w h3 H THE STORY OF OUR FAMILY. BY ANNE LANGTON. (PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.) MANCHESTER: THOS. SOWLER & CO., PRINTERS, 24, CANNON STREET. 1881. I' PREFACE. These writings I must dedicate to my Nephews and Nieces, as they were undertaken at thei:.- request. The earlier pages are literally a family record, but as we increased and multiplied, and became scattered, I found it difficult t(3 gather up all the different threads, and consequently my work has very much degenerated into a personal narrative. It is much to be feared that my young relatives will be disappointed with the result of their suggestions ; however, they will excuse an old woman whose powers they have over-estimated. I have inserted some matter extracted from letters from my Father, written when we were travelling on the Con- tinent of Europe, and my Brother John has contributed information and anecdotes connected with our Back- woods life. In one respect I am afraid my performance is very unequal. I have passed over portions of our life in a very hurried way, and at other times havo been too diffuse and recorded very trivial incidents. In short, it is with great diffidence that I make over my manuscript even to the most indulgent. ANNE LANGTON. , June, 1880 THE STORY OF OUR FAMILY. N my little family record I need not go further back than my grandfather ; for if any account of our ancestiy is wanted it may be met with elsewhere. My gi'andfather was the last of his race, or at least of his branch of the family, for I never heard of any living relative of our name, other than those sprung from him, nearer than sixteen degrees of relationship removed. There was an old uncle, the Rev. Zachary Langton, who left no descendants. His work ("An Essay on the Human Rational Soul") is in our library, but I do not think any of us ever got through it. He was the only author of the family — so much for its literary character. My grandfather resided at Kirkham, in Lancashire.* Ho had five sons and one daughter. He left his property to his sons according to seniority, in a gradually diminishing ratio, and my father being the last of them came in for the least share, the one daughter being, I believe, equal with him ; but, being comfortably married, she did not need a great deal. * Note by W. L. — Ho iuherlted property in Preston from his ancestors, and Ash Hall, in Kirkham, through his mother. This he rebuilt. He had also land through his wife. All this went to his eldest son. B Z STOUY OF OUR FAMILV. John, the eldest son, inherited tlie house, and I suppose sufficient to live upon ^'ithout business, for he never entered into any. He left one son and three daughters, but of these none survive, and only the eldest daughter mamed ; she be- came the mother of those of our Birley cousins who still remain at and around Kirkhani. William, the second son, also left one son and three daugh- ters. The son, Joseph, was father to the Langtons, now of Liverpool ; the eldest daughter died early ; the other two were married to two Mr. Earles, of Liverpool. Of Joseph's sons the elder, William, died unmarried ; the second, Charles, though blessed with ten daughters, has but one son. Zachary, the third son, had six children, but his eldest. Skinner, of BaiTow, has long been the only surviving one. The second, Richard, also married but left only one daughter, married to the Rev. Mr. Brancker. Cornelius, the fourth son, was blind from early childhood and died unmarried. Cicely, the only daughter, married Mr. Thomas Hornby, of Kirkham. She had many children — foiu" sons and five daugh- ters lived to grow up ; but of these only one, the Rev. Thomas Honiby, survives. Thomas, the fifth son, was my father, and the three children he left (oue had died in childhood) still live, and these, with S. Z. Langton, of Barrow, and T. Hornby, vicar of Walton, near Liverpool, are the only siurvi^'ors of the generation ; that is, of the grnndchildren of Thomas Langton of Kirkham, and of Jane his wife. This lady was a Miss Leyland, a co-heiress ; her sister was mother to our Feilden connexions. My father was born at Kirkham in 1770. His mother died when he was quite young, so that he had scarcely any remem- brance of her. His sister was ten yeai\s older than himself, so STORY OF OUR FAMILY. that she would partly supply the mother's place. I have not heard many particulars of his childhood ; ho was sent to school in the neighbourhood of Loudon, and at the ago of seventeen went to Russia to learn business in the house of Thorley, Morison, and Co., at Riga, on the understanding that ho was to become a partner on attaining his majority. My father relin- quished a portion of the share promised to him for the sake of a clerk in the house, who was admitted into the partnership at the same time. He continued at Riga until the unsettled state of Europe made the continent a very unsafe residence for Englishmen, and then ho withdrew from business altogether and came home. This must have been about the beginning of the present centu.7, for in 1802 he was married to my mother. She was a daughter of the Rev. William Currer, vicar of Clapham, in Yorkshire. This grandfather was also the last of his race, and the family may be said to be actually extinct, for it is now only represented by one very old lady, my cousin- Mrs. Margerison, of Burnley. My grandfother Currer had mar- ried a Lancashire lady, and through her there was a very large connexion in that county and in the circle of my father's friends. Through her my mother was connected with the Feildens and Hornbys in a degree that had not died out in those early days, and one of her cousins. Miss Starkie, was married to my fether's brother William, so that my parents knew a great deal of each other before they were actually acquainted, and they seem 'to have come to an agreement very soon. The engagement, however, was not a short one, on account of the declining health of my mother's sister, Mrs. Briggs; and when the marriage did take place (April 6th, 1802) it kept them a good deal asunder, for my mother was much with her dying sister. 4 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 1802. My fiitlicr had taken for a residence Farfield, near Bolton Abbey, and there both my brother William and myself first saw the li^dit. He had not wished to separate my mother vei-y far from her remaniing parent, who was very old, and he and his unmarried daughter spent a good deal cf time at Far- field, Clapham being left under the charge of a curate. My gi'andfather died at Farfield at the age of eighty-seven. As my father had grown very fond of the place, and as he had at that time no intention of going into business again, he would gladly have purchased it; but the proprietors would not sell, and Blythc Hall being then in the market he bought it and took up his abode there before I was many months old. I have heard a great deal about the first year we spent there, which must have been one of extreme discomfort. It had belonged to an intimate friend of my uncle William Lang- ton, and out of delicacy there had been no very minute inspec- tion of the house, which was found to be in a most dilapidated condition, full of dry rot and all sorts of decay. Every floor had to be relaid, and my parents had to migrate from one room to another whilst each was being put into habitable order. It seemed an endless and almost hopeless work, but my mother has told me that if one despaired the other would get more hopeful, and so they supported each other ; and finally I must say their success was perfect, for never was there a more com- fortable, fresh-looking house. Those new floors, especially, have left an impression on me as always looking so bright and white. Amongst other troubles the house was oven'uu with rats; whether they were ever quite exterminated I doubt, for I have a recollection of some battling with them ; but one measure resorted to, and I believ: to some extent a successful one, was having a couple of drummers to drum all night long and frighten them from their strongholds. n any other ten years of my life ! Two other children were born there — Tom and John. The former only lived to be six years old ; ho had a long illness, never quite recovering from the whooping cough. As long as I can recollect we spent a part of every summer at Southport, sea bathing being recommended for me, as my childhood was not as vigorous as is my old age. It was a very «■ 1^ p, H '^' STORY OP OUR FAMILY. insignificant place when we first frequented it, but it grew a good deal even in our day. The annual migration was quite an event to us children, and we liked going there very much ; we saw a little more of the world, and sometimes met other children; at home we scarcely saw any. Tliose of the Rev. Mr. Mayoa, almoner at Latham, were absolutely our only play- mates, and they lived at least a mile away ; but we had no other neighbours at less than twice that distance. A visit to Kirkham used to be a great incident, and, with my uncle William's fomily especially, we had a great deal of intercourse. They were often at Blythe, and the numerous nephews and nieces of both my parents were very frequent inmates likewise, but mostly too much our seniors to be com- panions to the children of the family. My brother William and I were taken one journey with our parents into Yorkshire, where we stayed in some half dozen houses with friends and relations. I was only just six years old, but I remember a great many incidents of that journey and of all the families that we visited, and am only a little concerned that I am puzzled in one instance as to the sequence of them. My atten- tion was very much called to this circumstance, when I made a journey through the same country with my nephew and niece. Jack and Marian, the last time that I was in England. Our teachers were altogether my father and mother, ex- cepting that, when we began music, the Ormskirk organist used to come over twice a week, and, for a few months at the last, an emigrant French priest, to instruct us in that language. My father gave me Latin lessons along with my brother, but they were dropped afterwards. I ara afraid I was stupid, as he . came to the conclusion that the feminine intellect was not on a par with the masculine one. He likewise took great pains in initiating us into the mysteiies of grammar, and I am sure I 8 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. could parse better at eight years old than I could now. I re- member thinking it a great hardship that we had not regular holidays as school children had, but we certainly were not overworked. 1813. For one year before we left Blythe my brother William went as a pupil to the clergyman at Kirkham, the only part of his education that was carried on away from home. My fothcr was considerably out of health at the time. My uncle William Langton had died very suddenly, and the great shock had a very serious effect on my father. This was in 181.3 (I ought to begin to mention dates). My uncle's son Joseph, better known as Joe, was just of age when his father died, and he, succeeding to the business, became my father's partner. He had had a mercantile education in Liverpool, and he took up his residence there, aijd after a time was joined by his mother and sisters, 1814, In 1814, when the allied armies had entered Paris and Buonaparte had been sent to Elba, my father began to revolve in his mind a favourite project, that of taking his family abroad for a few years, where education might proceed with- out the necessity of sending his children to different schools, as must have been the case had Ave continiied at Blythe, where there were no facilities within reach. So Blythe was advertised to be let. Meanwhile he and my mother availed themselves of the unlocking of the continent to pay a visit to Paris, In this expedition they were joined by some of their relatives, and were a party of eight altogether. They were likewise in Loudon when all the allied sovereigns visited it, and my mother was able to be present in the gallery at Guildhall, when the city of London entertained the Prince Regent (afterwards George the Fourth) and all his royal guests. My uncle Zachary resided in London, and being a member of the Common Council had STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 9 two tickets for his ladies. Wo childreu spent the time of their absence at Kirkham, and then we went homo for our last winter at Blythe. My father found a tenant for the place and made all aiTangements for leaving it for a four years' absence, when Buonaparte made his escape from Elba. Europe was again in commotion, and we had turned ourselves out of our home. 1810. We left Blythe early in the spring of 1815, going in the first place to cmo of our relations at Kirkham, whilst various plans were discussed for our future. At first we were with my aunt William Langton, then at my uncle Hoi by's and other houses in that town. A Scotch journey was undertaken to pass away the time ; this was again conjointly with other relatives, and my brother William was of the party, John and I going under aimt Alice's charge to Lythara for a few weeks. From what I have heard or seen in old letters I think that Bath would have been fixed on for our temporary home ; but the hundred days came to an end, and we were free to set out on our travels. During the summer we had a longer spell than ever before amongst our relations ; and one great interest during the time was some private theatricals that Avcre got up. There was then a very large unscattered circle of grown up young people, to enter into the thing with spirit. My two brothers had each a little part, and I felt somewhat mortified at being out of it ; but a much greater trouble was my dear papa having to per- sonate a dishonest lawyer, and I cried over it. The piece was ** The Heiress," and excepting those two little messengers, all the dramatis personce are gone to their rest, though my father was the only one of the seniors who took part in it. 1815. The battle of Waterloo had been fought in June, and in the middle of August we set out on that journey which kept us out of England for more than five years. My father 10 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. had purchased for our travelling carriage, a landau ; it held six persons inside very well, and had seats both before and behind holding two each. It could be either open or shut, but it had not capacity for all the luggage of a large family, so besides it wo had a gig well piled up with boxes, which our man George Lee had the management of, and I may as well say hero that more space was wanted for our possessions from time to time, until at last we had a little covered cart, which always travelled separately under George's care. When we had horses of our own, they drew it by short days' journeys, at other times it went post like ourselves. Our own carriage when loaded with the family always required four horses. Aunt Alice did not go abroad with us, but, as she had visits to pay in the south, she accompanied us as far as London. There wc picked up another travelling companion, namely my uncle Zachary's son Skinner. He was then about nineteen years old, and it was thought a nice chance for his getting ac(pmintcd with foreign languages. He continued for ;ibout a year to be one of the family. In London we engaged a maid who had been accustomed to travelling, and spoke French and German, and early in September we crossed the channel. As I am not writing a book of travels I shall make very little mention of what we saw on our road. I possess a good many letters written by my father to his sister, and journals of my mother's, where details may bo met with; but here I have rather to refrain from details than to multiply "them. We crossed from Dover to Ostend, and went by Bruges and Ghent to Brus- sels, where we remained a few days, and so were able to