40 FINE NAMES. 



name of Theophilus Caractacus, was a tall, 

 gawky youth, of about; eighteen, who, 

 whatever his pretensions were to emulate 

 the deeds of his illustrious namesake in 

 arms, certainly bid fair to be on a level 

 with him in his intellectual capacity for 

 the knowledge of letters seemed as foreign 

 to him, as they were to the ancient Briton, 

 from whom, like other Welchmen, he boasted 

 his descent. If, by the other appellation, it 

 was intended that he should in his manhood 

 bear any resemblance to a name known in 

 the early history of our creed, his friends must 

 have been disappointed, for meekness and 

 charity were not to be reckoned among his 

 virtues. This man or youth was my parti- 

 cular bane, and fortunate was it for me, per- 

 haps, that I did not belong to the same mess, 

 for, although the disproportion of our physi- 

 cal powers precluded, for shame's sake and 

 the fear of others more his equals, the pro- 

 bability of any personal encounter, still, 

 when assembled on the poop or quarter- 



