repute in the west of Cornwall, and is said to have planned and erected the mansion of Trelissick, near Truro, at present the property and residence of Thomas Daniel, Esq.

His son, the parent of the illustrious subject of our history, was sent to London, and apprenticed to a carver in wood, but, on the death of his father, who, although originally a younger son, had latterly become the representative of the family, he found himself in the possession of a patrimony amply competent for the supply of his limited desires, and therefore pursued his art rather as an object of amusement than one of necessity in the town and neighbourhood of Penzance, however, there remain many specimens of his skill; and I have myself seen several chimney-pieces curiously embellished by his chisel.*

I am not able to discover that he was remarkable for any peculiarity of intellect; he passed through life without bustle, and quitted it with the usual regrets of friends and relatives. The habits, however, generally imputed to him were certainly not such as would have induced us to anticipate a high degree of steadiness in the son.

His wife, whose maiden name was Grace Millett, was remarkable for the placidity of her temper, and for the amiable and benevolent tendency of her disposition: she had been adopted and brought up, together with her two sisters, under circumstances of affecting interest, by Mr. John Tonkin, an eminent surgeon and apothecary in Penzance; a person of very considerable natural endowments, and whose Socratic sayings are, to this day, proverbial with many of the older inhabitants.

To withhold a narrative of the circumstances that led Mr. Tonkin to the adoption of these orphan children, would be a species of historical fraud and literary injustice, by which the world would not only lose one of those bright examples of pure and disinterested benevolence, which cheer the heart and ornament our nature, but the medical profession would be deprived of an additional claim to that public veneration and regard, to which the kind sympathy of its professors has so universally entitled it.

* Soon after the days of Gibbons, the art of ornamental carving in wood began to decay, and it may now be considered as nearly lost. Its decline may be attributed to two causes. In the first place, to the change of taste in fitting up the interior of our mansions; and in the next, to the introduction of composition for the enrichment of picture-frames and other objects of ornament. "Robert Davy," says a correspondent, "has been considered in this neighbourhood as the LAST OF THE CARVERS, and from his small size, was generally called The little Carver.

The parents of these children, having been attacked by a fatal fever, expired within a few hours of each other: the dying agonies of the surviving mother were sharpened by her reflecting on the forlorn condition in which her children would be left; for, although the Milletts were originally aristocratic and wealthy, the property had undergone so many subdivisions, as to have left but a very slender provision for the member of the family to whom she had united herself.

The affecting appeal which Mrs. Millett is said to have addressed to her sympathising friend, and medical attendant, was not made in vain: on her decease, Mr. Tonkin immediately removed the three children to his own house, and there they continued with their kind benefactor, until each, in succession, found a home by marriage.

The eldest sister, Jane, was married to Henry Sampson, a respectable watchmaker at Penzance; the youngest, Elizabeth, to her cousin, Leonard Millett of Marazion; neither of whom had any family. The second sister, Grace, was married to Robert Davy, from which union sprang five children, two boys and three girls, the eldest being Humphry, the subject of our memoir, and the second son, John, now Dr. Davy, a Surgeon to the Forces, and a gentleman distinguished by several papers in the Philosophical Trans

actions.

Humphry Davy was nursed by his mother, and passed his infancy with his parents; but his childhood, after they had removed from Penzance to reside on their estate at Varfell, was spent partly with them and partly with Mr. John Tonkin, who extended his disinterested kindness from the mother to all her children, but more especially to Humphry, who is said, when a child, to have exhibited powers of mind superior to his years. I have spared no pains in collecting materials for the illustration of the earlier periods of his history; as, to estimate the magnitude of an object, we must measure the base with accuracy, in order to comprehend the elevation of its summit.

He was first placed at a preparatory seminary kept by a Mr. Bushell, who was so struck with the progress he made, that he urged his father to remove him to a superior school.

It is a fact worthy, perhaps, of being recorded, that he would at the age of about five years turn over the pages of a book as rapidly as if he were

For these materials I acknowledge myself indebted to Dr. Penneck of Penzance, and to Mrs. Millett, Sir H. Davy's sister. The facts were communicated in letters to Lady Davy, by whom they were kindly placed at my disposal.

merely engaged in counting the number of leaves, or in hunting after pictures; and yet, on being questioned, he could generally give a very satisfactory account of the contents. I have been informed by Lady Davy that the same faculty was retained by him through life, and that she has often been astonished, beyond the power of expression, at the rapidity with which he read a work, and the accuracy with which he remembered it. Mr. Children has also communicated to me an anecdote, which may be related in illustration of the same quality. Shortly after Dr. Murray had published his system of chemistry, Davy accompanied Mr. Children in an excursion to Tonbridge, and the new work was placed in the carriage. During the occasional intervals in which their conversation was suspended, Davy was seen turning over the leaves of the book, but his companion did not believe it possible that he could have made himself acquainted with any part of its contents, until at the close of the journey he surprised him with a critical opinion of its merits.

