MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



CHAPTEE I. 



BOYHOOD. 



William Henry Hakvey was descended from a Quaker family 

 of Youghal. His father, Joseph Massey Harvey, was the eldest 

 of five brothers, two of whom became merchants in Cork. 

 Joseph settled in Limerick, where he married Kebecca, the 

 eldest daughter of Thomas Mark of that city, and became one 

 of its principal merchants. His residence was Summerville, a 

 country-house prettily situated on the banks of the Shannon. 

 There, in the February of 1811, William Henry was born ; and, 

 when indulging in visions of foreign travel, he used often play- 

 fully to allude to the great comet of this year, as the star of his 

 destiny. He was by several years the youngest of eleven children, 

 and thus naturally became a great pet. Yet, being the solitary 

 baby of the household, his infancy and childhood were more 

 lonely than is usual in so large a family. His only playmates 

 were the son and daughter of Mrs. J. Fennell, his mother's 

 widowed sister, who then resided in the city of Limerick, but 

 who afterwards formed part of the family at Summerville. 



His early love of botany he attributed to the companionship 

 of an old gentlewoman, an intimate friend of his mother, whose 

 delight was to carry him to the garden, and teach him the 

 names of the beautiful flowers with which it abounded. 



In few instances can it be more truly said that " the child is 

 father to the man ;" for the boyhood of few men presents a 

 greater number of those traits which in riper years formed the 

 charm of his character. 



