Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/726

Rh 702 P R E P R E PRESCOT, a market -town of Lancashire, is situated on rising ground on the Liverpool and Wigan branch of the London and North- Western Railway, 8 miles east of Liverpool and 28 west of Manchester. It is of considerable antiquity, and received a grant for a market and fair in the 7th year of Edward III. A church existed in the 13th century. The present edifice, in various styles, with a lofty tower and spire and carved timber roof, underwent extensive restoration in 1875-76. Among the other public buildings are the town-hall (1765) and the market-hall (1859). The chief industry is the making of watch hands and wheels, ttc., first introduced in 1730 by John Miller from Yorkshire. Coarse earthenware is also manufactured. The population of the urban sanitary district (area, 268 acres) in 1871 was 5990, and in 1881 it was 6419. PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859), his torian, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on 4th May 1796, his ancestors, of the old Puritan stock, having migrated from Lancashire about 1640 and established themselves in Middlesex county, Massachusetts. He re ceived his earlier education in his native city until the removal of his family in 1808 to Boston, where he was placed under the tuition of Dr Gardiner, a pupil of Dr Parr. His schooldays appear to have been in the main typical rather than prophetic, though in his passion for mimic warfare and for the narration of original stories some indication of the historical bias may perhaps be dis cerned. A healthy aversion to persistent work, which even in later years broke at times through his rigorous system of self-discipline, did not hinder him from making a good if somewhat desultory use of his permission to read at the Boston athenaeum, an exceptional advantage at a time when the best books were by no means readily accessible in any part of the United States. He entered Harvard College in the autumn of 1811, therefore, with a fairly thorough mental equipment, but almost at the outset his career was interrupted by an accident which affected the whole subsequent course of his life. A hard piece of bread, flung at random in the Commons Hall, struck his left eye with such force that he fell to the ground ; and, though the first shock speedily passed, the sight was irremediably destroyed. He resumed his college work, however, with success in classics and literature, though he abandoned the study of mathematics as one in which he could not attain even an average proficiency. After graduating honourably in 1814 he entered his father s office as a student of law; but in January 1815 the un injured eye showed dangerous symptoms of inflammation, which for some time refused to yield to remedies. When at last in the autumn he was in condition to travel, it was determined that he should pass the winter at St Michael s and in the spring obtain medical advice in Europe. His visit to the Azores, which was constantly broken by con finement to a darkened room, is chiefly noteworthy from the fact that he there began the mental discipline which enabled him to compose and retain in memory long pass ages for subsequent dictation ; and, apart from the gain in culture, his journey to England, France, and Italy (April 1816 to July 1817) was scarcely more satisfactory. The verdict of the physicians consulted by him was that the injured eye was hopelessly paralysed, and that the pre servation of the sight of the other depended upon the maintenance of his general health. His further pursuit of the legal profession seemed out of the question, and on his return to Boston he remained quietly at home listening to a great deal of reading, but with no fixed object in view. On 4th May 1820 he was married to Miss Susan Amory. Prior to his marriage he had made a few experiments in composition which had obtained no further publicity than that of his own circle of friends, but he now finally decided to devote his life to literature. It must be admitted that he had not hitherto displayed any remarkable aptitude ; but having once determined his future occupation he set himself strenuously to the task of self-preparation. With almost amusing thoroughness he commenced the study of Murray s Grammar, the prefatory matter of Johnson s Dictionary, and Blair s Rhetoric, reading at the same time for general purposes of style a series of the standard English writers from the period of Elizabeth onwards. A review of Byron s Letters on Pope in 1821 constituted his first contribution to the North American Review, to which he continued for many years to send the results of his slighter researches. He next turned to French literature, the irksomeness with which he regarded his studies in this subject being mitigated by incursions into the early Eng lish drama and ballad literature. Of the direction and quality of his thought at this time he has left indications in his papers on Essay -Writing (1822) and on French and English Tragedy (1823). In pursuance of his method of successive studies he began in 1823 the study of Italian literature, passing over German as demanding more labour than he could afford ; and so strongly did he feel the fasci nation of the language that for some time he thought of selecting it as his chief sphere of work. In the following year, however, he made his first acquaintance with the literature of Spain under the influence of his friend and biographer, Ticknor, who was then lecturing upon it ; and, while its attractiveness proved greater than he had at the outset anticipated, the comparative novelty of the subject as a field for research served as an additional stimulus. In the meantime his aims had been gradually concen trating. History had always been a favourite study with him, and Mably s Observations sur I Histoire appears to have had considerable influence in determining him to the choice of some special period for historic research. The selection, however, was not finally made without prolonged hesitation. The project of a history of Italian literature held a prominent place in his thought and found some tentative expression in his article on Italian Narrative Poetry (1824) and in the reply to Da Ponte s criticism (1825); but he had also in contemplation a history of the revolution which converted republican Rome into a monarchy, a series of biographical and critical sketches of eminent men, and a Spanish history from the invasion of the Arabs to the consolidation of the monarchy under Charles V. It was not till the 19th of January 1826 that he recorded in the private memoranda begun by him in 1820 his decision &quot;to embrace the gift of the Spanish subject.&quot; The choice was certainly a bold one. On the one hand, he had no great liking for, if he had not, as he alleged, an absolute detestation of the investigation of latent and barren anti quities, while, on the other, he had not the visual power which others besides Milton have deemed indispensable to an historian. The first he might and did overcome, but the second seemed likely to prove a permanent disqualifi cation. He could only use the eye which remained to him for brief and intermittent periods, and as travelling affected his sight prejudicially he could not anticipate any personal research amongst unpublished records and historic scenes. He was happy, however, in the possession both of ample means and admirable friends to supply so far as might be the necessary materials, and of a wide leisure in which to give them literary shape and polish ; and he sketched with no undue restriction or hesitancy the plan of the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella his first great work. Mr English, one of his secretaries, has furnished a picture of him at this period seated in a study lined on two sides with books and darkened by green screens and curtains of blue muslin, which required read justment with almost every cloud that passed across the