visit the field of Waterloo. Though only three months had passed since the battle, traces of it had well nigh vanished, save in some ruined buildings, and sundry gi'ave mounds. We encountered a STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 11 cavalry officer who had boon wounded and remained in the neighbourhood; he was riding about thinking it all over again. My father entered into conversation with him ; ho got very animated in his descriptions and said, '* and we cracked their skulls like lobster claws," of which illustration I was reminded in Byron's poem, the Siege of Corinth, whore after the battle he says of the prowling dogs, "From a Tartar's skull they stripped the flesh, as we peel a fig when the fruit is fresh." The similes match I think very well. If the field had recovered from the carnage, not so the hearts of the people. One woman said most bitterly in speaking of the Duko of Wellington, *' I saw him smile as he walked over the dead bodies." But I must proceed with the narrative of our journey. We not unfrequcntly experienced delays, when wo could not get four horses at the post-houses, so that we were thrown into not very comfortable sleeping quarters. At times they looked so wretched that my mother, who dreaded very much the insect world, would sleep m the carriage, or sometimes have the carriage cushions brought out to rest upon instead of a bed. I have no doubt there were plenty of insects besides the one I shall name, which was not of the dreaded kind. We had a capital illustration of the story of a man who was saved by a spider having spun its web across the mouth of a cave where he was concealed, those in pursuit taking it as a pi'oof that no one had entered there, and so passing him over, A doorway through which not only the wholo family had passed, but like- wise a large fjather bed had been carried for our accommoda- tion, was in tixe morning entirely closed by a large spider web. I must pass over hastily all the beauties of the Mouse and the Rhine, and take you at once to Frankfort, where we were de- tained for about a month, firat by my mother's illness, and afterwards by my brother William's. This might have been 12 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. a very dull tinio for those who were not immediately con- cerned in the nursing, and for nil during the slow process of recovery ; but there was a great deal going on to enliven it. In the first place there was Frankfort fair just taking place, which lasts a fortnight, and the square in which our hotel was situated was juat the focus of everything. There were all sorts of shows, merry-go-rounds, &c. &c., and music going on most of the time — this last a very questionable advantage. There was one big drum belonging to one of the shows that used to be booming all the day. However, there was plenty of fun for the children in looking out of the windows. Then there were a great many of the dispersing troops marching through the town, with some noted characters, generals and royalties, to be seen, and best of all, after the fair was over, a troop of Cossacks bivouacked in the square. It was extremely amusing watching them living in, or under the waggons, per- forming their toilet, or preparing their food. Some of the officers lodged in our hotel, and the military carriages of these looked extremely comfortable — long ones tho,t allowed of their lying down. I suppose I was not content with all that there was to amuse me, but craved to know what was going on in the next room (female curiosity), for I put my eye to the key hole, and what do you think I saw? — another eye on the other side — ^you may be sure I never looked again. Finally the invalids were well enough for the journey to be resumed; and we pursued our way via Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Carlsruhe, towards Switzerland, which we entered at Basle. Our destination was Yverdon, where Pestalozzi's Institute, which was in great vogue at the time, had its home, and where my father planned that the boys* education should be proceeded with. Before going on with ray narrative I will give a little account of Pestalozzi and hid work, extracted from a letter of my father's, written in 1816 : — • / STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 13 *' Induced by a benevolent heart, Peatalozzi undertook in 1788, at the ago of 53, the care and niiinagemcnt of an orphan house which had been erected in one of the httlo cantons of Switzerland, where the ravages of French and Austrians, and the resistance of the inhabitants en masse to the former, had reduced the country to the highest state of misery. As the women joined in the ranks, numerous fiimilics of children were left totally impro- tected, and beggary, vice, and the worst habits increased the hori'ors of this once happy and innocent little people. Pestalozzi, with a single female servant to superintend the domestic concerns, undertook this luipromising office. The difficulties that he had to encounter were far greater and more various than can be well conceived, or than I could well describe if I had room. He lived, ate, and slept in the midst of eighty of these little unfortunate beings. He never quitted them, but by his kindness and unremitted attentions he gained such an influence over them that not only order, regularity, and good behaviour were prevalent, but also, before the end of the year, the poor children had made such progress in their reading, writing, and arith- metic as excited general astonishment, and the more so as he had not had a single assistant. Before the end of the year, however, the scourge of war fell again upon this unhappy district. Pestalozzi's flock was dispersed, and the orphan hoiise converted into a military magazine, or hospital, by the Austrians. His success with these boys, however, determined him to prosecute this experiment further, and he opened a school in another part of Switzer- land, where one of the cantonal governments gave him ■^'^ the use of a building. Hither he took many of his first , scholars, at his own charge, who afterwards repaid his 14 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. generosity by proving his most valuable assistants. The general attention however had been roused, his school had been visited, and his method approved by many compe- tent judges, upon whose report several men of ability came to offer their assistance in his establishment. Some of these had been impressed with such an idea of the importance of the method that they left lucrative perma- nent situations to become fellow labourers with one who, instead of being able to reward them, was in the general opinion, sacrificing his little fortune to his benevolence and philanthropy. The building which had ' en lent to him was soon after wanted for other purposes, and he had new quarters to seek. The establishment was now become numerous (for the terms on which he took boarders were so low as to tempt even the economical Swiss), and, for want of an appropriate dwelling, was obliged to separate for some time. Soon after this, the authorities of the town of Yverdon, having the castle in which the Berne Bailiff had formerly resided on their hands, offered it to Pestalozzi, and there he fixed himself in 1805, and has not since been disturbed. The use of the building without rent is, I believe, the only assistance the institution has ever re- ceived ; but as an innovation it has experienced often not only detraction, sneers, and ridicule, but even active oppo- sition, in spite of all which, and the poverty of its estab- lisher, it has drawn the eyes of Europe upon it, and has sent out young men into Russia, Spain, and several coun- tries of Germany, at the call of the governments of these countries, to found similar institutions. There are at pre- sent three men of talent and great respectability sent from a German university to study the method, besides several others on similar errands." . - - _ -^ ^ STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 16 I will give here another extract from my father's letters, but it was written a year Liter, in 1817 : — " My old friend Pestalozzi has had a great deal of cha^^rin this last winter. Several of his teachers have been enti>?ed from him by higher emoluments than he could afford to give, and have gone, or are going, to other institutions in Germany, and it is not easy to re- man his vessel with subjects disciplined to his mind. Acid to this, his circum- stances are in bad plight. He was never a good manager, and in his old ago the evil was more serious. On this latter score, however, he is likely to be soon relieved. His works are now publishing upon a footing that will make him easy, and is at the same time highly flattering to his reputation. The Emperor Alexander subscribes 5000 roubles ; almost all the Princes of Germany have subscribed also handsomely, and ordered certain of his works to be introduced into all the schools of their countries. The King of iBavaria has ordered them to be revised, so as to remove anything that might be inconsistent with the established religion (Catholic), and then, that the work altered should be sent to Pestalozzi, and if approved by him, should be published in his name, so as not to inter- fere with the profits which he would have had, if the original work had been purchased for the Bavarian Schools. This is all very gratifying to the old man, but in the mean time the Institution halts." . Though I have given this extract here as finishing the subject, the decline alluded to in it had not set in at this period of my narrative, which I now resume : — November must have been advancing when we reached "iverdon, and it was not long before we were settled in apart- ments. There was one other English fimily living there 16 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. (Stricklands) to whom we had au introduction. We were soou well supplied with acquaintances, for there was very kindly hospitality shown to us ; invitations fi'om all quartci's came, and my father and mother appeared to have the prospect of quite a gay winter, when everything was arrested by my brother William again falling seriously ill. This was a far worse attack than the one at Frankfort, in fact severe inflammation of the lungs, and for many days his recovery seemed very doubtful. Though sociability was at an end, the kindness of our new friends d' 'I not cease; we received many attentions and offers of assistance. When William got better, before he was well enough to leave his room, I was seized with a similar attack. I do not suppose I was ever so ill as he had been, but quite enough so to create serious alarm, and oi my recovery my brother John w^as laid up with a sort of /ever, so my father and mother were kept in trouble and anxiety all the winter; and take notice, my mother had not a servant who could understand a word she said, for the travelling maid we had engaged in London proved so unsatisfactory that she was sent back from Frankfort. This was most trying to her, and not less so to my father, upon whom all housekeeping naturally devolved; he alone could communicate with anybody. Amongst the good people who took an interest in us was a certain Mademoiselle Bourgeois, who became very fond of my mother, and ever remained a firm friend. These illnesses had secluded us so much, that we young people had made very little progress in acquiring the language, and evidently young companions would now be very desirable for us. Mademoiselle Bourgeois said she knew a little girl, who she thought would be a veiy nice companion for me, and proposed to bring her, which being at once acceded to, she H H M n o STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 17 gave me my first friend, Rosalie Morel, with whom I continue to correspond, though it is "lore than sixty ^ears since we set eyes on each other. Another good old lady I foncy had been pleased with us, for she proposed that we should come and inhabit her house in the country, not as guests, but as boarders, as they call it in Switzerland '* en pension," and the first people are willing to admit inmates for the usual consideration, so as to have the pleasure of company without increasing their expenses. 316. So when spring came we took up our abode at Champitet ; our hostess, Madame de Pe^Tou, an old lady, I suppose between sixty and seventy, a widow without family. We were, with my cousin Skinner, a family of six, and had a maid, two men, and three horses, and for this we paid fifty pounds a month, so wo were living at the rate of six hundred a year — remarkably little for so much accommodation. We had our own separate drawing room, though we wero free of hers in the evening. We lived well, and saw a great deal of the best society in the place. She had a nephew living with her, unfortunately paralytic, but a cultivated and charm- ing young man. Both these became friends for life, but alas ! I their lives were not long. Other of her nephews and nieces, who were often staying with her, we became much attached to; I cor- responded with one of them for some years ; the coiTcspondence dropped at last, and afterwards I heard that she was dead. Champitet was about a mile and a half from Yverdon, and as our studies were chiefly now under masters from the Pestalozzi Institute, Mademoiselle Bourgeois gave us the use of one of her rooms for a few hours each morning, and we went into town for our schooling every day. My brother John continued to go to the Institute itself for his lessons, but Willi£,m after his illness never went again. Jg STOKY OF OUR FAMILY. On one occasion I was returing alone from our lessons in our little Swiss carriage, when a person stopped it and said there was an Englisli gentleman, who could not speak a word of French, and wanted some one very much to interpret for him. The gentleman then came forward and gave his name as Dr. Andrew Bell, saying that he came on purpose to see Pestalozzi's Institute, but was at a loss to explain himself; perhaps my papa could help him. I said I was sure he would, and I invited him to take his place beside me in the chara- banc. So we drove out to Champitet, and I ushered him into our drawing room. I had a very good idea who he was, for Bell's educational system had been much talked of. Of course my father was glad to be of service, and we accompanied him to the castle, and saw the two old men introduced to each other. Our Doctor, true to his vocation, was quite as anxious to teach as to learn, and a class was formed chiefly of the masters and older scholars to illustrate his system. But when Pesta- lozzi saw how emulation entered as a mainspring into it, he quite shrank from his visitor, deeming it scarcely christian to work by means of such an engine. From some letters which I have recently seen, I find that my father's sympathies were altogether with our Swiss friend. Dr. Bell's name and fame have pretty much dropped from the minds of men in this generation, nevertheless his dust rests in Westminister Abbey ; and as I have allowed Pestalozzi's judgment to be recorded, I must add that of a still more distinguished personage. The following is an extract from Coleridge ; I copied it from a paper in The Friend :— "What may not be effected, if the recent discovery of ^ the means of educating nations shall have been applied to its full extent! Would I frame to myself the most STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 10 inspiring representation of future bliss which my mind is capable of comprehending, it would be embodied to me in the idea of Bell receiving at some distant period the appro- priate reward of his earthly labours, where thousands and tens of thousands of glorified spirits, whoso reason and con- science had through his efforts been unfolded, shall sing the song of their redemption, and pouring forth praises to God, and to their Saviour, shall repeat his neto name