Watts, ALARIC

Watts, ALARIC, was born in London, March 16, 1797, and died there, April 5, 1864. He had four years' schooling at Wye and Ashford in Kent; was an usher at Fulham and Runcorn, and a newspaper editor at Leeds and Manchester; married in 1821 the Quakeress, Priscilla Wiffen (1800-73), a sister of the two Spanish scholars; founded the United Service Gazette (1833); and made a great hit by his annual, the Literary Souvenir (1824-37). Latterly he was less successful, and in 1854 he was granted a pension of £100. He published two volumes of poetry, but one piece only by him is remembered—the alliterative jeu d'esprit, 'An Austrian army awfully arrayed,' &c. The Life by his son (2 vols. 1884) contains some interesting sketches of his contemporaries.