46 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



hence their reports of what they see are frequently inaccurate. The 

 years which Waterton had spent in Demerara enabled him to take 

 into the forest the experience of an Indian. An acute mind is 

 necessary for noting phenomena with discriminating precision, but 

 as the knowledge of what to look for can alone insure correct results, 

 the naturalist is more dependent on his previous studies than on his 

 quickness at the time. Though both qualifications were possessed 

 by Waterton, it is to the stores of information he acquired in the 

 colony that the faultlessness of his observations in the forest is due. 

 In the year 1806 Mr Waterton of Walton Hall died, and his eldest 

 son, Charles, succeeded to his estates. The property was compact, 

 but not extensive. Had Waterton inherited the whole of the lands 

 which his ancestors held at the time of the Reformation, his fortune 

 would have been not less than ^40,000 a year. But the greater 

 part of the ancient estate was confiscated by Henry VIII., and the 

 small corner left with the Watertons had been ill able to support thr 

 heavy burden of constant double taxes and of occasional fines, which 

 the penal laws imposed upon Roman Catholics. Even some park 

 land close to the house had been sold to defray a tax, of which the 

 non-payment would have caused the loss of all. A man who, having 

 just attained his majority, succeeds to an estate, seldom considers 

 sufficiently its condition. He feels that the incumbrances belong 

 to the past, the enjoyment to the present. He tries to forget the 

 burden, and prefers to be free for a time, at the expense of being 

 secure. The new squire of Walton was guilty of no such impru- 

 dence. Study and travel had already taught him, at the age of 

 twenty-four, that a man's means are to be measured, not by his 

 income, but by his expenditure. He examined the condition of his 

 estate, and fitted his way of living to his revenue. His economy 

 touched nothing which it was right to maintain. Charity, the repair 

 of buildings and fences, these he did not stint ; but against the ex- 

 penses which to a thoughtless man seem most important, and to a* 

 thinking man least so, he pulled his purse-strings tight. He esteemed 

 hospitality one of the first duties of a gentleman, and he made it 

 known that his table was always open, without invitation, to his 

 neighbours ; but during the whole fifty-nine years which he 

 .reigned at Walton he never gave a dinner-party in the ordinary 



