MY BIRTH-PLACE. KENSINGTON COTTAGE, USK

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, HERTFORD

(From an engraving in Turner's "History." 1830)

THE BEACONS (Looking south)

(From a photograph by Mr. Symonds Neale) PLAN OF SUMMIT OF BEACONS (Looking north) . SECTION THROUGH SUMMITS OF BEACONS

OUR ECCENTRIC NEIGHBOUR AT DEVYNOCK (From a sketch by W. G. Wallace)

"MAEN LLIA," UPPER VALE OF NEATH (From a photograph by Miss Neale)

"WHITTERN"

(An outdoor sketch by W. G. Wallace. 1842)

IN DERBYSHIRE

(From pencil sketch by A. R. Wallace. 1844)

A VILLAGE NEAR LEICESTER.

(Pencil drawing by A. R. Wallace. 1844)

FREE LIBRARY, NEATH

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(Designed by A. R. Wallace. 1847)

YSGWD GLADYS, VALE OF NEATH.

PORTH-YR-OGOF, VALE OF NEATH

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MY LIFE

A RECORD OF EVENTS AND OPINIONS

CHAPTER I

MY RELATIVES AND ANCESTORS

OUR family had but few relations, and I myself never saw a grandfather or grandmother, nor a true uncle, and but one aunt -my mother's only sister. The only cousins we ever had, so far as I know, were that sister's family of eight or nine, all but two of whom emigrated to South Australia in 1838. Of the two who remained in England, the daughter had married Mr. Burningham, and had only one child, a daughter, who has never married. The son, the Rev. Percy Wilson, had a family, none of whom, however, I have ever met, though I have recently had a visit from a son of another cousin, Algernon, with whom I had a considerable correspondence.

My father was practically an only son, an elder boy dying when three months old; and as his father died when he was a boy of twelve, and his mother when he was an infant, he had not much opportunity of hearing about the family history. I myself left home before I was fourteen, and only rarely visited my parents for short holidays, except once during my recovery from a dangerous illness, so that I also had little opportunity of learning anything of our ancestors on the paternal side, more especially as my father seldom spoke of his youth, and I as a boy felt no interest in his genealogy. Neither did my eldest brother William-with whom I lived

VOL. I.

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till I was of age-ever speak on the subject. The little I have gleaned was from my sister Fanny and from a recent examination of tombstones and parish registers, and especially from an old Prayer-book (1723) which belonged to my grandfather Wallace, who had registered in it the dates of the births and baptisms of his two sons, while my father had continued the register to include his own family of nine children, of whom I am the only survivor.

My paternal grandfather was married at Hanworth, Middlesex, in 1765, and the parish register describes him as William Wallace, of Hanworth, bachelor, and his wife as Elizabeth Dilke, of Laleham, widow. Both are buried in Laleham churchyard, where I presume the former Mrs. Dilke had some family burial rights, as my grandfather's brother, George Wallace, is also buried there. The register at Hanworth contains no record of my father's birth, but the church itself shows that quite a small colony of Wallaces lived at Hanworth. On a long stone in the floor of the chancel is the name of JAMES WALLACE, ESQ., who died February 7, 1778, aged 87 years. He was therefore thirty-five years older than my grandfather, and may have been his uncle. Then follows ADMIRAL SIR JAMES WALLACE, who died on March 6, 1803, aged 69 years; and FRANCES SLEIGH, daughter of the above JAMES WALLACE, ESQ., who died December 12, 1820, aged 69 years.

Also, on a small stone in the floor of the nave, just outside the chancel, we find MARY WALLACE, who died December 5. 1812, aged 39 years. She may, therefore, not improbably have been a daughter, or perhaps niece, of the admiral.

Here, then, we have four Wallaces buried in the same church as that in which my grandfather was married, and of which place he was a resident at the time. As Hanworth is a very small place, the total population of the parish being only 750 in 1840, it is hardly probable that my grandfather and the others met there accidentally. I conclude, therefore, that James Wallace was probably an uncle or cousin, and that all were in some way related. As there is no record of