if you asked him when such an
event took place, he would reply, so many years or months after such a
naval engagement or remarkable occurrence; as, for instance, when I one
day inquired how many years he had served the King, he responded, "I
came into the sarvice a little afore the battle of Bunker's Hill, in
which we licked the Americans clean out of Boston." [I have since heard
a different version of the result of this battle.] As for Anno Domini,
he had no notion of it whatever.

Who my grandfather was, I cannot inform the reader, nor is it, perhaps,
of much consequence. My father was a man who invariably looked forward,
and hated anything like retrospection: he never mentioned either his
father or his mother; perhaps he was not personally acquainted with
them. All I could collect from him at intervals was, that he served in
a collier from South Shields, and that a few months after his
apprenticeship was out, he found himself one fine morning on board of a
man-of-war, having been picked up in a state of unconsciousness, and
hoisted up the side without his knowledge or consent. Some people may
infer from this, that he was at the time tipsy; he never told me so; all
he said was, "Why, Jack, the fact is when they picked me up I was quite
altogether _non pompus_." I also collected at various times the
following facts,--that he was put into the mizen-top, and served three
years in the West Indies; that he was transferred to the main-top, and
served five years in the Mediterranean; that he was made captain of the
foretop, and sailed six years in the East Indies; and, at last, was
rated captain's coxswain in the Druid frigate, attached to the Channel
fleet cruising during the peace. Having thus condensed the genealogical
and chronological part of this history, I now come to a portion of it in
which it will be necessary that I should enter more into detail.

The frigate in which my father eventually served as captain's coxswain
was commanded by a Sir Hercules Hawkingtrefylyan, Baronet. He was very
poor and very proud, for baronets were not so common in those days. He
was a very large man, standing six feet high, and with what is termed a
considerable _bow-window_ in front; but at the same time portly in his
carriage. He wore his hair well powdered, exacted the utmost degree of
ceremony and respect, and considered that even speaking to one of his
officers was paying them a very high compliment: as for being asked to