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EUGENE ARAM.


The recollection of this man is still preserved at Lynn, in Norfolk, at
which town he was for some time usher at the grammar-school. A small room
at the back of the house, in which he slept, was, until these last few
years, (when it was pulled down and rebuilt,) mysteriously pointed to by
the little urchins as they passed up to bed of a cold, ghost-enticing
night, as the chamber in which the "usher, who was hanged for murder," was
used to sleep.

The tradition which remains of his character is, that he was "a man of
loneliness and mystery," sullen and reserved; that on half-holy-days, and
when his duties would allow, he strayed solitary and cheerless, as if to
avoid the world, amongst the flat uninteresting marshes which are situated
on the opposite side of the river Ouse.

At Lynn the character of Aram was, until his apprehension, unexceptionable;
but after that event, circumstances were then called to mind which seemed
to indicate a naturally dark character; but whether these were all
strictly founded in truth, or magnified suspicions arising from the
appaling circumstances of the crime of which he was convicted, I am unable
to determine. The following, derived from unquestionable authority, having
been related by Dr. L., who was master of the grammar-school at the time,
may serve as a sample:--there can be no doubt but that the worthy Dr.
himself believed his suspicions well founded, as he used to tremble when