Excerpt from Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, Bishop of Landaff By this means my children, when I am in my grave, may be gratified with knowing the character of their father; and the world, if it has any curiosity concerning him, will have an opportunity of perusing authentic, if not interesting, Memoirs of the Bishop of Landaff. All families being of equal antiquity, and time and chance so happening to all, that kings become beggars, and beggars become kings; no solid reason, I think, can be given, why any man should derive honour or infamy from the station which his ancestors filled in civil society; yet the contrary opinion is so prevalent, that no words need be employed in proving that it is so.- German and Welch pedigrees are subjects of ridicule to most Englishmen; yet those amongst ourselves who cannot inscribe on the trunk of their genealogical tree the name of a peer, bishop, judge, general, of any person elevated above the rank of ordinary citizens, are still desirous of showing that they are not sprung from the dregs of the people. Without entering into a disquisition concerning the rise of this general prejudice, I freely own that I am, on this occasion, a slave to it myself. I feel a satisfaction in knowing that my ancestors, as far as I can trace them, have neither been hewers of wood, or drawers of water, but ut prisca gens mortalium - tillers of their own ground, in the idiom of the country, Statesmen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.