more than once with the powerful family of

Berkeley.

It may be necessary now for me to say something more of my own parents. My mother was of the sweetest temper possible-kind to a fault; and, though avoiding evil herself, and entertaining the strictest notions of propriety, still even a single word of severity gave her amiable nature so much pain, that she would rather appear not to observe an error, than have the task of correcting it: and thus, in the absence of my father, I was too much permitted to follow the bent of my natural inclinations.

My mother was of a family of long standing in the county of Somerset, also, but my father could not boast of his ancestral relations; though, from his quiet, easy and unassuming disposition, high character for integrity, and profound legal knowledge (a wisdom in those times often in request, though as constantly infringed), he was happy in the opinion of his neighbours; was often tolerated in the pri

vate society of the nobles, and always a welcome guest at Berkeley Castle.

My father and Mr. Mead had, since their youth, been on terms of intimacy, and had been thrown much together; and though they had married two sisters, who were supposed to be much alike, not only in appearance but in disposition, still I should say, that no two men ever so little resembled each other, in the component parts of their understandings and inclinations; and no two men ever differed more in the way in which they proposed to arrive at the ends they had in view. The one endeavouring to force a passage on a difficult, but still public, highway, while the other contented himself with moving along the circuitous but less irksome path of the more open fields. Each had achieved a competency; one had arrived at it by brilliant and successful speculations in trade, while the other was met on his quiet but sure path by an unexpected behest of fortune. The success of the one, or the gain of the other, changed not the frame of mind of either; but the same intimacy, which had first

arisen, and then been fed by their relative situations at the onset of life, remained unaltered till the day of their death.

The first few years of my cousin's introduction to our house flew like moments, in that quiet state of ease and happiness which is so frequently the forerunner of a stormy life; as you often see the calmest sunniest day fade before the tempest as the night approaches. All that I knew during these happy hours was, that I had a laughing playmate and a pretty child to keep me company, and my only anxiety, that she should not weep for any thing in my power to bestow.

Methinks I see her now sitting by my side, beneath the ruins on the Aust Cliff, gazing alternately upon the bold expanse of the Severn sea, and anon at the excited expression of my boyish countenance, as I recounted to her the stirring scenes I had heard my father speak of, and the different battles of the Roses that had been, and were still, vexing the heart of my native land. I believe it was my father's intention to have brought

me up to the same profession as himself; but I well remember the impression that an armed retainer, bearing the badge of Berkeley on his breast, who had been sent with a despatch to our house, made upon me, and the smile which he gave me when I asked if that iron man was a lawyer. Suffice it to say, that for the future, when any one asked me what I would be when grown to manhood, my never-varying reply was-" A man at arms.”

After the armed apparition I have mentioned, my martial propensities gained strength every moment, and I knew by heart the position and numbers of the opposing troops, on either side, that had engaged in every battle within or about the time of my own existence. I could tell the story, from first to last, how the Duke of Suffolk, when sentenced to a five years' banishment, was overtaken by his enemies near Dover, after his embarkation from Ipswich, and beheaded on the gunwale of a long-boat. And how John Cade, alias Mortimer, after he had seized and publicly murdered Lord Say, was, through the instrumen

tality of the Archbishop of Canterbury, forced to fly and live in the Wolds of Kent, until slain by Alexander Eden, afterwards governor of Dover Castle. The first battle of St. Alban's, which happened when I was five years old, where the Duke of Somerset lost his life, and our King was slightly wounded (it was always the fashion to speak of the ministers of this monarch first), was also one of my favourite themes.

In short, for many an hour, in paroxysms of delight have I dwelt on these warlike passages, and terrified my gentle cousin with my sanguinary inclinations; and thus, from year to year, time sped imperceptibly away, with scarcely a ruffle on the smooth surface of our lives, till my martial lore received a fresh importation of matter, in the account of the Battle of Blore Heath. It was in the month. of September, 1459, (being then in my tenth year,) that I was told Lord Salisbury had defeated Lord Audley on the borders of Staffordshire; and Sir Andrew Trollop had deserted to the King; the Duke of York and the stout Lord Warwick flying,