In the School of ---- is a tablet, on which are inscribed, in 
      gilt letters, the Names of the several persons who have been 
      Schoolmasters there since the foundation of the School, with the 
      time at which they entered upon and quitted their office. Opposite 
      to one of those names the Author wrote the following lines.
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        Such a Tablet as is here spoken of continued to be preserved in 
      Hawkshead School, though the inscriptions were not brought down to 
      our time. This and other poems connected with Matthew would not 
      gain by a literal detail of facts. Like the Wanderer in "The 
      Excursion," this Schoolmaster was made up of several both of his 
      class and men of other occupations. I do not ask pardon for what 
      there is of untruth in such verses, considered strictly as matters 
      of fact. It is enough if, being true and consistent in spirit, 
      they move and teach in a manner not unworthy of a Poet's calling.