like her. When he was a colonel, and had been through
the wars and at court, he still believed she was 'a match
for all the beauties.' He was not lucky enough to take
after her in looks, except in her one weak feature, a
cutaway chin. His body, indeed, seems to have been made
up of the bad points of both parents: he had his rheumatism
from his father. But his spirit was made up of all their
good points; and no braver ever lived in any healthy body
than in his own sickly, lanky six foot three.

Wolfe's parents went to live at Westerham in Kent shortly
after they were married; and there, on January 2, 1727,
in the vicarage--where Mrs Wolfe was staying while her
husband was away on duty with his regiment--the victor
of Quebec was born. Two other houses in the little country
town of Westerham are full of memories of Wolfe. One of
these was his father's, a house more than two hundred
years old when he was born. It was built in the reign of
Henry VII, and the loyal subject who built it had the
king's coat of arms carved over the big stone fireplace.
Here Wolfe and his younger brother Edward used to sit in
the winter evenings with their mother, while their veteran
father told them the story of his long campaigns. So,
curiously enough, it appears that Wolfe, the soldier who
won Canada for England in 1759, sat under the arms of
the king in whose service the sailor Cabot hoisted the
flag of England over Canadian soil in 1497. This house
has been called Quebec House ever since the victory in
1759. The other house is Squerryes Court, belonging then
and now to the Warde family, the Wolfes' closest friends.