Brentford  was  the  polling  place  for  the  shire;  and  the
incumbent  of  Brentford  chanced  at  that  time  to  be  Mr.  John
Home ;  a  young  clergyman  who  had  formed  himself  on  Wilkes,
and  had  endeavoured  to  commend  himself  to  his  model  by
professions  of  impiety  too  strong  even  for  the  taste  of  one  who
had  discussed  religion  in  the  cloister  of  Medmenham. '  Deter-
mined to  carry  by  storm,  since  he  could  not  conciliate,  the
favour  of  his  hero, — and  inspired  by  an  uncontrollable  hatred  of
injustice,  which  in  the  course  of  his  wayward  life  led  him  into
much  trouble,  and  entitled  him  to  some  public  gratitude, —
Home  plunged  over  head  and  ears  into  the  turmoil  of  the  elec-
tion ;  pledged  all  that  he  was  worth  in  the  world  to  set  the  best
taps  in  Brentford  running  in  the  cause  of  liberty ;  and  rode
and  walked  up  and  down  the  county,  with  the  praises  and

'  A  clever  letter  from  Home,  dated  the  3rd  January  1766,  full  of  sincere  but
very  obtrusive  adulation  which  Wilkes  never  really  forgave,  affords  a  striking
instance  of  the  effect  produced  upon  a  man  of  sense  when  he  sees  his  own
least  becoming  features  enlarged  and  reflected  in  the  mirror  of  flattery.  The
indecent  levity  of  the  passage  which  commences,  but  unfortunately  does  not
end,  with  the  words,  "You  are  now  entering  into  a  correspondence  with  a
parson,  and  I  am  greatly  apprehensive  lest  that  title  should  disgust,'"  pleased
Wilkes  as  little  as  Johnson  was  pleased  by  Boswell's  apology  for  being  bom  a
Scotchman.
