aughed at by Dr. Johnson, who was
present. I soon found this was the _trouvaille_ of my friend Chatterton,
and I told Dr. Goldsmith that this novelty was known to me, who might, if
I had pleased, have had the honor of ushering the great discovery to the
learned world. You may imagine, sir, we did not all agree in the measure
of our faith; but though his credulity diverted me, my mirth was soon
dashed; for, on asking about Chatterton, he told me he had been in London
and had destroyed himself."

With the exception of "Elinour and Juga," already mentioned, the Rowley
poems were still unprinted. The manuscripts, in Chatterton's
handwriting, were mostly in the possession of Barrett and Catcott. They
purported to be copies of Rowley's originals; but of these alleged
originals, the only specimens brought forward by Chatterton were a few
scraps of parchment containing, in one instance, the first thirty-four
lines of the poem entitled "The Storie of William Canynge"; in another a
prose account of one "Symonne de Byrtonne," and, in still others, the
whole of the short-verse pieces, "Songe to Aella" and "The Accounte of W.
Canynge's Feast." These scraps of vellum are described as about six
inches square, smeared with glue or brown varnish, or stained with ochre,
to give them an appearance of age. Thomas Warton had seen one of them,
and pronounced it a clumsy forgery; the script not of the fifteenth
century, but unmistakably modern. Southey describes another as written,
for the most part, in an attorney's regular engrossing hand. Mr. Skeat
"cannot find the slightest indication that Chatterton had ever seen a MS.
of early date; on the contrary, he never uses the common contractions,
and he was singularly addicted to the use of capitals, which in old MSS.
are rather scarce."

Boswell tells how he and Johnson went down to Bristol in April, 1776,
"where I was entertained with seeing him inquire upon the spot into the
authenticity of Rowley's poetry, as I had seen him inquire upon the spot
into the authenticity of Ossian's poetry. Johnson said of Chatterton,
'This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my
knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has written such things.'"

In 1777, seven years after Chatterton's death, his Rowley poems were
first collected and published by Thomas Tyrwhitt, the Chaucerian editor,
who gave, in an appendix, his reasons for believing that Chatterton was
their real author, and