ABSTRACT
The following three items, [A] to [C], were written between autumn 1799 and summer 1800, when De Quincey was a pupil at Winkfield School in the small Wiltshire village of Winkfield, today known as Wingfield (near Bath), Academically untaxing though it proved to be under its headmaster and local rector, the Rev. Edward Spencer, the private school, with its thirty or so pupils, nonetheless initiated the young De Quincey's 'public' writing career. Richard Woodhouse explains that
He [De Quincey] with some of the others at that school set up a periodical work (as it may be termed) in conjunction with one of Mr. Spencer's daughters. They each furnished in turn written essays or disquisitions. Of these they collected about 80. (De Quincey in conversation with Richard Woodhouse, second entry dated September 28, 1821, in Morrison.)
