262 JOHN LEDYARD. 



Moore, of Southold, on which occasion John was 

 taken by his grandfather to reside with himself at 

 Hartford. At this early period the peculiarities of 

 his character were already apparent, and he was 

 remarked as a bold, eccentric, and self-reliant boy. 

 He attended the grammar-school in Hartford for 

 some time, after which he entered the office of 

 Thomas Seymour, a respectable attorney of that 

 city, who had married his aunt. 



The dry, abstruse details of legal science possessed 

 but few attractions for a mind so ardent and so ima- 

 ginative as that of Ledyard. He soon began to 

 weary of it, and expressed his disgust in no equi- 

 vocal terms. Instead of being remarked for attentive 

 application to study, he became notorious for the 

 eagerness with which he embarked in enterprises of 

 the most hazardous and romantic description, in 

 which superior courage, energy, and resolution 

 were required. He already seemed to be utterly 

 improvident in his disposition, and indisposed to 

 anticipate misfortunes, to guard against their oc- 

 currence, or to provide for the responsibilities and 

 necessities of the future. 



When nineteen years of age, Dr. Wheelock, the 

 founder and president of Dartmouth College, New 

 Hampshire, who had been intimate with Ledyard's 

 grandfather, invited him to become a pupil of that 



