noise at first. But gradually it became rumored about in London literary
coteries that manuscripts of an interesting kind existed at Bristol,
purporting to be transcripts from old English poems; and that the finder,
or fabricator, of the same was the unhappy lad who had taken arsenic the
other day, to anticipate a slower death from hunger. It was in April,
1771, that Walpole first heard of the fate of his would-be _protégé_.
"Dining," he says, "at the Royal Academy, Dr. Goldsmith drew the
attention of the company with an account of a marvelous treasure of
ancient poems lately discovered at Bristol, and expressed enthusiastic
belief in them; for which he was laughed 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,