io LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



me, "Why do you ask such foolish questions, boy ? 

 You might as well ask me why is a cow's tail long and 

 a fox's tail bushy " a subject about which Darwinians 

 would now perhaps find a reasonable explanation. 



I first saw the light at io, Powis Place, off Great 

 Ormond Street, in London, on January 7th, 1833. 

 Though I did not read the announcement of my birth, 

 I have lived to see that of my death, for a friend 

 in Australia sent me an obituary notice printed in 

 the Melbourne Journal of Pharmacy, May 2ist, 1888. 



My father, Henry Roscoe, was the youngest son 

 of William Roscoe, the Benjamin of the flock, the 

 youngest of seven who were all thrown on their own 

 resources by their father's bankruptcy. My father 

 came to London to seek his fortune at the Bar in the 

 year 1819, and from that time did not cost my grand- 

 father a penny ; for he, with many of his brothers, in- 

 herited the literary faculty and lived for some years by 

 his pen. He married my mother in 1831. He had 

 retired from the Bar and accepted the post of Judge of 

 the Court of Passage in Liverpool. His health had 

 doubtless suffered much from the hardships which he 

 as a struggling young man had to endure, and he died 

 in 1836. He was a singularly able lawyer and a man 

 of the highest character, and had he lived he would 

 probably have reached a prominent position. 1 



The following appreciation by Henry Chorley, which 

 I here append, gives an idea of my father's character : 



A third piece of good fortune for me was access to Mr. 

 Henry Roscoe, by far the most gifted of the sons of the Italian 

 historian, who had sufficiently distinguished himself at an 

 early age to make his death, ere the prime of life and success 

 were entered on, a heavy and cruel loss to all who were 

 privileged to know him. His accomplishments were many 



1 My father's law books, notably his Digest, were for many years after 

 his death standard works. 



