Page:A Sketch of the Life of George Wilson, the Blackheath Pedestrian.djvu/14



IN compliance with the desire of the Ladies and Gentlemen of Blackheath and its neighbourhood, who have taken so humane and generous an interest in my behalf, under the embarrassing circumstances that have recently involved me, I undertake the reluctant task of sketching the circumstances of my Life and Fortunes. They have been chequered, certainly, with vicissitudes that, long since, would have reconciled me to the fate which must, sooner or later, be the common lot of humanity. Had the incidents I detail fallen to the lot of a man in the higher rank of life, they might probably be deemed interesting; but, destitute as the writer is of any personal consideration that could heighten curiosity for the particulars of his story, —a story which he obtrudes on the public with unfeigned regret, it must now rest on its own merits, with little other claim to public notice than the liberal recommendation of those generous protectors, at