Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/9

Rh The eldest of the sons was John Landon, the father of L. E. L. For him, perhaps, the quiet and unvarying life of a country clergyman would have possessed few charms, even had the fortune of his father and grandfather, the gift of a living, awaited him at the outset of life. At an early age his active and enterprising disposition seemed to point to the sea as the profession best suited to his tastes, and, while yet very young, to sea he went. Of two voyages that he made, the first was to the south coast of Africa—to that country on whose western shores, in after years, a being, who employed to the most virtuous ends, and with generous devotion, the life she drew from him, was destined to find a grave. Thence the young voyager returned in safety; and, with the same promises of success in his career, he sailed subsequently to Jamaica. But the death of his friend and patron, Admiral Bowyer, cast (it may be supposed) a cloud over his sea-prospects, and blighted the hopes that had sprung out of his adoption of a naval profession. In the meantime his brother, Whittington (the second of the sons of the Rev. John Landon), had made rapid advancement at Oxford. Acquiring the favour and patronage of the Duke of Portland, his career at Worcester college, of which he was Provost for more than thirty years, was accompanied by distinguished fortune in the church, and his course of prosperity was crowned in due season by his appointment to the valuable deanery of Exeter, which he held until his recent decease, in January, 1839. Through the influential connections of the younger brother, better prospects at home were opened to the elder; and at length, through the means of a mutual friend, Mr.