CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. XV 



The poet tells us, that the good qualities of man 

 and of cattle descend to their offspring. " Fortes 

 creantur fortibus et bonis." If this holds good, I 

 ought to be pretty well off", as far as breeding goes ; 

 for, on the father's side, I come in a direct line from 

 Sir Thomas More, through my grandmother ; whilst 

 by the mother's side I am akin to the Bedingfelds 

 of Oxburgh, to the Charltons of Hazleside, and to 

 the Swinburnes of Capheaton. 



My family has been at Walton Hall for some 

 centuries. It emigrated into Yorkshire, from Wa- 

 terton in the island of Axeholme in Lincolnshire, 

 where it had been for a very long time. Indeed, I 

 dare say I could trace it up to Father Adam, if my 

 progenitors had only been as careful in preserving 

 family records, as the Arabs are in recording the 

 pedigree of their horses ; for I do most firmly 

 believe that we are all descended from Adam and 

 his wife Eve, notwithstanding what certain self- 

 sufficient philosophers may have advanced to the 

 contrary. Old Matt Prior had probably an oppor- 

 tunity of laying his hands on family papers of the 

 same purport as those which I have not been able 

 to find ; for he positively informs us that Adam and 

 Eve were his ancestors : 



" Gentlemen, here, by your leave, 



Lie the bones of Mathew Prior, 

 A son of Adam and of Eve : 



Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?" 

 Depend upon it, the man under Afric's burning 

 zone, and he from the frozen regions of the north, 

 have both come from the same stem. Their differ- 



