38 BIOGRAPHY. 



next door to his room, and where he usually spent an hour 

 in prayer. 



I had several friendly altercations with him upon shav- 

 ing, but he would as soon give up the lancet as the razor. 

 He would not even wear a particle of whisker, and kept 

 his thick, snowy hair within half an inch of length. He 

 had not lost a hair, in spite of his advanced age, and I have 

 often thought that if he had allowed his hair and beard to 

 grow to their full luxuriance, a nobler figure could not have 

 visited an artist's dreams. 



Then came reading Latin and Spanish books (Don 

 Quixote being always one), and then writing, receiving 

 bailiff's report, &c., until eight, when, at the stroke of Sir 

 Thomas More's clock, breakfast was served. So, he had 

 done a fair day's work and finished breakfast at the time 

 when most persons of his position in life had scarcely awoke. 



In the next place, he was not a rich man. 



As a rule, the old Yorkshire families are wealthy, and 

 the Watertons would have been among the wealthiest of 

 them, but for the shameful oppressions to which they were 

 subjected. That most accomplished robber, Henry VIII., 

 had confiscated the greater part of the estates, and what 

 with direct robberies, double taxation, fines, and so forth > 

 the estates were terribly reduced when he came into pos- 

 session of them. Even if he had wished it, magnificence 

 would not have been attainable, but he achieved more 

 than magnificence, and with the restricted means at his 

 command, converted a Yorkshire valley into a veritable 

 wonder-land. 



In this congenial task he was favoured by circumstances 

 which are not likely to occur again. He possessed the 

 requisite knowledge, a constitution of iron, and a frame of 

 astonishing endurance and activity. He came into pos- 

 session of the estate as a very young man, only twenty- 



