his regiment as a reading man, and his authority looked up to in all the
disputes as to history and dates, and literary anecdotes, which might
occur at the mess-table. Vernon considered him the most learned man of
his acquaintance; and when, accidentally meeting him in London, he
learned his fallen fortunes, he congratulated himself on a very brilliant
idea when he suggested that Captain Greville should assist him in the
education of his boys and the management of his estate. At first, all
that Greville modestly undertook, with respect to the former, and,
indeed, was expected to do, was to prepare the young gentlemen for Eton,
to which Vernon, with the natural predilection of an Eton man, destined
his sons. But the sickly constitutions of the two elder justified Lady
Mary in her opposition to a public school; and Percival conceived early
so strong an affection for a sailor's life that the father's intentions
were frustrated. The two elder continued their education at home, and
Percival, at an earlier age than usual, went to sea. The last was
fortunate enough to have for his captain one of that new race of naval
officers who, well educated and accomplished, form a notable contrast to
the old heroes of Smollett. Percival, however, had not been long in the
service before the deaths of his two elder brothers, preceded by that of
his father, made him the head of his ancient house, and the sole prop of
his mother's earthly hopes. He conquered with a generous effort the
passion for his noble profession, which service had but confirmed, and
returned home with his fresh, childlike nature uncorrupted, his
constitution strengthened, his lively and impressionable mind braced by
the experience of danger and the habits of duty, and quietly resumed his
reading under Captain Greville, who moved from the Hall to a small house
in the village.

Now, the education he had received, from first to last, was less adapted
prematurely to quicken his intellect and excite his imagination than to