266 THE HISTORY OF 



"But, since you must have a pedigree, you say, and as 

 you seem anxious to know who / am, I enclose you the fol- 

 lowing, as an accurate account of my own pedigree, which 

 I furnished to a legal gentleman in New York city, some 

 years since,* and which, I presume, will answer your pur- 

 pose as well as any other would ; as I observe, by your 

 polite favor now before me, that you ' want A pedigree.' 

 Please read this carefully, and then inform me (as you 

 promise to do) if you ' can enlighten me further ' ! 

 " Very profoundly yours, 



"G. P. B." 



It will be necessary, in order that my readers may the 

 better appreciate the pedigree that follows (and which I 

 enclosed to my correspondent, as above stated), to inform 

 them that some fifteen years ago, or more, there was a per- 

 son named Burnham, who died in England, leaving no 

 will behind him ; but who wais possessed, at the time of his 

 decease, of an immense fortune, said to amount to several 

 millions of pounds sterling in value. As soon as the intel- 

 ligence reached this country, the Burnhams were greatly 

 elated with their prospects, and meetings of the imaginative 



* This article was originally published in the New York Spirit of 

 the Times, substantially, and was afterwards issued in an edition of my 

 fiigitive literary productions, by Getz & Buck, of Philadelphia, in a vol- 

 ume entitled " Stray Subjects." 