in heaven, and give thanks for his eai-thly virtue, as the chosen instrument of Divine mercy to themselves, and not seldom perhaps turn their eyes towards him, as from the sun to its image in the fountain, with secondary gratitude, and the permitted utterance of a human love." From the poet's rhapsody I must come back to the common- place. Dr. Bell presented me with his account of his own system (the Madras system), inscribing it "From the author to his little pilot." I ought to have taken it into my special possession, but it remained amongst the literature of the library, and I am afraid in some of our numerous removals my poor little pamphlet has vanished. As education, not pleasure, was the motive for om- being in Switzerland, we did not do much travelling amongst its beau- ties, neither did our parents without us. My father made one or two short excursions, and my cousin Skinner some indepen- dent pedestrian expeditions. We made one tour round the lake of Geneva, and also went for a few weeks to Interlachcu, accompanied by one of the masters of the Institute, that our studies might proceed all the same. This gentleman, Mr. Heldenmaier, came some years afterwards to England and established a school on the Pestalozzian system; one or two of our young relatives became his pupils there. From Inter- lachen my father and mother made a mountain excursion, 20 8T0HY OF OUR FAMILY. taking tlicir youngest son with them ; but William and I, being still looked upon as delicate from our winter attacks, were left behind with the niastei*. In the house where we boarded we met our future friends Mr. and Mrs. Weld. The gentleman my father had seen at Yverdon, where he came, as all strangers did, to see Pestalozzi's Institute, so wo naturally became slightly acquainted ; how very well in after years ! Our sojourn at Interlachen was cut short rather abruptly by hearing that aunt Alice was on her way out to join us. My father had suggested that she should do so in consequence, I believe, of the very desolate state of my mother when her children were all so ill; and the letter announcing her intended departure had miscarried, so that though we hastened back to Champitet she had arrived there before us, a stranger in a strange land. My father however prolonged his tour a little alone. When the autumn came it was deemed advisable to seek a warmer climate on my brother William's account, and Montpellier was fixed upon for our winter's sojourn. We pro- ceeded there by Geneva, Lyons, down the Rhone to Avignon, and so f-^^-th, and on arriving began to look out for lodgings at once ; but wo had to remain a week at an uncomfortable and not very clean hotel. My mother, too, was extremely unwell. At last some very neat-looking apartments were met with, to which we removed, and my mother, on getting into bed, re- marked what a comfort it Avas to lie down in a cli-an .^^laco. At that moment my father saw a bug run across the pillow, and very soon another, and then going to look at the children in their beds he found all in the same condition. As it was most important that my mother should get some rest, ho sat up all night picking off the creatures ; and such a basin full of them there was in the morning ! ! Then off he set to look for other apartments, for that we could not remain another night in STORY OF OUU FAMILY. 21 these was obvious. And now he "fell upon his feet," as the saving is, for ho discovered beautiful rooms, in the house of very charming people ; so we were soon settled again. The house belonged to an old lady, but her daughter and son-in-law lived with her, and became our very good friends. They were quite aristocratic, but I suppose their means were not equal to their position, for they were content to live on the second floor and let the rooms on the first. In these large mansions built round a courtyard and inhabited in flats, the ground floor is mostly devoted to stables, coach-house, and other oflices. The de Bonalds often came down and spent their evenings with us, and Madame de Bonald and my motlier improved each other in their respective languages. It is only two or three years since I saw the death of the Viscouto Victor de Bonald reported in the Athenceum, at the age of ninety-two ; his brother was Cardinal de Bonald. We had other society, several young EngUshmen, I think mostly studving medicine. Montpellier had then a good medical school. My father likewise met an old Eiga acquain- tance ; there were also two Scotch families, about whom I could very willingly digress, but I refrain ; their names have not become household words like some others. I think we must have sold our horses here, though I- know they brought the baggage wagon under George's care, but I do not remember driving about or seeing much of the neighbourhood of Mont- pellier. My father and mother made an excursion to Cette, to liave a peep at the Mediterranean, my brother William only accompanying tliem. They likewise made one into the neigh- bouring mountains, partly with a view to a summer location, but nothing came of it. — . 1817. The plan now was to proceed into Italy by water from Marseilles, but some epidemic reported of in those parts, 22 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. decided my father to return for another biimmor to Switzerland, to \ny very great joy. Madame de Peyrou was quite ready to receive us again, so wc were onc3 more at Champitet, driving daily into Yverdon for lessons in good iMademoisollc Bourgeois' r»> ni.>3, whore she used to place before us many a nice luncheon of fruit. On this return journey into Switzerland we took a different route; leaving the Rhine at Vnlcnce, we came througli Dauphiny and Savoy, passing through a country of great picturesque beauty, but alas ! terribly famine-stricken at this period. One sad scone is deeply impressed on my memory, but an account of it from m^y father's pen, written soon afterwards, will better describe it than my words : — " At Chamberry, in Savoy, a new scene presented itself, and such as I would hope never to see again. The poorer peasantiy, unable to find the means of subsistence in their villages, where their neighbours are not rich enough to relieve them, swarm to the towns to beg a little food, and Chamberry as the first town in the country has its full share. The towns relievo their own poor pretty well, and do something for these poor wretches, distributing to them daily, soup, but not sufficient for the demands of nature. Hundreds of these poor creatures lay in every street, or trailed their languid limbs slowly along ; in most of them the skin seemed drawn tight over their fleshless skeletons ; lice and itch and dirt addc ■ to the loathsomeness of many. These were of all ages from the infant at the breast to decrcpid old age. AVliere a few cabbage or lettuce leaves, or potatoe parings had been thrown by some wasteful cook into the kennel, you saw these miserable creatures run to gather them up, and wiping off the mud upon their dirty rags, scat themselves against the wall, or in a corner, STORY OP OUR FAMILY, 23 to dovour their booty. Begging would have been a use- less resource where the raimbers were so great, and one might pass through the midst of the shocking scone, and observe it unobserved and at leisure, without being assailed by a single application; but the moment some object, more pitiful than the rest, had made you deviate from the only means of passing quietly through the street, and had drawn upon you a little donation — a few instants and you were siiri'oundcd by fifty or a hundred, crowding, pressing upon you, stretching out their hands to snatch the next sous that should appear in sight, I endeavoured to obtain a little order, and having previously supplied myself with small money, I desired them to place themselves in a row against the wall, promising that every one should have something if they did so, but that no one should have anything who left his place. Some townsmen offered to assist me, but it was in vain ; such misery could listen to no reason, and no one seemed to think he should have anything if he was not the first. A second attempt was rather more successful; about a hundred of them were let into the lobby of the inn, like sheep in a pen, and each as he went 'out had his pittance, one of the waiters officiating ; but when the process was half gone through the crowd from within and those from w-ithout, some wanting to thank, some to have something more, and some complaining that they had not got in, made the disorder as great as it could be. Weak, feeble children were separated from their mothers, and almost stifled in the crush (fortu- nately none were hurt), and some cripples and very old people were not much better off, whilst a sturdy lad of sixteen, with a pole which he seemed to carry as well for defence and offence as for support, came in at one time or 34 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. anotlicr for half a dozen shares. I am in no fen. for him, ho will see tlio new harvest, or it will not bo his fauit j but many of the others will sink to rest before that day, I fear. Some of the objects that presented themselves were heartrending, but no description could give any idea of them. Mothers with children at the breast affected my wife the most. I felt for childreit poor w^eak tottering children of six, seven, or eight years old, big enough to be left to themselves, and not big enough to do anything for themselves; they would not oven come in for many cabbage leaves or potatoe parings." During the last summer in Switzerland we went with Madame de Poyrou for a fortnight to a mountain residence she possessed in the Jura, called Jolimont, a very agreeable variety; and from there we made a two days' trip into the X»«-^* great watch-making villages of he^ and Chaudufout. The women in these parts are mostly lace weavers, and spin their own thread from a very fine fltiX obtained from Holland. These were our last peregrinations in Switzerland, until we paid a visit to another part of it in returning from Italy, but Yverdon and Champitet we never saw again. Our good friend Madame de Pcyrou, on the veri/ day we parted from her, dis- covered that she was threatened with cancer, and that com- plaint, or, I believe rather, the treatment of it, soon terminated her life. Her nephew, who lived with her, Alfred de Pury, lived a few years longer at Champitet, but not many. A good many letters from these two were in my hand -: lately, which I looked over and then burnt. I should say that my brother William passed through this part of Switzerland in returning from Italy in 1844; he saw one or two old friends, and heard how many more had passed away into another existence. STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 26 317. In the autumn of 1817 wo wended our way across the Alps. When we had made a jouniey of a day or two we found that wc could not pass the frontier without a further signature of some official at Berne on our passport, so we had to wait about a week where we were (at Siun) whilst a nies- scnsrer was sent over the mountains to Berne, and then wo gladly pursued our way towards the Simplon. Wo reached the foot of the mountains early in the day, but not early enough to commence the ascent. An English gentleman and his son were just in the same case, and, as we had secured the one good private sitting room, my father proposed that after rambling our several ways, we should dine together in the evening, which we accordingly did. Whi' t chatting over the fire afterwards, a large travelUug carriage drove up,— another party to cross the mountain. After a time, my mother told my brother William to go and enquire from our man George who these new comers were. George understood him to ask who the gentleman was he had dined with, and told him it was Lord William Kussell, so my brother returned with that answer. Whereupon my mother began considering aloud what she knew of Lord William, and who he had married, but the gentleman said immediately, " It's a mistake, ma'am ; it's a mistake," which silenced her, and presently our two gentlemen got up and took leave, and no doubt had a laugh at our blunder. That same Lord William Russell was afterwards murdered by his Swiss valet, whose effigy in wax may be now seen in the chamber of horrors at Madame Tussaud's. The next moraing the three parties ascended the pass. What the others did I do not know, but we slept at the summit, and had the drive down into Italy in the morning ; a truly magnificent one it was, and the first view of the plains of Lombardy lovely beyond description. At Milan we paused 26 STORi' OP OUR FAMILY. for a few days. Wc had an introduction to a party of German ladies staying there, whose acquaintance we made, and had opportunities of cultivating afterwards elsewhere. At Florence we rested longer, but Rome was our destination. In getting there we had many delays, for there was Royalty on the road, and horses secured, or not allowed to be secured by others until the great people were served, so we were thrown out of the regular sleeping places, and had some very miserable ones. One looked so wretched that my mother and I slept in the carriage, and found in the morning that we had been locked up in the Custom House all night. At another place we could not manage to eat what they set before us, but we got some eggs and a bottle of wine, the inside of which things we could rely upon being clean, and cooked some mulled wine for ourselves over our own fire. A last detention was within a veiy few miles of Rome, but here too very little eatable was to be had, and our coffee was heated in a frying pan. St. Peter's we could just see from this last resting place, and we entered the Eternal City at an early hour of the day. Before I detain you there, where we spent several months, T must, contrary to my usual practice, mention one thin [5 we saw on the road between Rome and Florence, namely, the Falls of Terni, because I consider them, taking all in all, the general scenery, &c., the most perfectly beautiful and picturesque I ever saw, and strange to say they are arti- ficial ; that is, the Romans for some purpose or other turned the course of the stream, and sent it over those rocks where it now falls. At Rome lodgings and masters were soon hunted up. One of the first things I remember was hearing of the death of the Princess Charlotte, which threw all the English there into deep mourning. We soon had many acquaintances — Mr. and Mrs. STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 27 Weld we found at Rome, and our intimacy improved, and other friends we made, whom we never lost sight of as long as wo were all above ground. One thing, in looking back, strikes mo very much, that is, how rapidly our intimacies ripened ; in later days it appears tc mo to be a much slower process. Amongst the first of our acquaintances were Sir Walter Synnot and his family, an Irish gentleman, who in quite old age had mar- ried a second wife, and had a young family. He died at Rome after we had left Italy, and one of his children lies with him in that Protestant burial ground, near the tomb of Cains Cestius. Then there were the Miss Hills — as they were seven in number I '-^onder we did not give them names from the hills on which Rome was built ; b\it we didn't. They were two maiden aunts bringing up five orphan nieces with infinite care and pains, for we heard that they even contrived disappoint- ments for them as exercises in submission — one would think that disappointments came often enough to serve the purpose. If such was the fact, it did not prevent their charges from being very bright and happy looking girls, and very nice companions. We did not come much in contact after we returned to our respective countries (they were Scotch) ; we saw some of them again when we were once for a few days in Edinburgh. I found out a married one, and the moment she set eyes on me she knew me, though I was cn^.y fourteen when we parted, and was then in my thirtieth year.