The book that engaged his earliest attention was "The Pilgrim's Progress," a production well calculated, from the exuberance of its invention, and the rich colouring of its fancy, for seizing upon the ardent imagination of youth. This pleasing work, it will be remembered, was the early and especial favourite of Dr. Franklin, who never alluded to it but with feelings of the most lively delight.

Shortly afterwards, he commenced reading history, particularly that of England; and at the age of eight years he would, as if impressed with the powers of oratory, collect together a number of boys in a circle, and mounting a cart or carriage that might be standing before the inn near Mr. Tonkin's house, harangue them on different subjects, and offer such comments as his own ideas might suggest.

He was, moreover, at this age, a great lover of the marvellous, and amused himself and his schoolfellows by composing stories of romance and tales of chivalry, with all the fluency of an Italian improvisatore; and joyfully would he have issued forth, armed cap-à-pié, in search of adventures, and to free the world of dragons and giants.

In this early fondness for fiction, and in the habit of exercising his ingenuity in creating imagery for the gratification of his fancy, Davy and Sir Walter Scott greatly resembled each other. The Author of Waverley, in his general preface to the late edition of his novels, has given us the following account of this talent. "I must refer to a very early period of my life, were

I to point out my first achievement as a tale-teller; but I believe most of my old schoolfellows can still bear witness that I had a distinguished character for that talent, at a time when the applause of my companions was my recompense for the disgraces and punishments which the future romancewriter incurred for being idle himself, and keeping others idle, during hours that should have been employed on our tasks." Had not Davy's talents been diverted into other channels, who can say that we might not have received from his inventive pen a series of romantic tales, as beautifully illustrative of the early history of his native county as are the Waverley Novels of that of Scotland? for Cornwall is by no means deficient in elfin sprites and busy "piskeys" the invocation is alone required to summon them from their dark recesses and mystic abodes.

Davy was also in the frequent habit of writing verses and ballads; of making fireworks, and of preparing a particular detonating composition, to which he gave the name of "Thunder-powder," and which he would explode on a stone to the great wonder and delight of his young playfellows.

Another of his favourite amusements may also be recorded in this place; for, however trifling in itself the incident may appear, to the biographer it is full of interest, as tending to show the early existence of that passion for experiment, which afterwards rose so nobly in its aims and objects, as the mind expanded with the advancement of his years. It consisted in scooping out the inside of a turnip, placing a lighted candle in the cavity, and then exhibiting it as a lamp; by the aid of which he would melt fragments of tin, obtained from the metallic blocks which commonly lie about the streets of a coinage town, and demand from his companions a certain number of pins for the privilege of witnessing the operation.

At an early age, but I am unable to ascertain the exact period, he was placed at the Grammar School in Penzance, under the Rev. J. C. Coryton ; and whilst his father resided at Varfell, he lived with Mr. Tonkin, except during the holidays, which he always spent with his parents.

He was extremely fond of fishing; and as soon as he became old enough to carry a gun, a portion of his leisure hours was passed in the recreation of shooting; a pursuit which also enabled him to form a collection of the rare birds which occasionally frequented the neighbourhood, and which he is said to have stuffed with more than ordinary skill.

When at home, he frequently amused himself with reading and sketching, and sometimes with caricaturing any thing which struck his fancy; on some

occasions he would shut himself up in his room, arrange the chairs, and lecture to them by the hour together.

I have been informed by one of his schoolfellows, a gentleman now highly distinguished for his literary attainments, that, in addition to the amusements already noticed, he was very fond of playing at " Tournament," fabricating shields and visors of pasteboard, and lances of wood, to which he gave the appearance of steel by means of black-lead. Thus equipped, the juvenile combatants, like Ascanius and the Trojan youths of classic recollection, would tilt at each other, and perform a variety of warlike evolutions.

By this anecdote we are forcibly reminded of the early taste of Sir William Jones, who, when a boy at Harrow School, invented a political play, in which William Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, and the celebrated Dr. Parr, were his principal associates. They divided the fields in the neighbourhood of Harrow, according to a map of Greece, into states and kingdoms; each fixed upon one as his dominion, and assumed an ancient name. Some of their schoolfellows consented to be styled Barbarians, who were to invade their territories and attack their hillocks, which they denominated fortresses. *

On one occasion, Davy got up a Pantomime; and I have very unexpectedly obtained a fly-leaf, torn out of a Schrevelius' Lexicon, on which the Dramatis Persona, as well as the names of the young actors, were registered, as originally cast. This document appears so interesting, that I have thought it right to preserve it on record.

The performers, who, I believe, with one exception, are all living, will perhaps find some amusement in examining how far their future characters were

* Life of Sir William Jones, by Lord Teignmouth.

+ Here, as Mrs. Ratcliffe would say, the Legend isso effaced by damp and time, as to be wholly illegible.