MEMOIK OF ALFEED SMEE. 



CHAPTEK I. 



1818 TO 1834. 



Alfred Smee bom Jnne 18th, 1818 — Family — ^Xnfancy — Love for fruit — Goes to 

 St. Paul's School — ^His natural power of observation displayed as a boy — 

 P^hts a bully — Other traits in his character as a boy — An adept in climbing 

 trees — Ignorant of all games — Love of animals shown — Dislikes cruelty to 

 dumb creatures. 



AtiT-bed Smee, the subject of this biography, was born on the 

 anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the 18th of June, 1818. 

 He was the second son of William Smee, who held the position of 

 Accountant-General to the Bank of England. The Smee family 

 is deriyed from an ancient English stock. From the time of 

 Charles I. the family was to be found in the county of Suffolk ; 

 previously to the turbulent times of the Civil Wars, they crossed 

 the country from the north. Many curious traditions exist in 

 the family ; but as I am not writing the history of the Smees, 

 but of one of its members only, there is no need here to narrate 

 them. It suffices therefore here to say that my father's great- 

 grandfether was a man of considerable influence and wealth in 

 the county of Suffolk, and was, like the rest of the family, a 

 staunch Tory ; his high character and integrity were known to 

 all around him. He was, as I have heard, on intimate terms with 

 Sir Hans Sloane and with Lord North, and he knew also the 

 renowned Wedgwood. On the tombstone of this ancestor of ours 

 are the significant and laconic words : " An honest man." 



Alfred Smee's father, William Smee, was being educated at 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, when family misfortunes obliged 

 him to leave the University to seek his own livelihood, I have 

 heard my grandfather say how he wept on the bridge at 

 Cambridge at the thought of being obliged to leave that aca- 

 demical town. Had Lord North not been dismissed from office. 



