to Cambridge, and t