h, and subsequently an able magistrate, a benevolent
landlord, and a benefactor to many charities and public institutions in
this neighbourhood and county," with one of the most handsome funerals
that had been seen since Sir Roger Clavering was buried here, the clerk
said, in the abbey church of Clavering St. Mary's. A fair marble
slab, from which the above inscription is copied, was erected over the
Fairoaks' pew in the church. On it you may see the Pendennis coat of
arms, and crest, an eagle looking towards the sun, with the motto 'nec
tenui penna,' to the present day. Doctor Portman alluded to the deceased
most handsomely and affectingly, as "our dear departed friend," in his
sermon next Sunday; and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead.

CHAPTER III. In which Pendennis appears as a very young Man indeed

Arthur was about sixteen years old, we have said, when he began to
reign; in person (for I see that the artist who is to illustrate this
book, and who makes sad work of the likeness, will never be able to take
my friend off) he had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma
styled a neat little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour,
which looks like gold in the sunshine, his face was round, rosy,
freckled, and good-humoured, his whiskers (when those facial ornaments
for which he sighed so ardently were awarded to him by nature) were
decidedly of a reddish hue; in fact, without being a beauty, he had such
a frank, good-natured kind face, and laughed so merrily at you out of
his honest blue eyes, that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the
pride of the whole county. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen he
rose from five feet six to five feet eight inches in height, at which
altitude he paused. But his mother wondered at it. He was three inches
taller than his father. Was it possible that any man could grow to be
three inches taller than Mr. Pendennis?

You may be certain he never went back to school; the discipline of the
establishment did not suit him, and he liked being at home much better.
The question of his return was debated, and his uncle was for his
going back. The Doctor wrote his opinion that it was most important
for Arthur's success in after-life that he should know a Greek play
thoroughly, but Pen adroitly managed to hint to his mother what a
dangerous place Greyfriars was, and what sad wild fellows some of the
chaps there were, and the timid soul, taking alarm at once, acc