Gulliver's Travels

My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College
in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the
charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, I was
bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years. My
father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of
the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time or other, my
fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father: where, by the assistance of him and my uncle
John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at
Leyden: there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.