Tazewell as the bequest of his friend John Wickham, an extract
from the will having been pasted on the fly-leaf of the first volume.
As soon as the visitor fixed his eyes on Mr. Tazewell all else was
forgotten. He was without exception in middle life the most imposing,
and in old age the most venerable person I ever beheld. His height
exceeded six feet; and until recently, whether sitting or standing, he
was commonly erect, and always when in full flow. His head and chest
were on a large scale, and his vast blue eye, which always seemed to
gaze afar, was aptly termed by Wirt an "eye of ocean." In early youth he
was uncommonly handsome. In middle life he was very thin though lithe
and strong, with a face the outline of which is very like that of Lord
Mansfield. But for the last thirty-five years, the period during which I
have been familiar with his person, all those traces of early beauty
which had marked his youthful face, and which in middle life may be seen
in the portrait of Thompson, had disappeared, and he was altogether on
a more developed scale. His stature had become large, his features were
massive, his silver hair fell in ringlets about his neck, and his
bearing was grave, and with strangers, until the ice was broken, almost
stern; and he appeared with a majesty which filled the most careless
spectator with veneration and awe.
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