Leigh Hunt's Works; A Book for a Corner Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ... of judges. My plan was to fix upon some market town, within a stage of Nottingham, and open shop there on the market day, till I should be better prepared to begin the world at Birmingham. I fixed upon Southwell, as the first step of elevation. It was fourteen miles distant, and the town as despicable as the road to it. I went over at Michaelmas, took a shop at the rate of twenty shillings a-year, sent a few boards for shelves, a few tools, and about two hundredweight of trash, which might be dignified with the name of books, and worth, perhaps, a year's rent of my shop. I was my-own joiner, put up the shelves and their furniture, and in one day became the most eminent bookseller in the place. During this rainy winter, I set out at five every Saturday morning, carried a burden of from three pounds weight to thirty, opened shop at ten, starved in it all day upon bread, cheese, and half a pint of ale, took from one to six shillings, shut up at four, and by trudging through the solitary night and the deep roads five hours more, I arrived at Nottingham by nine; where I always found a mess of milk porridge by the fire, prepared by my valuable sister. Nothing short of a surprising resolution and rigid economy could have carried me through this scene. 1750. Returning to Nottingham, I gave warning to quit at Southwell, and prepared for a total change of life. On the 10th of April, I entered Birmingham, for the third time, to try if I could be accommodated with a small shop. If I could procure any situation, I should be in the way of procuring a better. On the 11 th I travelled the streets of Birmingham, agreed with Mrs. Dix for the lesser half of her shop, No. 6 in Bull Street, at one shilling a-week; and slept at Lichfield in my way back to Nottingham....