A Handbook to St Mary Redcliffe Church, J. Chilcott 1848

CHATTERTON. 49
an irregular octagon, admitting light through narrow unglazed
apertures, upon the broken and scattered fragments of the
famous Rowleian chests, that with the rubble and dust of
centuries cover the floor. In melancholy cadence the cannying
wind creeps through the unprotected openings, and spreads its
plaintive murmuring wail over the wreck of years. It is here
creative fancy pictures forth the sad image of the spirit of the
spot, the ardent boy, flushed and fed by hope, musing on the
brilliant deception he had conceived, whose daring attempt has
left his name unto the intellectual world as a marvel and a
mystery. Here in the full but fragile enjoyment of his brief
and illusory existence, be stored the treasure-house of his
memory with the thoughts that, teeming over his pages, have
enrolled his name amongst the great in the land of poetry and
song. Happy then, ere his first and joyous aspirations were
repressed, ere the warm and genial emotions of his heart
were checked, before time had dissipated his idle dreams, and
neglect, contempt, and distress, had fastened on his mind, and
hurried him onward to his untoward destiny. Then as the daily
chimes poured from the lofty tower their soul-subduing melody,
and recalled his thoughts that roamed far, far away, to a distant
age, with long hidden tales of romance, and chivalry, and antique
minstrelsy, to the ties of affection that formed a portion of his
better nature; to the domestic hearth, where his heart’s social,
kindliest feelings were enshrined ;—little did he then deem that
the hour would come, when in the utter desolation of his soul,
apart from all human sympathy, alone, in his deep interminable
pride, his disappointed ambition would render him reckless of
all worldly hopes, and unmindful of all heavenly commands.
Little did he deem that the native energy of his genius would
combat in vain the tide of difficulties which flowed against him;
that penury and want, the misery of human days, which made
his mortal life a wearying disease, would poison the springs of
his existence; that in the dearth of his crushed feelings, friend
less, hopeless, fearless, he would dare break the frail bonds of -
fleeting life, and rush unsummoned before the throne of the
Almighty!
Chatterton's attention, at Bristol, was not confined to Rowley;
his pen was exercised in a variety of pieces, chiefly satirical,
and several essays, both in prose and verse, which he sent
to the magazines. Dunhelmus Bristoliensis was the signa
ture he generally employed. In the course of the year 1769,
he was a considerable contributor to the Town and Country
Magazine.
D