* Another had married some * This speedy rt-cognition reminds me of another. A young midshipman, who had got leave from his ship to spend a few days at Rome, was entciing it in one of the public cai-riages, when ho cast his eyes on my father and mother walking in the street, and instantly jumped out to greet them. He was the son of a former clergyman at Ormskirk, and must have been quite a boy when he last saw them, for his father had died, and the family bad gone from Ormskirk, before we left the neighbourhood, and he know nothing of my father being in Italy. Of course ho became our guest while ho stayed. 28 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. time before, and came to a most sudden and lamentable end, being shot by a young cousin, who levelled a pistol at her in sport, not suspecting it to be loaded. She bad her infant in her arms, which was unhurt. Another intimacy formed was with General Davidoff's family. They were living in the same house as ourselves, and the acquain- tance began by our noticing their EngHsh governess and inviting her sometimes in an evening. From the governess. Miss Easterly (a descendant of Shakespeare), acquaintance spread to the chil- dren, an'l from the children to the mother, who was an OrlofF. Of the General himself we knew as little as possible. He was a very gay man, not in the pleasantest sense of the word, and quite out of our line. With the young people the intimacy had time to ripen, for we mt. t again at Naples, as well as during our second winter in Eome. My correspondence v/ith Catharine lasted as long as she lived, and I possess a great many memorials that she sent me from time to time from Russia. Perhaps the most noticeable of our friends was Madame Herz. She had been very remarkable for her beauty, as well as being much connected with the lito- vry world in Germany. I have more than once seen her name in the Athenccum, mentioned in connection with some of the learned celebrities, and never without its being noticed in addition that she was beautiful, once the expression was *' royally beautiful ;" and beautiful she remained even when we knew her, though upwards of sixty. It was more as a correspondent and friend of authors that I have seen her named than as one herself: but one book she did write, she translated into German the early travels in America of our friend Mr. Weld. The author and translator had never met imtil they were brought together in our drawing room at Rome. There was another German lady of whom we saw a STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 29 great deal, the Baroness Schumacher; she shall be named a^-ain when we met her another year at Florence. There being so many English at Rome, it was desirable to have a place of worship where we might have our own service when any English clergyman was there, which was almost always the case. At one time there had been an intention of applying to the Pope for permission; but he (Pius VII.) hearing of it, said " Let them please themselves but not ask me." We had rooms for the purpose in the Piazza Colonna Trajano — certainly not a very private location, for many EngHsh carriages used to be drawn up on a Sunday morning, whilst the cardinals would be driving through the piazza on their way to their service at the Quiriual. This first winter that we were at Rome the cler- gyman who mostly officiated proposed to hold a class of young people during Lent, for instruction ; it was not a large one. I do not remember many besides the Synnots and ourselves who stood up to be catechized, but various others came and sat by to hear the teaching. At the close of his course Mr. Walker gave us a very nice address, saying that in after life it might be interesting to remember that at Rome, within sight of the Capitol, and within a quarter of a mile from the Pope's palace, we had been instructed in the tenets of our own religion. 8. In the spring of 1818 we left Rome for Naples. On this occasion we did not travel post, as was our custom, but by vetturino, which means that we contracted with a man to take us with his own horses, providing everything on the way, ordering our dinner, and paying the hotel bills. Of course it is a more tedious way of travelling, but likewise a great deal more economical, and in our experience of the journey from Florence to Rome we had found ourselves quite as long on the road as another family travelling by vetturino. As we were crossing the Pontine Marshes, and the horses 30 STOKY OF OUU FAMILY. were being r?sted at a solitary wayside inn, tlie house took fire, or rather a shed adjoining it, and if there had been any prompti- tude in pulling this shed down the house itself might have been saved. There were plenty of people about, for a public carriage full of Italians was also resting at the place, but they stood with their hands in their pockets, looking on and doing nothing. The Italian character did not rise in our estimation that day. Our vetturino, wlicn he had got his horses out of the stable, would have had us set off and leave the houpo blazing ; but our man, and our maid too, were working as hard as they could, carrying water from a deep ditch or canal across the road. Our Swiss maid was most energetic ; she took a vessel and put it into the hands of one of the Italians, but he filled it once and then set it down. Never was there such provoking apathy, and in the other extreme the woman of the house (the man was absent) was screaming and tearing her hair, throwing her- self on the ground and pulling up the grass, perfectly demented, not much regarding her little child (for I had taken it from the house and put it into her arms) ; but all her lamentation was for her "scudi." When the worst was over we departed, and this was the only noteworthy adventure on our road to Naples. At Naples we again met several of those we had become acquainted with at Home, amongst them, once more, the Welds. Tliis was quite a holiday summer : I only remember a music master, and a dancing master. We made excursions, and enjoyed ourselves, went up Vesuvius, visited Herculaneum and Pompeii and P«3stum — this was a two or three days' excursion. From Salerno we took a boat to go to Amalfi. The water was very rough, and my brother John, who was quite a little boy, got very much frightened, turning qu'te pale. My father, not liking to see him suffer, ordered the boat rrund to return, but this roused his courage, and he said hr would not be STOKV OF OLU FAMILY. 31 frightened any more. I was reminded of liim by his son Tom, when, at two years old, I was driving with him down from Blythe to Peterborough ; at each piece of ** corduroy " the shaking distressed him, and made him cry, but when I said, "Now, Tom, we are coming to another corduroy," he manfully /Jeclared he wo- Id not cry, and ho did not. Another and more important excursion was the tour of the islands —Procida, Ischia, and Capri — and in this Mr. and Mrs. Weld joined us. On the last day, or what was to have been the last day, we had a stiff head wind, and some of the party, being very sea-sick, we landed on the coast as soon as we could, and walked over the hills to Sorrento, leaving our boat to come round the point, and meet us there. It was dark night before we got to the place, and reached a poor hotel with very insufficient accommodation ; but hearing of a possible lodging further on, my father and Mr. Weld set out in search, and being successful, another mile and a half's walk took us to the " Coccomela," a building that luid once been a convent, and here, after all our troubles, we enjoyed a good supper, and had, I recollect, an especially merry evening. After a night's rest, going out upon a terrace adjoining our rooms, we were perfectly transported with the scene that presented itself. All the beauties of the Bay of Naples, seen from the very best point, of course baffle my powers of description, so I leave you to exercise your imagination to any extent you like ; but the effect of it all was that the Welds and ourselves secured our quarters for the fol- lowing three months, and only went back to Naples to make the necessary arrangements for removing ourselves to Sor- rento. Here we enjoyed all the delights of "far niente," delicious bathing in the tepid waters of the Mediterranean in the morning, with cool caverns for dressing rooms (by 32 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. the bye wo wore once locked up iii them), a luxurious siesta in the afternoon, a walk in company with friends in the evening, generally adjourning together to ono house or the other, often finishing with a dance — these are my principal impressions of our life during those charming three months. Besides the "Welds we had other friends at Sorrento. To begin with, Mrs. Starke and Mrs. Ramsey, who had united to form one household; notwithstanding the dignified preuomen, both these were maiden ladies, the first a literary character. She had published her travels in Italy during the last century, at a time when few English were to be found on the continent. Mrs. Ramsey, though not literary, had a romance belonging to her early life, which made her interesting, and a niece who was her adopted daughter added to the brightness of the juvenile circle. Mr. Mathias too, the author of Pursuits of Literature, had joined himself to this party, and was an especially pleasant member of our society. He and my father corresponded for some time afterwards. Ho had become almost an Italian, wrote poems in that language, and made Naples his home to the last. General Hay's family came to Sorrento for a time, and an acquaintance began with the young members of it which after circumstances greatly ripened. We also became rather intimate with the young members of an Italian family. My brother William visited the place once later in life ; he iound our young Italian friends both dead, but the daughter of the house, where we had lodged, threw her arms round him, and gave him a good hug, and all the kindly enquires about us were very gratifying. The dog of the house, which of course did not survive, had likewise become a character amongst us, and I think was our only special canine friend diinng our sojourning abroad. Its parting with us when we left Sorrento was quite pathetic. It had accompanied us down to the beach STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 33 where wo embarked, and when it saw the whole ftmiily enter the boat, it seemed quite to understand how matters stood, and it turned its back to us as if it could not bear to look, and yet kept looking over its shoulder as if it could not bear to lose sight of us. We spent one more month at Naples before repairing to Rome for a second winter. We rnet again many old friends. General Hay's family was settled quite close to us. It was a most painful winter for them ; Mrs. Hay had a long and suf- fering illness, and died in the spring. The elder daughters were in constant attendance on her, but three younger ones, and the youngest boy, used to come over to us almost every evening, and often joined us in our walks, so that, for the time, they were more identified with us than any companions we ever had ; but circumstances never brought us together in after life, excepting in the case of one of them, who married a Mr. Currio and lived in the neighbourhood of London. Twice Avheu visiting the metropolis I have spent a few days witli her, but now I have quite lost sight of her, and do not know whether she be alive or not j the other three are certainly dead. What n large propor- tion of the friends of one's youth never reach middle age ! This second winter we met some relations of my father — Mr. and Mrs. Baker, and two Miss Woods, their nieces. We had never known them personally before, and had very few opportunitiei? of following up the acqiiaintance aftenvards. General and Mrs. Walsh and their nieces, the Miss Coddingtons, Avere added to our acquaintance, and with these last we have had a great deal of subsequent intercour-]e. The friendship was very much pro- moted by my brother William living in London w^hen they were resident there ; similarly it prolonged the acquaintance with Dr. and Mrs. Ainslie, whom we had known both at Rome and at B di STORY OF OUR FAMILY. Paris. Their daughter and onl)' child became the mother of Mr. Grant Duff, well known now in the political world. 1819. We made iu the spring an excursion to Tivoli, the Walshes and Coddingtons being of our party. In walking together a rather tragi-comic incident occurred. A cow at the road- side suddenly turned and made an attack on aunt Alice ; she was exceedingly slight and therefore was caught between its horns, and it raised her aloft on its forehead. However, her gentleman companion never left hold of her, but handed her gracefully down, when the cow turned away. The only ill consequence was that I, who witnessed the adventure, felt nervous for some time after in passing cattle. I do not think she ever did. Having just been reading the memoir of Madame Bunsen, I ought surely to mention our acquaintance with this pair. It was only a slight one, but I quite remember going with my mother to call at their house on the Capitol Hill, and the first winter hearing the mairiage, which had just taken place, talked of. We had a great many other acquaintances, and seemed to live more in the world than at any other period of our lives. But I need only mention one thing, namely, our receiving invitations to an entertainment given by the Pope at the Capitol, on the occasion of the Emperor of Austria's visit to Rome. On this occasion yoimg ladyism superseded seniority, and I was the one taken to it. The Pope did not ajipear himself ; his Caruinal Prime Minister received the com- pany. There were fireworks, music (a complimentary cantata, 1 think), and supper tables ; but what was most noteworthy in the entertainment was the tastefully illuminated statue gallery. There were several royalties besides the Emperor and j^mpress, to say nothing of some of the highest noblesse of diflereut countries. 1819. In the spring we left the Etenial City and spent a few STOHY OP OUR FAMILY. 35 weeks at Florence again. My father and mother and my brotlier William made an excursion to Leghorn and Pisa; I was silly enough to decline it b'' cause I did not want to lose my singing lessons, which fascinated mo very much, though they did not succeed in making me a songstress. Here wo met again our friend the Baroness Schumacher. She was a maiden lady, and was living in small lodgings, but was very desirous of showing us some attention in return for our former hospitalities to her, so she asked a gentleman friend to invite us to his house. The whole family were to dine N-ith him, and a sumptuous dinner he gave us, after which two carriages came to the door, when we were driven to the public promenade and entertained with ices, and on our return liquom*s were handed round; so the little Baroness's hospitalities by proxy were on a magnificent scale. Not long after we parted she died suddenly ; she had been driving out, and when the carriage stopped at her door, she was found to be dead. From Florence we travelled by Bologna, Ferrara, Verona, to Venice, which last city kept us a week, and afterwards through the Tyrol, staying a little at Innspruck, to the lakes of Constance, Zurich, and Lucerne, thus seeing a little more of Switzerland. We ascended the St. Gothard and tho Rigi, and left that beautiful country by Schaffhausen, stayed two or three days at Stuttgart, and two or three weeks at Heidelberg, because my father had an intimate friend-— Mr. James Mitchell — living there, and then took up oiu; abode at Frankfort for a year. Furnished lodgings were not to bo met with ; wo had to take an empty house and furnish it ourselves ; perhaps the lack of such accommodation may have been one cause why no other English had located themselves there. We met our countrymen everywhere else, but it was 3G STOUY OF 0U« FAMILY. said that the Fraukfortors objected to their city being over- run as other cities were. We certainly did not make many acquaintances, but our opportunities were veiy much limited by various causes. We had scarlet fever in the house during the winter ; afterwards my father was absent in England for a considerable time, and my mother was entirely ignorant of the German language. William and I acquired it chiefly through our intercourse with one young lady, whose portrait now hangs in my room ; without this intimacy we should not have got on as well as w^e did, though doubtless we learnt a good deal from the masters who attended us. My brother John picked up the language at a scl)ool during the winter, but his German career was soon cut short, as my father wished him to go to a regular school in England, and took him over there, placing him at Midhurst, in Sussex. 