LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



" The poet tells us, that the good qualities of man and of cattle 

 descend to their offspring. * Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis? If this 

 holds good, I ought to be pretty well off, as far as breeding goes ; 

 for, on the father's side, I come in a direct line from Sir Thomas 

 More, through my grandmother ; whilst by the mothers side I am 

 akin to the Bedingfelds of Oxburgh, to the Charltons of Hazelside, 

 and to the Swinburnes of Capheaton. My family has been at Walton 

 Hall for some centuries. It emigrated into Yorkshire from Waterton, 

 in the island of Axeholme in Lincolnshire, where it had been for a 

 very long time. Indeed, I dare say I could trace it up to Father 

 Adam, if my progenitors had only been as careful in preserving 

 family records as the Arabs are in recording the pedigree of their 

 horses ; for I do most firmly believe that we are all descended from 

 Adam and his wife Eve, notwithstanding what certain self-sufficient 

 philosophers may have advanced to the contrary. Old Matt Prior 

 had probably an opportunity of laying his hands on family papers 

 of the same purport as those which I have not been able to find ; 

 for he positively informs us that Adam and Eve were his ancestors : 



' Gentlemen, here, by your leave, 



Lie the bones of Matthew Prior, 

 A son of Adam and of Eve : 



Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?* 



Depend upon it, the man under Afric's burning zone, and he from 

 the frozen regions of the North, have both come from the same stem. 

 Their difference in colour and in feature may be traced to this : viz., 

 that the first has had too much, and the second too little, sun. 



" In remote times, some of my ancestors were sufficiently notorious 

 to have had their names handed down to posterity. They fought at 

 Cressy, and at Agincourt, and at Marston Moor. Sir Robert Water- 

 ton was Governor of Pontefract Castle, and had charge of King 

 Richard II. Sir Hugh Waterton was executor to his Sovereign's 

 will, and guardian to his daughters. Another ancestor was sent into 

 France by the King, with orders to contract a royal marriage. He 



mouth is very unlike, and the whole is too tame. Mr Ross's bust leaves the throat 

 and chest bare. It has more vigour than that of Mr Hawkins, but both sculptors 

 have failed to catch the true expression, and Waterton's saint-like and love-inspiring 

 smile will be preserved only in the minds of those who knew him. [ED.] 



