Page:A Sketch of the Characters of Sir John Patteson and Sir John Coleridge.djvu/5

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WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF "NOBODY'S FRIENDS."

N the lives and characters of our last two Presidents, there is for the most part so close a resemblance, and except at the time of their earliest education, they moved so much in the same sphere, that they might almost be likened to twin stars in the same constellation.

They were born in the same year at the latter end of the last century, and after receiving their first education in the place of their birth, the one at Coney Weston, under his father's curate and friend, the Rev. M. Merest, the other at Ottery St. Mary's, under his uncle, the Rev. George Coleridge, they went to Eton at the commencement of this century; where they contracted a lasting friendship for each other, which ripened afterwards into a nearer and dearer relationship. During their Eton youth there was manifested in each of them that self-reliance, manly spirit and thoughtful intelligence, which marked their career to the end of their lives: and so

At Eton Patteson obtained among his schoolfellows the sobriquet of Old Patteson; and while he was known to the masters as a good boy in school, he was known also to his