MEMOIR OF THE REV. THOMAS LLOYD, M.A. THE subject of the present Memoir was the eldest son of the Reverend John Lloyd, who was, during the long period of more than fifty years, Rector of Thorpe, in Derbyshire, so celebrated for that picturesque and romantic vale, called Dove-dale. He had also a living in Montgomeryshire, of which he was the Incumbent about forty years, but he did not reside on either of his rectories, as there was no parsonage-house fit for the accommodation of his family. He lived at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, of which populous and extensive parish he was Curate under Dr. Shipley, the late Dean of St. Asaph, and father-in-law of Bishop Heber, whose sudden death excited throughout the kingdom such just and general lamentation. Owing to the vast dimensions of its magnificent church, and the heavy pressure of parochial B duty, he was obliged, though he had the aid of a regular assistant, to relinquish it, after a residence of twenty years, during which period he was much esteemed and beloved both in the town and its highly respectable neighbourhood. He withdrew to the village of Hope, which was more in the vicinity of Chester, and of the circle of his relatives and friends, and continued to discharge the less laborious duties of this more retired sphere to the evening of his days. My brother was brought up in the grammarschool of Wrexham, under the tuition of the Reverend Mr. Davies, who was a sound grammatical scholar, and grounded his pupils well in the elementary principles of education. At this distant period of our lives, I can recall to mind nothing of peculiar moment,-no events at least worthy of being recorded. There are, indeed, reminiscences which awaken in my own breast images of many former delightful scenes, over which my imagination loves to expatiate. For who can look through a long period of revolving years, to his early and comparatively cloudless days, when the animal spirits were in lively exercise, and hope gilded his future prospects in the most glowing colours, without a combination of deep, various, and interesting feelings-feelings which recall from the silence of oblivion numberless incidents, bringing us into contact with our former selves,-identifying our present with our past existence? In such retrospective views we take a melancholy sort of pleasure, and are reluctantly constrained to own that our juvenile anticipations have been sadly disappointed, that the bright illusions of hope have long since been dissolved under the gloomy vicissitudes of life, and more especially under the blighting influence of that selfishness which chills the best sensibilities of our nature, and renders man so often the enemy of man. During even this early period of my brother's life, he was characterized by a mild and placid disposition, whilst he was, at the same time, of a very cheerful temper, and fond of all those sports and amusements appropriate to his age. But his juvenile spirits never overflowed with a thoughtless levity that betrayed him into any reprehensible irregularities. He was constitutionally inclined to be of a reflective turn, and manifested a laudable desire of cultivating his natural endowments. As they were of no ordinary cast, they soon developed themselves in the superior merit of his scholastic exercises, which obtained for him a high place in the estimation of his master and schoolfellows. When he arrived at his thirteenth year, he was removed to Eton. The late period of his admission into this celebrated seminary clouded his prospect of succeeding to a Fellowship at King's College, Cambridge, as the candidates are superannuated at the age of nineteen; and he had, moreover, to contend with an almost insuperable obstacle, as he had never been accustomed to compose Latin verses, for which this school is so highly distinguished. Notwithstanding this great and unexpected barrier to his advancement, he soon surmounted it, and became, by his own independent exertions, one of the most eminent scholars in the College, and ultimately succeeded to a Fellowship at King's. Owing to the privileges attaching to this society, and being a Fellow elect upon his first admission into it, he was under no obligation or even inducement (except what might originate in his own taste,) to study the mathematics, a science which has a predominant influence in this university. He confined his application chiefly to the lectures and other classical exercises of his own college. He had it in contemplation to stand for an University Scholarship, and began to prepare himself for the examination; but being apprized that a particular friend, who had been his cotemporary at Eton, and was disappointed, by superannuation, of a Fellowship, was among the candidates, he generously relinquished his design, as he did not wish to appear in competition with him. I have |