[18] Compare the autobiographical note of 1832 as quoted by Gillman. About this time he became acquainted with a widow lady, “whose son,” says he, “I, as upper boy, had protected, and who therefore looked up to me, and taught me what it was to have a mother. I loved her as such. She had three daughters, and of course I fell in love with the eldest.” Life of Coleridge, p. 28.
[19] Scholarship of Jesus College, Cambridge, for sons of clergymen.
[20] At this time Frend was still a Fellow of Jesus College. Five years had elapsed since he had resigned from conscientious motives the living of Madingley in Cambridgeshire, but it was not until after the publication of his pamphlet Peace and Union, in 1793, that the authorities took alarm. He was deprived of his Fellowship, April 17, and banished from the University, May 30, 1793. Coleridge’s demeanour in the Senate House on the occasion of Frend’s trial before the Vice-Chancellor forms the subject of various contradictory anecdotes. See Life of Coleridge, 1838, p. 55; Reminiscences of Cambridge, Henry Gunning, 1855, i. 272-275.
[21] The Rev. George Caldwell was afterwards Fellow and Tutor of Jesus College. His name occurs among the list of subscribers to the original issue of The Friend. Letters of the Lake Poets, 1889, p. 452.
[22] “First Grecian of my time was Launcelot Pepys Stevens [Stephens], kindest of boys and men, since the Co-Grammar Master, and inseparable companion of Dr. T[rollop]e.” Lamb’s Prose Works, 1835, ii. 45. He was at this time Senior-Assistant Master at Newcome’s Academy at Clapton near Hackney, and a colleague of George Coleridge. The school, which belonged to three generations of Newcomes, was of high repute as a private academy, and commanded the services of clever young schoolmasters as assistants or ushers. Mr. Sparrow, whose name is mentioned in the letter, was headmaster.
[23] A Latin essay on Posthumous Fame, described as a declamation and stated to have been composed by S. T. Coleridge, March, 1792, is preserved at Jesus College, Cambridge. Some extracts were printed in the College magazine, The Chanticleer, Lent Term, 1886.
[24] Poetical Works, p. 19.
[25] Ibid. p. 19.
[26] Poetical Works, p. 20.
[27] Robert Allen, Coleridge’s earliest friend, and almost his exact contemporary (born October 18, 1772), was admitted to University College, Oxford, as an exhibitioner, in the spring of 1792. He entertained Coleridge and his compagnon de voyage, Joseph Hucks, on the occasion of the memorable visit to Oxford in June, 1794, and introduced them to his friend, Robert Southey of Balliol. He is mentioned in letters of Lamb to Coleridge, June 10, 1796, and October 11, 1802. In both instances his name is connected with that of Stoddart, and it is probable that it was through Allen that Coleridge and Stoddart became acquainted. For anecdotes concerning Allen, see Lamb’s Essay, “Christ’s Hospital,” etc., Prose Works, 1836, ii. 47, and Leigh Hunt’s Autobiography, 1860, p. 74. See, also, Letters to Allsop, 1864, p. 170.