of his father. James was placed in the Moravian institution at Fulneck in
October, 1777. Another of his early reminiscences related to this school. It
was visited on one occasion by the celebrated Lord Monboddo, whose figure the
poet recalled as dressed in a rough closely-buttoned coat, with top boots, and
carrying in his hand a large whip, such as huntsmen use. He inquired if there
was any Scotch boy in the school; and the teacher having produced young
Montgomery, Lord Monboddo looked the future poet sternly in the face, and,
after addressing to him some counsels suitable to his years holding the whip
towards him, as the boy thought, in unpleasant proximity " Mind, Sir," he
added, "that I trust you will never do anything to disgrace your country."
"This," said the poet, "I never forgot, nor shall I forget it while I live. I have, indeed, endeavoured so to act hitherto, that my country might never have cause to be ashamed of me; nor will I, on my part, ever be ashamed of
her." In 1783, John Montgomery and his wife, the father and mother of the poet, proceeded to the West Indies, as missionaries. The only allusion in
Montgomery's poems to the place of his birth occurs in the verses written on revisiting Fulneck school in 1806, and the remembrance of Irvine recalled the image of his sainted parents, both of whom had died in the West Indies:—
"The loud Atlantic ocean,
On Scotland's rugged breast,
Rocks, with harmonious motion,
His weary waves to rest,
And gleaming round her emerald isles
In all the pomp of sunset smiles.
On that romantic shore
My parents hailed their first-born boy;
A mother's pangs my mother bore,
My father felt a father's joy;
My father, mother—parents now no more!
Beneath the Lion Star they sleep,
Beyond the western deep,
And when the sun's noon-glory crests the waves,
He shines without a shadow on their graves."
The boy remained for ten years at Fulneck, where he was carefully educated, it being the wish of the Brethren to train him for the ministry; but the bent of his mind not being in that direction, the intention was not persisted in. His first poetical impulse was received from reading Blair's " Grave." At the age of twelve he produced some small poems, and his taste for poetry was cherished by reading extracts from Milton, Thomson, and Young, together with such books as he could procure and enjoy by stealth. He was sent to earn his bread as an assistant in a chandler's shop, but did not take kindly to the occupation, ran away from his master, and after another year of service with a second, at last set off to London with 3s. 6d. in his pocket, to seek fame and fortune. He offered a manuscript volume of verse to Mr. Harrison, publisher, Paternoster Row, who rejected the poetry, but engaged the poet as a clerk. In this situation he continued for eight months, but feeling the drudgery irksome, he made his way back to Yorkshire. In 1792 he obtained employment in the establishment of Mr. Gales, a bookseller in Sheffield, who had commenced a newspaper named the "Sheffield Register." Montgomery found the labour of a journalist congenial to his tastes; but those were difficult times for men who