1820. This was the first family separation, and henceforth mj^ story cannot always run in one line. Our man George also left us, not our service altogether, for he went to take care of Blythe, the term for which it had been let having expired ; but he never resumed his place in the family, for why will in due time appear. My father and brother William made a journey to Dresden dm'ing the summer, leaving the ladies at home. Towards the end of September we quitted Frankfort, chiefly regretting our musical vocal society, and our friend Elise. We were now on our way to Paris. We did not make a rapid journey, as we lingered a little on the Rhine, at Coblcntz, sketching under the auspices of our drawing master, who accompanied us so far ; but some time in October we reached Paris, our last resting place abroad. We had masters again as usual, and here I first began miniature painting, which was my style of following the art for a long time. Two of my cousins Briggs joined us, 8T0RV OF OUIl FAMILY. 87 and spent part of the winter with us, and my brother John came over for his Christmas holidays. When these were over we all left for England. So this winter at Pari? .vas the last of our career abroad, and in other respects it terminated ouo chapter of our existence. 1821. I shall have now some less pleasant things to say. My father had all this time continued a partner of the house in Liverpool, and had regular reports of its proceedings from his nephew Joe Langtou. These had not for some little time been as satisfactory as formerly. I think a year before this I was aware that there was some cause of anxiety connected with business, and the winding up of 1820 left no doubt of matters being in a bad train. I think that my father had resolved any way to take up his abode in Liverpool, for a time at least j his children were ever his first consideration, and ho wished to keep the family together, and that his son William should have a home whilst learning business. 1 1821. Joe Laugton was employed to secure us a suitable house in Liverpool, and in January we returned to England. Our travelling carriage was sold at Paris, and wo made acquain- tance with the diligence, travelling two days and one night consecutively, to reach Calais. We stayed a few days in London, and then my father went to Liverpool, my brother John to school again at Midhurst, aunt Alice to visit friends in the south, and my mother, William, and myself to Kirk- ham. We had no intention of settling in Liverpool until April, or we should have had taxes to pay upon two houses, as Blythe was still in occupation ; so until then we were my uncle and aunt Hornby's guests. We had bought in London a second-hand carriage, to use when wanted with hired horses, but we never had horses of our own again. It was rather awful coming home amongst our relations 88 STORY OF OUB FAMILY. after such a long abacuco, knowing that somo would bo inclined to expect a great deal from us on account of our advantages, and tliat others would bo very ready to detect any evil arising from a foreign education. However, we spent a veiy pleasant time with our cousins. They were good linguists, thougli brought up at home, and we took, first to reading, and then to speaking Italian with them, and had a great deal of amuse- ment in getting up a little Italian play, which wo acted to- gether. When April came, my father and mother and my brother William went to do the packing up at Blythe. I remained at Kirkham until they got to Liverpool, and joined them there, just stopping on my way at Blythe to see the old place. The carriage had been left to come with me, and I had an escort in my cousin Hugh Hornby, who was going to Liverpool at the same time. The house in Liverpool had been taken before things were found to be so bad, and was larger than was suitable for the establishment we proposed having, which was only two maid- servants, but we lived in it five years. The other Langtons contracted their style of living at the same time. Joe was just about to bo married, so it came rather hard upon him, but his mother and sister continued to make one family with him, though they were not affected by these calamities, for my uncle having died in prosperous times, their fortunes were secured. In my account of the next five years spent in Liverpool, I shall generalize very considerably. In the first place, I could not follow our story year by year, and in the second place it would not be worth it if I could. My brother William was placed in Messrs. Earle and Go's house to learn business ; John, after the holidays, did not return to Midhurst, but went daily to a 8T0UY OF OUIl FAMILY. 39 school in Liverpool, denominated Tlio Institution, so wo were onco moro living all together. Wo did not enter very largely into Liverpool society, for wo declined all dinner invitations, the usual way of entertaining there, because wo did not intend to give such parties ourselves; and excepting occasionally, wlun my father had a few gentlemen, or somo of our own relations came to us, we never did so. My father now went regularly to his office, and took up tho drudgery of Inisiness after being a gentleman at largo for so many years. Things, however, did not mend much, and in a year or two, I do not remember exactly when, my father and Joo Langton dissolved partner- ship. The latter never engaged in commerce again; he did somo under-writing, then became 8ul>agent of a branch of tho Bank of England, and finally head manager of the Bank of (I Liverpool. My father continued to follow his old business on the moro contracted scale he was able to do. 824. In 1824 my brother William went to London to be in tho house of Mr. Mitchell, an old friend of my father's, and a merchant on a very large scale ; neither with Messrs. Earle nor Mr. Mitchell did he receive any salary. My uncle Zachary kindly received him as a member of his own family, and this for several years. My mother, being the daughter of a clergy- man, was very desirous that one of her sons should go into the church, and that was proposed for my brother John, who consequently went to Cambridge in tho autumn of 1825. 1825. I have nothing much to tell of myself. I occasionally paid visits at Kirkham, sometimes with my parents, some- times without them, or among my Yorkshire relations, to some of my married cousins at Manchester, or other friends. On one occasion my father and mother and I went and stayed for a few weeks with my uncle Zachary in London. Once or twice, when my brother William was able to have a little 40 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. holiday, wc went into Wales ; it was the most accessible place we could go to for enjoyment, and was therefore chosen for our excursions. 182G. I have paused some time in my writing, partly perhaps with a little slirinking from all that must now be re- corded, the painful events of 1826. It opened with a fearful commercial crisis ; there was seldom a day that some im- poi'tant failure was not reported. Mj father's business had not been doing great things, but there would have been no cause for alarm as to its stability but for tliis unfortunate state of affairs. It is well known how in the network of com- merce, when one loop gives way, it loosens many others, and so it was that in that year my father decided to call his credi- tors together. He felt he was doing the right thing ; if he had struggled on perhaps the ship might have righted itself, but if it had gone down after all, it would have drawn many more into the vortex. As it was he had every expectation that be was stopping in time for every farthing to be paid. He was not made a bankrupt; it was all done by private agreement, but it came to the same thing. An unfortunate law-suit frustrated his hopes of paying all himself, but his sou AVilliam did it for him. It was only accomplished after we uame to Canada, and the letter announcing it was the first that reached us after my dear father had been laid in his grave — but am anticipating. I was at Kirkham when the crisis came, and, unfortunately, could not return home at once as I would have done, because aunt Alice had just been attacked with scarlet fever, and I was to be kept away from infection. There was of course a question whether my brother John could remain at Cambridge in these altered circumstances ; but my aunt Hornby settled it by coming forward with her daughters to furnish the means for his doing STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 41 SO. They say that misfurtune tries friends ; it certainly brings a great deal of kindness to the surface. One friend of ours (Miss Hastcrley, a governess) volunteered her savings to pre- vent my brother being removed from college ; happily there was no need for us to be indebted to any but our nearest relations. My mother's brother-in-law, Mr. Briggs, sent her ^300 to buy in the plate, and aunt Alice, with her small wavings, rescued a portion of the books. What was allowed from the estate was £G00, and with that wo had to begin the world again, buying in as much of the furniture as was requisite for the small house we were going into. Wo thought ourselves fortunate in finding one to suit us on the noi-th shore, about three miles from Liverpool, a semi-detached house, with none other at all near but that of our landlord. The place began to fill up veiy much during our residence there, and it is now one continued street all the way to Liver- pool, the docks extending far beyond where we could then ramble in solitude. The situation was especially convenient because of a canal running close past us, on which there were passage boats going to and fro several times in the day. Of course my father was now unable to do what he had done for aunt Alice, and it was at this time that her ne;)hcws Brirminated, we had the opportunity of letting our house for the remainder of our term, provided we left it immediately ; so we had a vciy hasty packing up and stowing away of our goods, without in the least knowing what in the future was to happen to us, but with a strong suspicion that Canada would be our next step. It was very clear that my father now desired it, but ho would not have made such a move without the free consent of all the party. He put it to us each separately, aunt Alice included, for he would not have done anything which he believed would have made the rest of her life uncomfortable. I do not ask you to realise what it was for my mother, who was now seventy years old, either to ftice the prospect before her, or to bid adieu to her first born child. I believe we never realise such things ourselves, but are supported in our trials partly by the very limit of our capacity. There was such a consciousness of its being rather a wild scheme, all things considered, that when the step was resolved upon it was kept most strictly secret, and it was painful in some cases to sec almost the last of our friends without being able to allude to the coming parting. 46 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 183G. When wo left our home at Bootlc so suddenly, my brother Avould have us come at ouco to him, but we went for a short time to a lodging in Wales, returning, however, to spend our last winter with him. 1837. When in the end the Canada project had to be made generally known, you may imagine it created much surprise, and was met by many remonstrances. It was curious to see the diflferent ways in which people viewed it ; I allude to out- siders. I recollect one gentleman saying to me, *' I do not think much of it on your account — you're young, and may enjoy the excitement, but for the old people it is dreadful /' whilst another gentleman said, " I do not think much of it for your father and mother ; at their age it docs not much matter where they are ; but for you it is being buried alive." The only opposition that was really very much cared for was my brother's. He had been for some time allowing his parents £'^00 a year to help out their veiy uncertain means, and would have increased that allowance to anything in his power if that would have induced them to give up the plan ; and one of the most painful things was, that in some quarters it was surmised that it was for lack of adequate generosity on his part that we were leaving our country. When the time approached there was a great deal to be done. We had packed up our possessions in a hurry — some were stowed into one place, some in another, some in Liverpool, some in Manchester; eveiytl ing had to be opened and re- packed, suitable selections to be made, and suitable addi- tions to our stores ; it was a most exhausting time, both for mind and body. I recollect once dun ig these packing labours finding myself at six o'clock in tlic morning, thoroughly chilled, kneeling at my bedside, where I had been saying my prayers the night before. I had just time to jump into bed, STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 47 ftiul get warm before rising to dress. No doubt bodily fatigue hollaed to smother mental emotion, but it is a time that I do not like to recall, so I will pass at once to the twenty-fourth of May, 1837, when we embarked at Livci-pool, having spent the last day or two with our good friend Mrs. Cardwell, my brother and sister, with their little girl Alice, being there, as well as the departing ones. There was a great muster of rela- tives on the wharf when the "Independence" set sail. My last pages have been somewhat gloomy, and I have gone through the events of several years very hastily, not having much pleasure in dwelling on a period that was not the brightest of our lives. A gradual and persistent descent is naturally not exhilarating, but I have perhaps left it too much of a blank. For one thing, I find scai'ccly any names mentioned, and it might be supposed that, during our sojourn in the great town of Liverpool, we were less well off for society than in our backwoods life, of which you have still to hear. I shall therefore name some of our associates, though there is much danger that in entering into details on« may be induced to give too many and become tedious. We did not come to Liverpool quite as strangers ; to begin with, there were our relations, the other Langtons, one of whom had already united that family with the Earles. My cousin Joe Honiby Avas settled there and just married ; he and his sweet young brido were amongst the first we saw in England when we returned from the continent, for they were on their wedding trip, paying a visit to his father and mother at Kirkham, when we were added to the family. A year or two later, his elder brother Hugh returned from abroad, bringing with him an engaging foreign wife, and settled likewise in Liverpool ; and as the lady know scarcely any English, and wo had not lost our familiarity with the 48 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. French