. Speaking of the peculiarities of Pendleton
and Wythe, he said that Pendleton always professed the most profound
respect for British decisions, but rarely followed them; while Wythe,
who spoke disrespectfully of them, almost invariably followed them. But,
on the ground of pure love and affection, Wythe was nearer to Tazewell
than was Pendleton. Wythe was the guide and instructor of his youth, the
old neighbor of his father in Williamsburg; and he always spoke of him
as _Mr._ Wythe, following his father who knew Wythe long before he was a
judge. His reminiscences of Wythe were deeply interesting, sometimes
humorous, sometimes serious, and, in reference to the last illness of
the old patriot, sad in the extreme; and they were always uttered in
that subdued and tender tone which, it grieves me to think, will fall no
more on mortal ears.

The great age attained by Mr. Tazewell makes us curious to know his
modes of life and his habits of study. In youth and early manhood he was
fond of athletic sports and of horsemanship; and he must have possessed
great muscular power. As late as 1802 he accomplished on horseback a
trip of a hundred and odd miles in as short a time as that distance was
ever travelled in Virginia. His form was most symmetrical; and he had
the broad chest and the well-proportioned neck that are so often seen in
those who enjoy a healthful and protracted old age; and that small wrist
and hand that told of his Norman blood. From the time when he became
engrossed in business, it is probable that he rarely took any other
exercise than was inevitable in passing to his various courts; and since
his retirement from the bar, except during his trips to the Eastern
Shore and to Washington and Richmond, he seldom walked more than a few
hundred yards in twenty-four hours. Yet, throughout his career, he
enjoyed fair health, and during the last forty years, when, as man and
boy, I have observed him, he has not had more than one really serious
spell of illness--a pleuritic attack, which he encountered in
Washington. In that interval he has contracted several bilious diseases;
but they soon passed off, and were not thought dangerous. The secret of
his exemption from disease, apart from the healthful structure of his
frame, was the extreme temperance and the regularity of his habits. At
first sight he would seem the most irregular of men, sitting up till two
or three in the morning and rising late; but, in fact, this habit,