Notice of British Naturalists. 147 



a man, a father, and a Christian, (for as such he appears eminent- 

 ly to have fulfilled his duties,) rather than as merely a literary 

 and scientific person ; but unfortunately our materials are very 

 scanty. The chief source from which all the biographies of Pen- 

 nant have been drawn, is a work which was published by him 

 in 1793, under the fanciful idea of writing after his death, ' 7%e 

 Literary Life of the late Thomas Pennant ;' and which con- 

 tains a few circumstances of his private life, and peculiarly shows 

 the bent and tone of his mind. 



He was born in 1726 at Downing, in "Wales. His family was 

 old and respectable, possessing some landed property, and having 

 for some generations held honorable situations under Government. 

 He appears to have been an only child. When properly pre- 

 pared, and at the usual age, he entered Clueen's College, Oxford ; 

 but afterwards he changed to Oriel, and on taking his degree, as- 

 sumed the law gown. He is here described as conspicuous for 

 his general intelligence, and for the progress he made in classical 

 knowledge. But his taste for Natural History was formed at a 

 very early period, and long before he was able to indulge it to the 

 extent which he afterwards did. It is, indeed, not uncommon 

 that those who, when young, have evinced a taste for this sci- 

 ence, neglect it altogether in after life ; their feelings being, in this 

 respect, like those of children pleased with the first sight of a beau- 

 tiful object. It is extremely rare that a person who has neglected 

 this study in youth, becomes fond of it in after years. Pennant 

 says, " a present of the Ornithology of Francis Willoughby, when 

 I was about twelve years of age, by my kinsman, John Salisbury 

 (father of Mrs. Piozzi, known as the Biographer of Dr. Johnson,) 

 first gave me a taste for that study, and incidentally a love for 

 Natural History in general, which I have since pursued with my 

 constitutional ardor." 



. On leaving college he probably returned to his home, and there 

 pursued his studies in the law. In these, however, he never 

 made much progress. His station in life was one which is, per- 

 haps of all others, the least adapted for nourishing common am- 

 bition, or for stirring up a person to diligence in the business of 

 life. It was a saying of the late Lord Eldon, that if a man be 

 desirous of rising to eminence in the legal professon, he should 

 be dependent solely upon his own endeavors for a maintenance. 

 Now the contrary was exactly Pennant's case. He knew that he 



