Vlll MEMOIR OF WILLIAM YARRELL. 



one, but is spelt in various ways. The second Francis 

 Yerrall is reported to have been a proud man. Sarah 

 Blane is said by a relative to have been born of parents 

 who were small farmers at Bayford in Herts, and to 

 have been remarkable for nothing but a tartness of 

 temper, wholly unlike to that of her distinguished 

 son. If the dispositions of the mind are, as has been 

 supposed, like the constitution of the body and the 

 lineaments of the countenance, in some degree here- 

 ditary, and that consequently pride and quickness of 

 temper descended to the offspring of Francis and Sarah 

 Yarrell, William, the ninth-born child, was fortunately 

 endowed at the same time with so much firmness and 

 good sense as to be able to keep his passions under con- 

 trol and to become remarkable in after-life for modesty 

 and urbanity. 



In his boyhood William Yarrell occasionally visited 

 his maternal relatives at Claypits Farm, Bayford, and 

 there, doubtless, his love of rural scenery originated ; 

 but his earliest tastes for Natural History seem to have 

 been fostered by his mother, who took him with her in 

 the frequent excursions she made to Margate, then a 

 favourite resort of Londoners. Their conveyance was 

 the usual one of the time, the Margate Hoy, and young 

 Yarrell found amusement on the sands in picking up 

 sea-weeds, which he and his sister afterwards laid out 

 on paper. He also collected shells and other marine 

 productions. 



His school days were passed at the large scholastic 

 establishment kept by Dr. Nicholas at Ealing, where he 

 acquired the character of a quiet, studious boy. The 

 late General Sale, G. S. Heales, Esq., of Doctors' Com- 

 mons, who survived him but a few months, and Mr. 

 Edward Jones, were his fellow pupils, the last-mentioned 



