LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 21 



I followed up my calling with great success. The vermin disappeared 

 by the dozen the books were moderately well-thumbed ; and, ac 

 cording to my notion of things, all went on perfectly right. 



" When I had finished my rhetoric, it was my father's wish that I 

 should return home. The day I left the Jesuits' college was one of 

 heartfelt sorrow to me. Under Almighty God and my parents, I 

 owe everything to the Fathers of the Order of St Ignatius. Their 

 attention to my welfare was unceasing, whilst their solicitude for 

 my advancement in virtue and in literature seemed to know no 

 bounds. The permission which they granted me to work in my 

 favourite vocation, when it did not interfere with the important 

 duties of education, enabled me to commence a career which, in 

 after times, afforded me a world of pleasure in the far distant regions 

 of Brazil and Guiana. To the latest hour of my life I shall acknow- 

 ledge, with feelings of sincerest gratitude, the many acts of paternal 

 kindness which I so often received at the hands of the learned and 

 generous Fathers of Stonyhurst College, 'Presidium etdulce decus meum. 1 



" After leaving this ' safe retreat of health and peace,' I journeyed 

 homewards to join my father; and I spent a year with him, ' Gaudens 

 eqids cdnibusque et aprici gramme campi? He was well described by 

 the Roman poet : 



' Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis, 



Ut prisca gens mortalium, 

 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis 

 Solutus omni foenore.' 



He had been a noted hunter in his early days ; and, as he still loved 

 in his heart to hear the mellow tones of the fox-hound, he introduced 

 me particularly to Lord Darlington, whose elegant seat on horseback, 

 and cool intrepidity in charging fences, made him the admiration of 

 his surrounding company." 



Fox-hunting was Waterton's delight, and he soon became pre- 

 eminent among the celebrated horsemen of Yorkshire, and wa3 

 esteemed the best rider in the hunt next to Lord Darlington. When 

 an old man, he used sometimes to tell stories of his hunting-days to 

 young fox-hunters, and always listened with pleasure to the account 

 of a good run. One adventure had a most happy result. There 



