CHAPTER II. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



[My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present chapter, 

 were written for his children, and written without any thought that they 

 would ever be published. To many this may seem an impossibility ; but 

 those who knew my father will understand how it was not only possible, but 

 natural. The autobiography bears the heading, Recollections of the Develop- 

 ment of my Mind and Character, and ends with the following note: "Aug. 

 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hopedene,* 

 and since then I have written for nearly ah hour on most afternoons." It will 

 easily be understood that, in a narrative of a personal and intimate kind 

 written for his wife and children, passages should occur which must here be 

 omitted ; and I have not thought it necessary to indicate where such omis- 

 sions are made. It has been found necessary to make a few corrections of 

 obvious verbal slips, but the number of such alterations has been kept down 

 to the minimum. F. D.] 



A German Editor having written to me for an account 

 of the development of my mind and character with some 

 sketch of my autobiography, I have thought that the at- 

 tempt would amuse me, and might possibly interest my chil- 

 dren or their children. I know that it would have inter- 

 ested me greatly to have read even so short and dull a 

 sketch of the mind of my grandfather, written by himself, 

 and what he thought and did, and how he worked. I have 

 attempted to write the following account of myself, as if I 

 were a dead man in another world looking back at my own 

 life. Nor have I found this difficult, for life is nearly over 

 with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing. 



I was born at Shrewsbury on February 12th, 1809, and 

 my earliest recollection goes back only to when I was a 

 few months over four years old, when we went to near Aber- 

 gele for sea-bathing, and I recollect some events and places 

 there with some little distinctness. 



My mother died in July 1817, when I was a little over 

 eight years old, and it is odd that I can remember hardly 



* The late Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in Surrey. 



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