He was a man of a robust frame, had a firm voice and authoritative manner, of strong natural talents, of which he was himself conscious, for he has been heard to say (it grieves me to add with an oath), 'If I had been brought up at college by -- -- I should have been a Bishop.' Two vices used to struggle in him for mastery, avarice and the love of strong drink.

But avarice, as is common in like cases, always got the better of its opponent, for though he was often intoxicated it was never, I believe, at his own expense.

As has been said of one in a more exalted station, he could take any _given_ quantity.

I have heard a story of him which is worth the telling.

One Summer's morning our Grasmere curate, after a night's carouse in the Vale of Langdale, on his return home having reached a point near which the whole Vale of Grasmere might be seen with the Lake immediately below him, he stept aside and sat down upon the turf.