CHARACTERS. 



749 



sion, the property of Thomas Tho- 

 mas, esq. Fierce fends, as usual, 

 in days of yore, raged, according 

 to his relation, betArccn the two 

 families. " These Montagues used to 

 take a cruel revenge on their neigh- 

 bour Capulet, by the advantage of 

 a stream which ran through their 

 grounds, in its way to our kitchen, 

 where it was applied to the turning 

 of a spit. " How often," says he, 

 *' has that important engine been 

 •topped before it performed half its 

 evolutions ! our poor Capulet swear- 

 ing, lady crying, cook fuming, and 

 nurse screaming ! But 



To hear the children mutter. 

 When they lost their bread and butter. 

 It would move a heart of stone." 



Till the advancement of Richard 

 Pennant, esq, in the year 1783, to 

 the title of Penrhyn, the family, 

 according to his own account, was 

 never distinguished by any honours 

 beyond the most useful one, that of 

 ajusticeof the peace: and " I should 

 blush," he says, " if a Pennant 

 could be found who, througli lack 

 of public spirit, sloth, or selfishness, 

 ■would decline that great constitu- 

 tional office!" 



The first sheriff of this house was 

 Pyers Pennant, who discharged that 

 trust in 1612. He had the fortune 

 to marry the daughter of a family 

 not famed for placidity, or the 

 milder virtues. Valde, valde, irrita- 

 bile genus ! "A ml from them, Tom," 

 an aunt used often to tell him, " we 

 {jot our passion ;" and frequently 

 had the wise Welsh caution, IJe- 

 ware of a breed ! 



The fruits of this marriage soon 

 appeared, for Thomas, the eldest 

 son, in a " furor brevis," killed his 

 miller. lie was indicted for man- 

 slaughter, tried and convicted, but 

 afterwards pardoned. 



When Mr. Pennant was about 

 twelve years old, the father of Mrs. 

 Piozzi presented him with a copy of 

 Willughby's Ornithology. This 

 first gave a taste for the study of 

 natural history, which he after- 

 wards pursued with so much avidity, 

 and from which the world has ob- 

 tained so much instruction and be- 

 nefit. 



The high gratification that he de- 

 rived from this delightful science, 

 and a desire of examining the island 

 that gave him birth, induced him, 

 about his twentieth year, to make, 

 from Oxford, the tour of Cornwall. 

 In this expedition he obtained a 

 considerable knowledge of the mi- 

 neralogy of the west of England. 

 Not long afterwards, he went over 

 the principal parts of Ireland ; but 

 such, he informs us, " was the con- 

 viviality of the country, that his 

 journal proved as meagre as his en- 

 tertainment was gras ; so it never 

 was a dish fit to be offered to the 

 public." 



In the year 1755 he began a cor- 

 respondence with Linnaeus, which 

 ended only when the age and infirm- 

 ities of that justly celebrated man 

 obliged him to desist. To the ta- 

 , lents of Mr. Pennant, Linnaeus sub- 

 .scribed in the highest terms ; and 

 two years after the commence- 

 ment of their acquaintance, Mr. 

 Pennant was, at his instance, elect- 

 ed a member of the Royal Society 

 at Upsal. 



In 1761, he published his first 

 work, the folio edition of his British 

 Zoology.' 



Four years after this he made a 

 short tour to the continent, during 

 which he became personally ac- 

 quainted with LeComptede [Juffon. 

 While in Paris, he passed much of 

 his time with this naturalist, and 



afterward.? 



