I] MY RELATIVES AND ANCESTORS 3 



my father's birth at Hanworth, it is probable that his parents 

 had left the place and gone to live either at Laleham or in 

 London. 



How or why my grandfather came to live at Hanworth 

 (probably with his brother George, who is also buried at 

 Laleham), I can only conjecture from the following facts. 

 Baron Vere of Hanworth is one of the titles of the Dukes of 

 St. Albans since 1750, when Vere Beauclerc, third son of the 

 first Duke, was created Baron, and his son became fifth Duke 

 of St. Albans in 1787. It is to be presumed that the village 

 and a good deal of the land was at that time the property of 

 this family, though they appear to have parted with it not 

 long afterwards, as a Mr. Perkins owned the park and re- 

 built the church in 18 12. The St. Albans family have a tomb 

 in the church. Now, my father's name was Thomas Vere 

 Wallace, and it therefore seems probable that his father was 

 a tenant of the first Baron Vere, and in his will he is styled 

 " Victualler." He probably kept the inn on the estate. 



The only further scrap of information as to my father's 

 family is derived from a remark he once made in my hearing, 

 that his uncles at Stirling (I think he said) were very tall 

 men. I myself was six feet when I was sixteen, and my 

 eldest brother William was an inch taller, while my brother 

 John and sister Fanny were both rather tall. My father and 

 mother, however, were under rather than over middle height, 

 and the remark about his tall uncles was to account for this 

 abnormal height by showing that it was in the family. As 

 all the Wallaces of Scotland are held to be various branches 

 of the one family of the hero Sir William Wallace, we have 

 always considered ourselves to be descended from that famous 

 stock ; and this view is supported by the fact that our family 

 crest was said to be an ostrich's head with a horseshoe in its 

 mouth, and this crest belongs, according to Burke's " Peerage," 

 to Craigie- Wallace, one of the branches of the patriot's family. 



Of my mother's family I have somewhat fuller details, 

 though not going any further back. Her father was John 



