At all events I got a good man's blessing.
I remember also in my nursery days to have heard this curious story of a dream.

My father, when a young man, was a student at Guy's Hospital, from which school of medicine he went to Yarmouth to attend the wounded after the battle of Copenhagen.

He was on one occasion leaving Guernsey for Southampton in the clumsy seagoing smack of those days, when, on the night before embarking, he dreamt that on his way to the harbour he crossed the churchyard and fell into an open grave.

Telling this to his parents at "The Pollet," they would not let him go, with a sort of superstitious wisdom; for, strangely enough, the smack was seized on its voyage by a privateer, and all the crew and passengers were consigned--for twelve years--to a French prison! I have heard my father tell this tale, and noted early how true was Dr.Watts' awkward line, "On little things what great depend." I might say more about warnings in dreams and other somnolencies, whereof we all have experiences.

For instance, my "Dream of Ambition" in Proverbial Philosophy was a real one.