Cock Langford was the son of the auctioneer--
And there never was an inheritance of qualities like it. He would have
made as good an auctioneer as his father; a better could not bo.
Cock Langford, so called, from the other auctioneer Cock, very early in
the school discovered great talents for ways and means; and, by private
contract, could do business as much and as well as his father.
His exercises were not noted for any excess of merit, or the want of it.
He certainly had parts, if they had been put in their proper direction:
that was trade. In that he might have been conspicuously useful.
As he was in college, and nothing loath in any occasion that led
to notice, in spite of a lisp in his speech, he played Davus in the
Phormio; which he opened with singidar absurdity, as the four first
words terminate in the letter s, which he, from the imperfection in his
speech, could not help mangling.
From the patronage of Lord Orford, Mr. Langford had one of the best
livings in Norfolk, L1000 a year; and afterwards, I understand, very
well exemplified the useful and honourable duties of a clergyman
resident on his benefice.
Hamilton. Every thing is the creature of accident; as that ~81~~works
upon time and place, so are the vicissitudes which follow; vicissitudes
that reach through the whole allotment of man, even to the charm of
character, and the qualities which produce it.
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