language, wo naturally assorted a good deal with our new cousin, and a very lasting friendship was formed. The Card wells too were at that time living in Liverpool, and our near neighbours. The youngest, Eliza (Lady Thriug), was not born until after we came there, and was always a sort of pet with us. When we were living at Bootle my mother used to like to have children staying with us sometimes, and Eliza and one of Hardman Earle's boys were amongst our occasional visitors. Mr. Rawdon, who had married my mother's niece, Charlotte Briggs, came likewise to reside near Liverpool. He and his two brothers were extremely musical, and as I was in full practice at that time, wo used often to have Beethoven and Mozart trios and quartets together. On one occasion, at Manchester, I heai'd Halle, with proportionate talent round him, perform on the same evening two of the pieces which the Rawdons and I had executed together. I enjoyed it very much you may suppose. Besides these relations we had some old friends, and others who naturally became so from being connected in one way or the other with members of our family. Of the first were the Dicksous. Mr, Dickson had been of old an intimate friend both of my fixthcr and my imcle William Langton, and his children had already been our play-fellows when meeting in early days at Southport. After a time the family moved to a distance from Liverpool, and we lost sight of each other a good deal for many years. Then there were the Roughscdges, relations of the Hornby's. Mr. Roughsedgo had been for a groat many years Rector of Liverpool, and his daughters, who knew everything and everyone in the place, wore a regular chronicle and a very amusing one. They were li^ ing close to us, and another near neighbour on the other side was Mrs. Neilson. She had been one of several STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 49 Miss Backhouses; one sister bad married iuto the Horuby, and another iuto the Birlcy family, aud there were four un- married. Mrs. Neilsou had been a great beauty ; she Uke ourselves had a fall from prosi^erity, and was left a widow with several children to bring up. It was her youngest sou who married Mary Langton. With the eldest daughter I was ou the high road to intimacy, though it had scarcely reached that point when she died. She was a nice gentle girl, and I recollect my brother William saying that though he liked to flirt aud dance with other girls, if ho wanted a quiet chat ko went to Fanny Neilsou. The four unmarried Miss Backhouses lived out in the country, and were extremely kind to my brother William, in affording him the benefit of fresh air, by asking him to come and breakfast with them at any time, and as he was not strong, and being chained to a desk was a very new thing to him, he often availed himself of their invitation, and rode out ou a pony he had at that time. The greatest individual intimacy that I had whilst we lived in Liverpool, was alto- gether a new acquaintance. Miss Salisbury, afterward Mrs. Peter Ewart. She was an only child, and having been very delicate, was not going much into society, aud I think I was sought by the parents as a suitable companion for her. We were about the same age, had both been abroad, consequently linguists, and we had many tastes and pursuits in common. They lived some miles in the country, aud I often went to stay a week or ten days at a time, and found them very pleasant visits. We did suit, aud liked each other very much, but first we left town to live quite in another dircc tion, then she married, and our lives fell asunder. It was not until some time after we went to Bootle that my intimacy with Miss Lowe began, which coutiiuiod very E 50 STORY OP OUU FAMILY. steady whilst wo remained in England, and how it was re- newed, and what new ties arose between iis, all my nieces know full well. My life both in Liverpool and Bootlo was a good deal diversified by visits amongst my cousins, married and un- married, and also my second cousins of the Willis and Feikl' n family, to say nothing of those to my brother William, both before and after his marriage. Once, too, I went, along with 1829. aunt Alice, to pay some visits in my mother's old neighbour- hood, being myself quite a stranger, but as her daughter ^ looked at with interest, and, I am afraid, sometimes with dis- appointment. I was introduced to an old gentleman in a room full of company, who took hold of my hand, and, after gazing at me for a second or two, flung it away, saying, " Not half so pretty as her mother." It was during this visit that, fortunately for me. Miss Swale took a fancy to me, for, tiiough my host and hostess were very kind, they could not have lionised me over the country as she did. She began by seeking me out whilst I was sketching, and afterwards we did a great deal of walking in early mornings, more than our elders thought good for us, but we were young and took no harm. Besides these visits, I was no less than three times in Ireland. The first time it was to stay with the Welds at their place, llavenswell, near Bray. Of all our foreign made friendships, this, I think, was the closest, and Mrs. Weld was with eveiy one of the family, old and young, a very first favourite. Both of my brothers were there part of the time, but mine was a longer visit. The beautiful country, and Mr. Weld's art collections, gave my pencil plenty of work, but at this time I did not go further than a very few miles from Bray ; however, I also spent a fortnight with Lady Synnot in 1830. Dublin. My second visit to Ireland was when Miss Swale STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 51 first came to sco us at Bootlo. It was a holiday tinio to both my brotlicrs, and we four young people set out to make a little tour by ourselves. Wo were only away from Monday to Saturday, but we accomplished a very great deal, considering that it was before railway times. We went through the county of Wicklow, saw Dublin, returning vid Holyhead, came across Anglcsca during the night, and then gave ourselves ono good day's rest at Bangor. There, whilst we were lying on the grass most luxuriously in the gardens of the Peurhyn Arms, we little thought what wild, hot work was going on in Paris, for it was that thirtieth of July, 1830, which tore the crown from Charles the Tenth. From Bangor, Jack will be interested to hear, we took that self-same round that he and I did so long afterwards, by Lake Ogweu, Capel Currig, and the vale of Llaurwst to Conway, and the gloom of the evening was almost as favourable to the grandeur of the Pass, as was the gloom of our storm ; from Conway, however, we took a small boat, and met the steamer coming from Bangor. All our weather that week had been most beautiful, but just about the time that we were entering the Mersey we were powerfully reminded of the description in Scripture of the cloud arising " like a man's hand," for such a one most suddenly overspread the heavens, and we landed in the midst of a tremendous rain storm ; indeed, it must have been quite remarkable for its severity, for we heard after- wards that one or two persons had been drowned in cellars in the lower part of Liverpool. 1833. The third time I was in Ireland was with my father. We went for a short visit to the Welds, and from there made a two days' tour in Wicklow, taking along with us a young friend of Mr. Weld's who was staying at Ravenswell, a youth of about seventeen or eighteen, who had never been more than ten miles 52 8T0IIY OF OUll FAMILV. from Dubliu. Ho wua most amusingly excited over his jour- ney, bleeping at au inn senmed to him quite a romantic adveu- ture, and he took the greatest delight iu everything ho saw. The pleasui'O wo found we were giving added very much to our owu. I joined my father in Loudon once, when business detained him there for some weeks. It was just after my brother William's engagement, ai d my future sister-in-law was in the metropolis at the same time iu lodgings with her brother, so, as we neither of us had a lady belonging to us, we used often to meet and do our shoppings and other wanderings together. Very soon afterwards I waa called to Ilibby to be her brides- maid. As I have mentioned or alluded to so many visits, I will just say a few words regarding our own hospitalities. Various members of the cousinhood were often our guests, but we also had occasionally some of our foreign made friends with us. Tho Walsh and Coddiugtou party stayed with us once, and Lady Synnot and her fiimily, on their return from .•^* J Italy. Miss Hasterley, too, when she came to England to seo her own friends, spent several weeks with us. I may mention, also, as an interesting incident, our receiving at dinner Sir John Franklyn and all his party, on the eve of their embarkation at Liverpool, when starting on his second Arctic expedition. 1832. When my parents became grandparents there was a new interest in our lives. Four children were born to my brother before we left England, and alas ! one dear little fellow died ; it was during a visit they were paying to us at Bootlo. The eldest had already won her way very deeply into my heart, and I think I felt the parting from her almost more than from the ciders ; they would not change, I should always know what they were, but the child would never be the same. I STORV OF OUR FAMILY. 03 found her, when T returned to England the first time, nhnost growi- up ; before my second visit she had been married to Mr. Arthur Hoywood, and had died, leaving another Alice in her place. One circumstance I have to relate, which I wonder did not come into an earlier page, namely, my brother John's coming over from Canada in 1836. He, and his companion Mr. Macredic, very economically took their passage in the steerage. They landed on Sunday morning. John walked out to Bootlo, arriving just before church time. He thought it a pity to excite us just at that moment, so he stopped short of home, watched us go into church, and then entered the deserted house. Our surprise, however, did not come by finding him there, for he had been seen by other friends, who prepai-ed us for the meeting when service was over ; in fact I believe he had pur- posely shown himself to them, lest the surprise should be rather too sudden. He only I'emained a few weeks in England to talk over his affairs with his father and brother, and also raise a little money towards the stipend of a clergyman at Fenelon Falls, where the young backwoodsmen had already put up their little log church. At that time we were quite unaware that, in less than a year, we should bo ourselves making preparations for following him to his distant home. My next business is to record our journey, and arrival there. SECOND PART. CONCLUDED the first part of this narrative at our embarkation in the "Independence" (May 24th, 1837), surrounded, in the midst of our sorrowful parting, with every sign of rejoicing, for it was the day on which the Princess Victoria, so soon to become our queen, came of age, and all the shipping in the harbour was dressed out to do her honour. When we had really, seen the last of our friends, there was a gi'eat sense of relief that the much-dreaded parting was .ver, and that after so much harrowing excitement and bodily fatigue we had nothing to do but to submit to the evils of a sea voyage. We were fortunate in having a quite calm day to start with, and we were all able to sit down to dinner and make necessary arrangen ':s for comfort in our small quarters. When I had seen my two old ladies settled in their berths, I walked with my father a good while on deck, I believe until near midnight, whereby I got an ex- ceedingly bad cold to add to the other miseries of the voyage. As I have talked of being on deck till midnight, I may as well say here that in these sailing packets we had not to submit to the same strict rules as at present in steamships. STORY OF OUIt FAMILY. 65 Our liijjhts Avci'C safely hung, but not in boxes; they were quite under our own control. My mother often kept hers burning all night, and the captain, about dawn, used to put in his arm and extinguish it. Two young men had joined tho ship at the last, when the state rooms were all occupied, and the captain rigged them up some sort of a shakedown with a curtain before it. and would not have refused them a light, but of their own accord they very prudently made a point of going to bed in the dark. Instead of the saloon occupying the whole width of tho ship, as in Sarmatians and Polynesians now-a-days, it was a strip down the centre, with state-rooms off it on each bide, more like our river boats, but a good portion of one end of this strip Avas partitioned off as a ladies' cabin. Those gentlemen who had ladies belonging to them, and the captain, often frequented it, still it was properly tho ladies' quarters, ladies and married pairs occupied the state- rooms off it ; moreover the lad'os wore not seen in tho gentlc- meu's part, excepting at meal times, so the society was never quite promiscuous excepting on deck. Owing to these arrange- ments only being known to me, I made a great mistake in my first voyage per steame:, by securing my berth in tho ladies' cabin, which in lieu of being a cabin with state-rooms off it, was itself only a state-room, wdth four berths instead of two, so that, having the veiy first choice, for I had applied early, I found myself in about the worst quarters. However, my business now concerns m^ life in the " Independence." Of course rougher weather soon came, with all its consequences. I do not think that my mother was a much worse sailor than .nany others, as far as direct sea-sickness went, but it brought on spasms in her head, and many nervous and distressing symptoms, and a very great increase of the deafness, which 56 STORY OP OUB FAMILY. had been coming on, and this remained permanently. Aunt Ahco, too, got ill and feverish, and generally upset, when all sickness was over, so that it was a very anxious time. My incessant cough must have been almost as disagreeable to follow passengers as it was to myself, but they did their best to cure it, for I was most abundantly supplied with lozenges ; everybody seemed to be provided with such things. We had made a little provision for my father, Avho was in the hobit of swallowing a raw cg^ the first thing in a morning, and one rough day, when the captain had given his arm to my mother to conduct her to her stateroom, on opening the door the eggs were found rolling about on the floor. The captain seemed extremely indignant ; it looked as if bis providing had been \ mistrusted. Towards the latter end of our voyage we had some very fine weather, so things mended a little, and I must say, that when it is fine, there is much greater enjoyment in sailing than in steaming. One fine day the captain brought his letter-bags on deck to sort ; he seemed to be his own mail clerk, and we had evidence that he remained so long after, when we received a letter with "Cp^)tain Nye's Compliments" written on the back of it. How different now ! the mail bags seem to give full occupation to the mail clerk ; one of them told me that the letters alone, independent of parcels and newspapers, average 18,000 each Aveek, Avhilst the packets were monthly when we came out. Amongst a great many, we had some very pleasant fellow passengers, both American and English, and some decidedly otherwise ; amongst these were several children and their nurses, who in bad weather crowded the cabin terribly, besides adding to all the incessant noise. One child had been considerately provided for its diversioii with a toy that we used to denominate a bairel organ, which STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 57 kept up a hon-ible tinkling. With such invalids as I had, I cannot tell you what the misery of noise was. One draw back to the separation of gentlemen and ladies was, that the former used to indulge in toasts