Thus I went on, taking my swing in such vain courses as were
accounted harmless recreations, entertaining my companions and
familiar acquaintance with pleasant discourses in our conversations,
by the mere force of mother-wit and natural parts, without the help
of school cultivation; and was accounted good company too.
But I always sorted myself with persons of ingenuity, temperance,
and sobriety; for I loathed scurrilities in conversation, and had a
natural aversion to immoderate drinking. So that in the time of my
greatest vanity I was preserved from profaneness and the grosser
evils of the world, which rendered me acceptable to persons of the
best note in that country then. I often waited on the Lord Wenman
at his house, Thame Park, about two miles from Crowell, where I
lived; to whose favour I held myself entitled in a twofold respect,
both as my mother was nearly related to his lady, and as he had been
pleased to bestow his name upon me, when he made large promises for
me at the font. He was a person of great honour and virtue, and
always gave me a kind reception at his table, how often soever I
came.
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