George, better known as "Old Humphrey," a popular magazine writer, was the son of a canal agent, and was born in February 1787 at Ashted, a suburb of Birmingham. He was educated at a boarding-school at Boargate, near Bromsgrove, where he imbibed that love for the sights and sounds of the country which became so strong a feature in his character. After serving as an apprentice for several years, he was taken in 1811 into partnership with his elder brother, a wholesale dealer in japanned ware in Birmingham. Meanwhile his leisure hours had been enthusiastically spent in reading the poets, in contributing small articles in prose or verse to local newspapers, and in rambling through the most pleasant spots of English scenery. Not many years afterwards his brother's death left him to conduct the business alone. His total incapacity for mercantile affairs soon brought him to bankruptcy, and reduced his family to destitution. He now resolved to trust to literature for a livelihood, and settled down in an obscure and solitary lodging on the Kingsland road near London. There, harassed by extreme poverty, yet comforted by a deep and cheerful piety, he continued for several years to ply his facile pen unceasingly, and to produce volume after volume of simple life-like sketches and genial home-truths. At length, in January 1833, Old Humphrey's Observations began to appear in the Tract Society's magazine, the Weekly Visitor. The fond fidelity with which they transcribed the familiar sights and objects of the street and the rural by-path was the principal secret of their fame. But this charm was greatly heightened by their simple, garrulous style, their child-like humour, their practical wisdom, and their tone of human sympathy and of genuine and genial piety. In a short time "Old Humphrey" had attained the position of a moral teacher in the bosom of many a family throughout the land. His papers continued to be issued periodically for several years, until a selection of them was large enough to fill six volumes. These were published under the distinctive titles of Old Humphrey's Addresses, Observations, Friendly Appeals, Half-Hours, Thoughts for the Thoughtful, and Pithy Papers. Mogridge continued to write to the last, and died at Hastings in 1854, leaving his family nothing but his Christian example and the honour of his works. His life was published by the Rev. Charles Williams, London, 1856.