with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

225
fluence over him than any other person during the
whole of his hfe, that his father was a man in a low
condition of life, yet he found means to send him
to a Latin school at Stockton, where he proved an
attentive scholar, and made a rapid progress in such
learning as was there taught. His habits were always
reserved, rarely associating with his school-fellows.
He afterwards passed some time in the office of Mr.
Bradley, a conveyancer, of that town. On coming to
London, he entered himself a student of Gray's Inn,
and after keeping his proper terms, he was called to
the bar. He never, however, paid much attention
to the proper business of his profession. During the
summer season he used to take long journeys on foot,
with no other baggage than a shirt in each pocket
and if he at any time found them too heavy, he made
no hesitation in disencumbering himself by throwing
one of them away. She also states him to have
been very lax in his religious principles, of which,
perhaps, she was, no very competent judge. If he in
fact were so, let it be a warning to others to be care-
ful how they throw aside any proper restraint of the
mind, especially the m.ost serious and important of all,
that of religion, lest they should slacken, and, as took
place in his unhappy case, ultimately lose all hold of
the reins by which the imagination is guided.
" The late Mr. Ritson lived in the same staircase
with me in Gray's Inn for many years^ and the com-
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