EARLY LIFE. 31 



subject, he strictly adhered through life to the pro- 

 mise thus given ; insomuch that when Garrick and 

 Henderson at different times visited him, they enter- 

 tained and interested him by exhibiting to him in 

 private, specimens of the art in which both so emi- 

 nently excelled."* The traditional character in his 

 family of the venerable person whom I have men- 

 tioned was anything rather than sour or stern, how 

 severe and unbending soever may have been his 

 moral feelings. For the sweetness of his placid 

 temper, and the cheerfulness of his kindly disposi- 

 tion, I have heard him spoken of in terms of the 

 warmest enthusiasm by such of his children as were 

 old enough at the time of his decease to recollect 

 him distinctly. The idea of again meeting him in 

 another state was ever present to my grandmother's 

 mind (who was his eldest daughter), and especially 

 when stricken with any illness. It was with her a 

 common source of argument for a future state as 

 proved by the light of nature, and in her pious mind 

 a confirmation of the truth of Christianity that, be- 

 lieving in the divine goodness, she could not conceive 

 the extinction of so much angelical purity as adorned 

 her parent, and so fine an understanding as he pos- 

 sessed. Their mother was a woman of great ability 

 and force of character ; but, like many of that caste, 

 women especially, she was more stern and more 

 severe than amiable, and this contrast, unfavourable 

 to the one, redounded to the augmented love of the 

 other. It cannot be doubted that the son's character 



* See Appendix VI. 



