RETROGRESSION. 169 



being an official in the Custom-house. His ancestors had 

 been for generations ' statesmen' in Westmorland, and 

 had lived on their property near Hawkshead; but the 

 family estate had gradually passed into other hands. 

 Swainson was brought up by his father with a view of 

 entering the Custom-house, and his early education was cut 

 short, in consequence of his having an impediment in his 

 speech which entirely prevented him from studying lan- 

 guages, and also because he does not appear to have had 

 * the least aptitude for the ordinary acquirements of schools.' 

 Hence, we find him at the age of fourteen as junior clerk 

 in a secretary's office in the Customs, with a salary of ;8o 

 a year* He had, however, a passion for natural history, a 

 rooted dislike of official trammels, and a burning desire to 

 travel. After he had been about three years a clerk in the 

 Customs, his father obtained for him, in 1807, an appoint- 

 ment in the commissariat department of the army, and in 

 the spring of the same year he was despatched to join the 

 Mediterranean army in Sicily. Here he remained several 

 years, and as his duties were light, he was able to wander 

 all over Sicily, collecting animals and plants, and also to 

 visit Greece. Subsequently he was quartered in Italy, 

 first in one city, and then in another; but his health 

 became impaired, and in 1815 he was sent home on sick 

 leave. 



Swainson had now risen to the rank of assistant com- 

 missary-general on the staff of the Mediterranean army, 

 and as he was only twenty-six years old, he might have 

 expected much higher promotion had he remained in the 

 service. He had, however, never taken kindly, as some 

 men never do, to official life. He could not even endure 