and speeches, and hip, hip hurrahs, and my poor mother had been obliged to have her state room off the gentlemen's cabin, as the ladies' was full before we had taken our passages. It gave one a feeling of desperation sometimes, that no stillness whatever could be obtained. Mrg^joor^^oi Toronto, was a fellow passenger ; wo did not know that we should one day live in a street that had taken its name from her family. One English ladj, was going out alone, or in the care of the captain, to fulfil a matrimonial engagement, and as her friend did not appear to meet her when we landed, we took her with us to our hotel, and though, when the gentleman appeared, he provided her with other lodgings in the interval, she was married from jur hotel, my father giving her away, and I acting as bridesmaid. I had become rather intimate with ^\:.r during the voyage, we had one inter- change of letters after we reached our destination, and, about two years afterwards, I had a letter from her husband telling me that she was dead. I am going on too fast, for I have not yet recorded our arrival. [837. We landed at New York on the 18th of June, and all the British shipping iii the harbour was decorated iu honour of the Duke of Wellington and Waterloo ; so the flags were flying both at our embarkation and at our lauding. I did not feel as joyous to see land as I ought to have done ; after all, our life at sea was comparatively restful, and with such a party as ours the travelling prospects seemed formidable, though we did not know how much trouble was before us. There were a great many anxious countenances as we approached land, and much excitement when the pilot 58 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. came on bourcl. Tlicre waA a financial crisis at the time, somewhat resembling that of 1826, and America was suffering greatly. Many of onr passengers were business men hurrying home, and dreading what they might hear when they arrived. One old gentleman, who had been very kind and attentive to us, learnt the downfall of his house. There were a couple of Montreal merchants who never seemed to have much to say to each other during the voyage, but when the pilot's news was disclosed they fraternised, and walked up and down the deck together in caraest conversat.on. Others of our principal ac- quaintances had their sources of depression. The bride-elect was more nervous than joyous, and one gentleman who had gone to Europe with a wife, was I'cturning a widower to her mourning relations. There was enough to make all serious, but I hope we were thankful likewise, for our voyage had certainly been a favourable one, and also short, only twenty- five days. We landed on Sunday morning, and those who were able went to church in the afternoon, notwithstanding our very dilapidated travelling costume. Wo had not taken the pre- caution of putting on good things to come on shore Avith, and we were not allowed to take away our luggage u.itil it had been examined the next day; so wo had to return tD the ship on Monday morning for the satisfaction of the custom-house. I have not mentioned one of our travelling comjianions. We had our little dog "Fury" with us, and a gret^t care and anxiety she was, both at sea and afterwards. In the "Indepen- dence" we heard that there was a conspiracy amongst the sailors to throw her overboard, and wr dared scarcely let her out of our sight. At New York it was worse, for the laws w^ere so very stringent about dogs not being seen in the streets, that wo had to watch her veiy closely. Aunt Alice was "Fury's" 8T0RY OF OUR FAMILY. 59 chief guardian, and she was generally fiistened up in her room. Poor little thing ! she did not live long after wo got to our home, but survived the first winter and felt the cold very much, especially the frozen snow to her poor little feet. If she had gone out with anyone she would sometimes throw herself on her back and hold up her four paws, complaining bitterly, and once, when she was heard screaming somewhero away from the house, she was found on her back, no' having resolution to put down her feet and trot homo. Instead of recruiting on shore my nother became more unwell. After trying such remedies as blisters and leeches, wo at last called in medical advice, and from day to day our onward journey was postponed, Occasionally my fiithcr and I left the two old ladies and explored a little. We exchanged calls with some friends we had knoAvn in Liverpool, the Maury s, and once dined out at the house of a gentleman to whom my father had a letter of introduction, which gave us a ten mile drive into the country. It was a very pretty spot, and as we were standing on the terrace admiring the view, I received what appeared a slap in the face ; it was our host killing a mosquito on my forehead, so I enlarged my experiences and made ac- quaintance with the enemy. Our drive home at night was beautifully illuminated with fireflies. The coming off of our wedding, too, was another incident to fill up the weary time of waiting. At length my mother was a little better, and very anxious to pursue our journey ; so we managed to set out on the tliird of July, sailing up the Hudson, but only to make a short day's journey as far as Westpoint. The beauties of the Hudson are well known ; there is a good deal of variety in the scenery, and atWcstpo'.nt it is especially romantic. The hotel is beautifully situated on the edge of the cliff, and a wide teirace verandah 60 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. runs round three sides of the house, so that notwithstanding a wet afternoon we could enjoy the lovely prospect. The fourth of July (anniversary of independence) was celebrated by a great dinner for the young cadets of the military college there, a service in the church, and at our hotel a dance in the evening. The company was numerous, but I believe it assembled there not so much to celebrate the anniversary as to avoid the cele- bration at New York, and enjoy peace and quiet instead of bustle and confusion. We, too, were glad to have got out of the city, and in this fine elevated situation there was a better chance of my mother recruiting. We rested until the sixth, and then again set forward in the river boat, 1837. Embarking or disembarking was rather confusing work, it had to be done so expeditiously ; the stoppages are always exceedingly short. We had twenty-one packages to look after. Our proceeding used to be, first to collect them all together in one spot, and the moment our boat stopped, either I, or my fiither, went on shore, the other waited to see things off, counting them as they went, and similarly the one on shore counted them as they came out. It is a great help to know the number ; on one occasion, long afterwards, when one package out of six only was missing, I could not for some timo recall what the package was, and if I had not known that my number was incomplete, might not have observed the loss in time to take the proper means for recovering it. On this journey we got over twenty-one packages all safe witliout aay alarm. Aunt Alice took charge of the dog, and my mother had quite enough to do to look after herself. She was quite ill again at Albany, and we fully expected to be once more detained; however, we did get on by short days' journeys, and at Utica embarked on the Erie Canal. Wo were f tunate in having very few passengers, and the ladies' cabin entirely 8T0BY OF OUR FAMILY. 61 to ourselves, so wo made up our minds to sleep on board, aud this one night and two long days brought us to lloohester. Wo passed through a groat deal of very wild forest country, and I say in my journal that for the first time I felt really like an emigrant making my way to the far west. Our direct com'se would have been to cross Lake Ontario from Hochester to Cobourg, but our plan had been to go round and see Niagara before burying ourselves in our backwoods home. My mother, too, was really improving, so we proceeded with our original programme, and coasted the lake on the American side to the Niagara river (July, 1837), sleeping at Lewistown, and reaching the Falls on the twelfth. Of these, as I could never say enough, I shall say very little. As many have expressed a sense of disappointment on the first view, I remark in my journal that I did not, but that I had an unsatisfied feeling arising from a consciousness that the weakness of my ow^u powers of conception prevented me from grasping the idea of grandeur and magnificence which the scene was calculated to inspire, that each succeeding view removed this in part, but that I felt still convinced that two days were very insufficient to give me an adequate conception of the grand scale on which nature is exhibited at Niagara. We remained the first day on the American side, seeing all the various points from Goat Island, and the second day crossed the ferry to the Clifton House. The spray was driving down the river and seemed to take away one's breath just as when first plunging into cold water. After seeing all the beauties of Niagara from the British side, we made our first acquamtance with fellow emigrants. A college friend of my brother John had settled and married here, so we went to call on th';m. Curiously enough the lady ho had married was a school-fellow of my sister-in-law, Mrs. 62 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. William Langton, and the baby's nurse came from the neigh- bourhood of Kirkham, and knew all our families by name. They were naturally very friendly, but their discourse was anything but encouraging j here is a specimen I copy from my journal : — " 'It is a horrid country,' says one. *It is well you should kno\v what to expect ; you will have to be your own cook and housemaid by turns.' ' Can you wash and iron] ' says another. ' I hope you can bake, or else you will starve.' 'You are literally going amongst bears and wolves; I am sorry for your sake that John should have fixed himself in such an out-of-the-way place,' &c. &c. Well ! well ! so am I ; but it does not signify much. Cabin passengers do not escape sea sickness, and those in the steerage reach land just as soon and as safely. May we look forward to the better land we are bound for, and care little for the discomforts of the present !" I went on to the end of the passage, with its commentaiy and the little metaphor derived from recent experiences; for as this history cannot be very lively at present, you will allow of the ' serious. More than forty years have gone since those days ; we have been cook and housemaid and baked our own bread, and done many other strange things, and both Mr. and Mrs. Sawbridge have been long since at the end of their earthly career. July, On the fourteenth we drove to Queenstown to embark 1837. for Toronto ; in passing over some high ground we looked over an ocean of forest, as flat, aiid apparently as intermin- able, as that on which we had been sailing a month before. It was a singular and striking view; I have never seen a similar one since. At Toronto we got our expected letter from my brother John, but it was not altogether a cheering i STORY OP OUR FAMILY 63 one, for we found we had hurried him by our premature arrival. He had intended us to come out later in the season, but we had been desirous to get the journey over before very hot weather. However, we gave him a little more time than we expected, for here my mother fell ill again, and three weeks more elapsed before we could proceed to oiu* destination, or rather a month, for there was another delay at Peterborough. One of the twenty-one packages we had to look after belonged to our fellow passenger Mrs. Bloor, so we called to deliver it somewhere in the country, I should say from my then impres- sion, but most likely it was the afterwards well-known Bloor Street. Our principal acquaintance at Toronto was the doctor, and of him we saw a great deal, for my mother was again quite ill, a pretty prospect for us who were going to the back- woods to be miles and miles away from any doctor. I really do not remember any incident outside the walls of the North American hotel, excepting my father and I once dining at Government House, as we had special letters to Sir Francis Head. A little shopping, too, for here we heard of the death of William the Fourth, and thought it our duty to show our loyalty by wearing black, as we were still in the midst of the world, and had to appear at a public table. I cannot be as particular in my dates now, as I dropped journalizing when we got to Toronto, but it must have been about three weeks from our arrival there that we once more started on our journey, reaching Port Hope the first day. Here we recei"<^ed some attention from a gentleman known to my brother. Colonel Kingsmill. He invited us to breakfast at his house the next morning, as it lay on our route towards llice Lake, which accordingly we did. His lady was more dolorous in her reports of the country even than the Saw- bridges, but I do not think that we felt much damped ; we had 64 STOllY OF OUR FAMILY. heard all about it before, and had made up our miuds. I aan borry to say that sucli complaints are much more common among the ladies than among the gentlemen, but then I cer- tainly believe that their trial is the hardest ; their drudgery is more uniform, and there is no romance to cast a little glitter upon it. We drove to Rico Lake, whence the steamer took us up the winding Otanabee to Peterborough. When Avithin two or three miles of that place the captain called out, "Hero is Mr. Langton," He came down to meet us in his canoe, which was soon drawn on board, and then we received a more cheering welcome than that letter we met at Toronto had been. One of my brother's friends had come with him, but he and the other passengers, with great discretion, withdrew from that end of the boat where the family reunion was taking jdace. It was quite dark when we reached Peterborough. I well remember my impressions on the first look out in the morning. How wild ! A waste wilderness of wood, — not so much the growing woods, which were not far off, but the precious article seemed thrown about > .erywhere. There were sticks and logs in every square yard of the little plain before us, to say nothing of stumps; it was the first bit of genuine "backwoods" I had seen. I have seen a good deal of them since, but that first impression is indelible. The next day we were introduced to some of my brother's friends, who were soon to become ours, and on the next Satur- day a party of young backwoodsmen came down for the piurpose of rowing us vip the lakes on Monday. But alas ! now I was ill and not fit for the journey, and we had once more to make a medical acquaintance, so the young men went home again. In a day or two I was all right, and the delay enabled us to ace a little more of Peterborough and its people. One day I STORY OF OUR FAMILY, 65 astonished the guests at the public table by showing that I was much better acquainted with tlie geography of the district than any one of tlieni. The f\ict was, I had copied maps of it when my brother first came out, and I knew quite well where every individual township was situated, which I am sure I do not now. The next Saturday another crew came down, and wo finally did get off on Monday, driving six miles to Mud Lake and arriving at Bobcaygeon about dusk. I thought it a lovely spot, — such beautiful trees overhanging the water, and all so still and solemn looking. As Bobcaygeon was a regular stopping place, there were one or two houses where accommo- dation could be had. We travellers were deposited in one, and our young men withdrew to their accustomed quarters, and, as I heard, spent a very jolly evening after their labours. I do not think wo felt exactly jolly, but, no doubt, very thankful to be so near the end of our journey. The last day came, and on the fifteenth of August, 1837, we reached our new homo. How anxiously