LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



of old age, I should quote Dryden's translation of the description 

 which the Roman poet has given us of Charon : 



* He seemed in years, yet in his years were seen 

 A vernal vigour and autumnal green.' 



In fact, I feel as though I were not more than thirty years old. I 

 am quite free from all rheumatic pains ; and am so supple in the 

 joints that I can climb a tree with the utmost facility. I stand six 

 feet high, all but half an inch. On looking at myself in the glass, I 

 can see at once that my face is anything but comely : continual ex- 

 posure to the sun, and to the rains of the tropics, has furrowed it in 

 places, and given it a tint which neither Rowland's Kalydor nor all 

 the cosmetics on Belinda's toilette would ever be able to remove. My 

 hair, which I wear very short, was once of a shade betwixt brown 

 and black : it has now the appearance as though it had passed the 

 night exposed to a November hoar-frost. I cannot boast of any great 

 strength of arm ; but my legs, probably by much walking, and by 

 frequently ascending trees, have acquired vast muscular power ; so 

 that, on taking a view of me from top to toe, you would say that 

 the upper part of Tithonus has been placed upon the lower part 

 of Ajax. Or to speak zoologically, were I exhibited for show at a 

 horse-fair, some learned jockey would exclaim, He is half Rosinante, 

 half Bucephalus. 



" I have preferred to give this short description of myself by the 

 pen, rather than to have a drawing taken by the pencil, as I have a 

 great repugnance to sit to an artist ; although I once did sit to the 

 late Mr Peale of Philadelphia, and he kept my portrait for his 

 museum. Moreover, by giving this description of myself, it will 

 prevent all chance in future of the nondescript's* portrait in the 

 * Wanderings ' being taken for my own.t 



* " A late worthy Baronet in the North Riding of Yorkshire, having taken up the 

 'Wanderings,' and examined the representation of the nondescript with minute 

 attention, '.Dear me ! ' said he, as he showed the engraving to his surrounding 

 company, ' what a very extraordinary-looking man Mr Waterton must be ! '" 



t Since his death two busts of Waterton have been executed, one by Mr Water- 

 house Hawkins, the other by Mr Henry Ross. The former represents him in a 

 coat and buttoned-up waistcoat, a fashion which he never adopted. It gives a 

 true idea of the general aspect of his head and the shape of his forehead, but the. 



