Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/302

NO. 1., affability, and kindness of disposition."—With a high opinion of his Majesty's kindness and condescension, the Author was impressed by the circumstances above related: the knowledge of which, he has said, he owed to his intimacy with the parties concerned. Private friendship indeed may occasionally lead to the contemplation of particulars of curiosity and interest unknown to the public collector.—The first of the attributes in the preceding short extract, immediately assimilated with the recollection of a lamented friend, the reverend Thomas Watson, of Bilton, in Holderness, to whom he could resort on any literary question, and at whose parsonage he passed some of the pleasantest hours of his life. This Gentleman one day, in a conversation on the identity of the author of the "Pursuits of Literature," gave it in a decided manner to the Prince of Wales; alleging that "he was well known to be one of the best scholars we had." It is not the writer's idea, so many reasons may be given against the supposition, which might be overlooked by a retired observer; but that a man of letters (a good classic) should entertain and