Page:History of Paul Jones.pdf/3



T extraordinary character, who kept the coasts of the United Kingdom in a constant state of alarm for a considerable time, was born on the estate of Lord Selkirk, near Kirkcudbright, in Scotland, about the year 1728. His father's name was Paul, a steady methodical Scotchman, who was head gardener to Lord Selkirk, to whom young Paul acted as assistant in the same establishment, as will appear from the following story recorded of the father and the son:—

In the gardens there were two summer-houses alike. One day Lord Selkirk, in his walks, observed a man locked up in one of the summer-houses, and looking out of the window. In the other young Paul appeared, looking out of the corresponding window, which induced his lordship to enquire of the gardener why those lads were confined; to which the gardener replied, "My lord, I caught the rascal stealing your lordship's fruit." "But," says his lordship, "there are two of them; what has your son done: is he also guilty?" Old Paul cooly replied, "Oh no, please your lordship, I just put him in for the sake of symmetry.' In this service he continued for some years, but at length being detected in certain knavish tricks, which would have entitled him to a situation in the summer-house, or some closer place of confinement, on other grounds than those of symmetry, he