BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF SIR HYDE PARKER, BART

Summary

Yes, die by piece-meal,

Leave not a limb o'er which a Dane may triumph.

Now from my foul I joy, I joy, my friends,

To see you fear'd; to see that even your foes

Do justice to your valours! there they be

The powers of kingdoms summ'd in yonder host,

Yet kept aloof, yet trembling to assail you.

Brooke.

Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis. The brave and virtuous man is debased not by his offspring, he views with silent pleasure the noble spirit which he himself inherited from his ancestors, rising with redoubled vigour in his descendants, and gazes in ecstacy, mixed with an honest pride, on their youthful virtues. The long, the gallant services, and the supposed untimely death of the brave but unfortunate parent, are too strongly impressed on the gratitude of Britons not to create the liveliest sensations of regard and affection for the son; the former are too recent and the latter too melancholy, to render any recapitulation of either, necessary in this place.

Sir Hyde being destined by his father for the Navy, as well from the strong inclination, which in the earliest youth he manifested towards a maritime life, as the natural predilection possessed by his parent in favour of a service on which he undoubtedly reflected so much honour, was entered when extremely young on board the Lively frigate, a ship at that time commanded by Capt. Parker, under whom he afterwards served in 1757, in the capacity of midshipman or mate on board the Squirrel.