Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 3.djvu/407



was born in Cheshire, as is said of very mean parents. Of the place of his birth, or the first part of his life, I have not been able to gain any intelligence. He was educated upon the foundation at Eaton, and was captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy, by which he might have obtained a scholarship at King’s College. Being by this delay, such as is said to have happened very rarely, superannuated, he was sent to St. John’s College by the contributions of his friends, where he obtained a small exhibition.

At his College he lived for some time in the same chamber with the well-known Ford, by whom I have formerly heard him described as a contracted scholar and a mere versifier, unacquainted with life, and unskilful in conversation. His addiction to metre was then Rh