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Notice of British Naturalists. 147 
aman, a father, and a Christian, (for as such he appears eminent- 
ly to have fulfilled his duties,) rather than as merely a literary 
and scientific person; but unfortunately our materials are very 
scanty. ‘The chief source from which all the biographies of Pen- 
nant have been drawn, is a work which was published by him 
in 1793, under the fanciful idea of writing after his death, ‘ 7’he 
Literary Life of the uate Thomas Pennant > and which con- 
tains a few circumstances of his private life, and peculiarly shows 
the bent and tone of his mind. 
He was born in 1726 at Downing, in Wales. His family was 
old and respectable, possessing some landed property, and having 
for some generations held honorable situations under Government. 
He appears to have been an only child. When properly pre- 
pared, and at the usual age, he entered Queen’s College, Oxford ; 
but afterwards he changed to Oriel, and on taking his degree, as- 
simed the law gown. He is here described as conspicuous for 
his general intelligence, and for the progress he made in classical 
Owledge. But his taste for Natural History was formed at a 
Very early period, and long before he was able to indulge it to the 
extent which he afterwards did. It is, indeed, not uncommon 
that those who, when young, have evinced a taste for this sci- 
ence, neglect it altogether in after life ; their feelings being, in this 
Tespect, like those of children pleased with the first sight ofa beau- 
tifal object. It is extremely rare that a person who has neglected 
this study in youth, becomes fond of it in after years. Pennant 
“ys, “a present of the Ornithology of Francis Willoughby, when 
I was about twelve years of age, by my kinsman, John Salisbury 
(father of Mrs, Piozzi, known as the Biographer of Dr. Johnson, ) 
"St gave me a taste for that study, and incidentally a love for 
Natural History in general, which I have since pursued with my 
Constitutional ardor.” 
n leaving college he probably returned to his home, and there 
Pursued his studies in the law. In these, however, he never 
made much progress. His station in life was one which is, per- 
haps of all others, the least adapted for nourishing common am- 
bition, or for stirring up a person to diligence in the business of 
Ne. It was a saying of the late Lord Eldon, that if a man be 
desirous of rising to eminence in the legal professon, he should 
he dependent solely upon his own endeavors for a maintenance. 
Now the contrary was exactly Pennant’s case. He knew that he 