we looked for it as we were being rowed up Sturgeon Lake ; but it does not come in sight until you are quite close to it. Certainly my brother had fixed upon one of the most attractive spots, where a creek finds its way into the lake in almost a bay, for a beautiful point of land projects into the water on one side, and the ground rises con- siderably at a little distance from the lake. There on the hill stood our still unfinished house, looking quite stately in com- parison with anything near it. There was nothing to dis- hearten in the aspect of things, and we had had it fully described to us. The only thing that did startle me was the extreme roughness of the ground. ^ly fear was for my old people. I felt as if there was no spot where they cf)»dd take a little turn without stumbling upon a stone, or catching their feet in a root, I daresay J ohn felt anxious, too, to see from Z' 66 STORY OP OUU FAMILY. our comitt'iiaiiccs liovv wc were impressed by our new abode. I do not think ho found imytliing unsatisfactory there. So wo asconded the hill, not to our own house, but to his. The first incident was that our little dog " Fury " mado a violent on- slaught on John's cat, so there was discord in the camp at once, and puss was a great favourite, and moreover quite a character. Fury had been incorrigible in her behaviour to cats, but she had to learn respect for the older inhabitant, and did so. Before going on with my narrative of our life at Blythe, you should hear something of the then state of the settlement, and how my brother came to fix himself there. When he came out in the spring of 1833 he had no definite purpose as to what part of the province he shoidd locate himself in, but he did not waste much time in looking about him. The lands bordering these lakes were looked upon very favourably at the time, and several of the new comers were meditating making their purchases there. The long string of lakes running one into the other, and with no great extent of land dividing them from some of the larger ones, made it almost certain that with some canal cutting they would soon become a great highway :;onnccting Lakes Ontario and Huron, and if it had not been .for the rapid development of the railway system, then quite unforeseen, it most assuredly must have been so. As it was, progress was much slower than had been anticipated, and later on, one by one, almost all of the original settlers moved away to follow their fortunes elsewhere, some to find them, some to do little better, and some, I fear, a little worse. But I was about to go back and not forward. I think one visit of in- spection decided my brother's choice; at my request he has given me a little sketch of his own first coming out, and it has the advantage of introducing the names of many who 8T0UY OF OUR FAMILY. 67 formed part of our community, names which may bo moutioncd again in the course of my narrative : — *' I landed at New York early in July, 1833, and from thence went to Peterborough, where I had some letters of intro- duction. A plan had been devised at that time of having a water communication between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, by a canal from Lake Sinicoe to Balsaui Lake, and thence down the chain of lakes to the Trent and the bay of Quint'^, and a surveying party was just about starting to explore the route. There appeared, therefore, to bo a favourable location olong that chain of lakes, and J was furthur induced to look at the country because Need, to whom I had a letter of introduction, had already located himself on Sturgeon Lake. I went up with an Indian and explored. On my return I found McAndrew at Peterborough, and went up with him for a second explo- ration. We liked the prospects, and on our return, at the next sale of Crown lands, we made our purchases. Besides the particular lots which I selected for my own location, J purchased very cheap some United It ttatCB rights, which I located on adjoining lots. This gave mo an opportunity of selecting my neighbours, and as I sold the land to them, to be paid in three or four years' instalments in work, it was a gi'eat convenience to them, and I always had labourers when I wanted them. Just before the winter set in, McAndrew and I went up to take possession of our lands. I believe I chopped down the first tree chopped by a settler in Feuelon, except on a lot at the extreme end of the township next to Ops, which I think was in advance of me. The men I had taken up with nio handed me the axe, and looked on while I chopped the tree. 68 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. "At that time our only settlers were, Need and Sawcrs, near Bobcaygeon ; Frascr and Darcus a little further up on Sturgeon lake; McAndrew and I further still, and about four miles apart ; and Jamicson, who had purchased Fenelon Falls and had commenced a settle- ment there. That winter Mc^iindrew and I were delighted with an incursion of visitors. Jamieson, who was not much up the lakes himself, brought a party of friends — Wallis, McCaul, McCredie, and others. Wallis went into partnership with Jamieson to build mills at Fene- lon Fails; McCaul and McCredie took up their quarters with McAndrew ; and Dennistoim some months after- wards came out and established himself on Camerons Lake. About a year afterwards Atthill established himself amongst us; Dundas came to live with Den- n'stouu, and afterwards went on a farm of his own; Maj.r Hamilton, with whom we had been intimate at Peterborough, took up his grant on Camerons Lake, and after his death his family came to live there, and McCredie's brother Tom came and joined us; it was not till two years afterwards that Boyd came out and settled. Where are they now? McAndrew was the first to go. His brother failed, and as he lost his means by the failure he went nome to go into business in Liverpool, and in 1847 settled in New York. McCaul went home, and not long afterwards died. McCredie went home with me in 1836, and did not come out again. He went to Bermuda first, and afterwards to Australia. Tom, whom I left in charge of my place when I went home, soon after my return went home likewise, and he, too, is in Australia. Darcij,3 soon left, and went first to Peterborough and then to the Stftt.es. Sawers went into the army, and soon after 4; t eg PU CO P O n 3 GM aa 'A » O o P4 CO •^ o o a cc W5 S2 ,a 41 Si 9 -( ■2.3 « Is -3 i o ''' ^ • ^ o a « X =^ !U o a a cS_2 M « u o 33 °:S -^ CO a) > M" tc o ftp STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 69 died. There were left when my people came out, Dennis- toun, Dundas, and the Hamiltons on Camerons Lake, Wallis at Fcnelon Falls, for J-^mieson rarely came amongst us, and latterly li7cd at Liverpool, where he died, and Atthill, who afterwards went into the Cliurch, and was curate at Newmarket. He went home also, and died. Ho left his younger brother Ned, who also later on went home. Fraser remained for some years und then went to Peterborough. Need remained for some time, having left his farm for Bobcaygeon, where he budt a saw-mill. Boyd was on his farm f several years till he succeeded Need at the mill. These were my neighbours when my people came out. The Dunsfurds came next — Jem and Hartley first, and then the rest of the family — and afterwards Wickhara, who bought Atthill's place. The only one now left is Boyd." I may now resume my own narrative. John contrived to lodge us all in his own habitation, and we continued to occupy it from August 15th to November 20th, when we were able to take possession of the big house, as the neighbours called it. The sketch opposite will show what the accommodation was. The master of the house had rigged up for himself some sort of a couch at the end of the porch, with a curtain before it. My father slept in John's hammock, slung at night in the sitting- room, until he got ill, when he changed places with me. Pre- viously I sbpt with my mother in the Inrger bedroom, No. 5, and aunt Alice occupied the small room leading into it. The large bed and some other comforts were lent for a time by Mr. Wallis, and whilst the fine weather lasted we had for dining- room a commodious marquee. The kitehen was a detached building — the first habitation John had put up for himself; his present one had been built more at leisure. There Avas a guod 70 STORY OF OUH FAMILY. loft over all, which you entered by a, little ladder-stair in the comer of the passage bedroom. Sometimes John had a servant, sometimes none ; at this time he had an elderly woman who occupied the kitchen building, but not very long after our anival it was discovered that it was swarming with bugs. They never had got into his own house, but there was groat danger that they would do so ; so after a cabinet council it was decided that the place should bo burnt down. 1 was very near to the house, but we had blankets soaked in water sj^read over the end of the house next to the kitchen building, and a careful watch kept whilst the conflagration was going on. Of course we were now deprived of a place for a servant, and had nowhere to cook our dinners but our own fireside. Wc made one attempt at having a domestic by letting her sleep where tlie farming man and his wife were living, but they had only a little dark closet for her, and it Avas not much that she could do for us when not in the house ; so we found it much better to dispense with a servant alto- gether. We did all our cooking at our own fire, excepting that the farmer's wife used to boil us a pan of potatoes, and she would carry away the worst of our cooking vessels to scour; the ordinary washing up, &c. &c., w^e undertook ourselves. Were we not in the Backw^oods, and had we not been told that we should have all these things to do in turn 1 But we had them not in turn, but altogether. However, we went cheerily to work as long as we were all well, and at first w^e had only to provide for the wants of each day as it passcu ; but our troubles and necessities began to accumulate, the weather to get worse, and when it became time to look after the cleaning of the new house, we could not hear of a servant. Our furniture began to arrive, and whenever a scow load of o •-^ o ■a O STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 71 it was coming up the lake it was sure to bo raining, for wo had a very wet fall, so that bedding, as well as other things,, arrived all wet, and there Avas nowhere to dry it but by this one fire ; so the pots and pans must make way, and all who could do 80 retreated to the inner bedroom, where there was a little stove. Aunt Alice had become quite ill with neuralgic pains, and my poor dear father was beginning to suffer from that complaint, which some months afterwards terminated his life. My mother, who had been so ill on the journey, seemed now the most capable and active of the three, but at one time she too seemed threatened with a return of the ailments she had suffered so much from at New York and Toronto. I never shall forget my feeling of despair at that time. So much to be done before we could possibly get into our house, and nobody to do it. Now, it did seem a rash step for such a party to come out to such a place, but wo wcto very careful in writing home to say as little of our difficulties as possible. That time has now faded into a dim distance, but as I write and bring the details again to my memory, I am not sur- prised at any amount of despair possessing me. At length one day a man from the other side of the lake, who had often worked for John, one Dan Flynn, came and offered us his sister as a servant, so she came. We located her at +Ve "big house," making no use whatever of her in our present quarters, and busy she was kept in cleaning, not only the house, but all the household goods that had come out in such a miserable state of wot and dirt. Mary Scarry was a treasure in her way. I used to spend most of the days in rubbing and polishing furniture, and getting things into some sort of order ; so at last, November 20th, we moved up to our real home. How magnificent it seemed, notwithstanding its uncovered log walls, and unplastered ceiling ; we had a kitchen 72 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. to boil our kettle in, and when I rang our little handbell, to have the tea things taken away, did I not feel grand ! ! The same Mary became a sort of family friend, and lived with us off and on a great deal ; she had considerable faults, but she had also a head and a heart. I have dwelt on our many troubles, but they did not come all immediately. The loss of our kitchen, and consequently of any comfort from a servant, came quite early in the day, but did not prevent us from making a little acquaintance with the neighbourhood, at least my father and myself; the old ladies did not move about at all. We went up one day to dine with Mr. Wallis at Fenclon Fallo, and saw our little log church on the top of the hill. In coming back wc saw two deer swimming across the lake, and followed one, and were very near enriching our larder with some venison, but the animal scrambled on shore just before the oars could reach it. John said, "Now you will think that this is an every-day occurrence, but I assure you it is not," and true enough, though I have seen other wild animals, I never saw another deer alive. My father and I had some walks together. I was a great deal his companion, for my brother in the busy autumn season had no time to devote to him ; but I always felt that it was at the expense of leaving my mother with too much to do. I remember one walk we took at her suggestion, to carry a jug of very nice strong broth she had made to a woman who had been confined a few days before. We found the new mother looking exceedingly jolly, and when wo complimented her on seeming so avcII she said, " Oh, yes ! on Monday (the baby had been born on Friday) the big pig ran away, and I chased it all over the clearing, and I was no worse, so I have STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 73 been logging ever since."* So much for the hardiness of a settler's wife. Not this baby, but a later one, they begged to call Ellen Langton after my mother, I being godmother. I lost sight of my godchild before she could si)eak, for they left the neighbourhood, but she may indirectly have profited by my instructions through an elder sister. When once settled in the "big house" we were soon pretty comfortable, and very glad that we had brought out our own furniture, though it was thought that wc might have got the needful in Canada at much less expense. But how long it would have taken to supply ourselves ! and now, ill as my dear father was, he could be made almost as comfortable as if we had never left our home in England. Ho grew gradually more and more of an invalid, and never, I think, left the house after we once got into it. He read a good deal, and for somo time was not unable to enjoy seeing a little of our small society. On Christmas Day we were to have had all the young men settled round us to dinner, but our party was veiy much re- duced. The rebellion had broken out, and orders arrived from Government for a party of the settlers to intercept the *For the sake of tlio uninformed I must give an idea of what "logging" is. When the trees are first chopped down in the winter they are left lying just where they fell, and in the spring, when the ground is pretty dry, fire is employed to carry on the work, but only the branches and small stuff are consumed. The trunks, which were at first cut through once or t'W'ice to leave them in practicable lengths for removal, must now be collected in heaps for further burning. This is done with oxen, a chain being fixed round the log and attached to the yoke ; but it needs a great deal of help, both in getting it over the rough ground, guiding it to its destined heap, and especially in giving it the first start. This is done with handspikes, and ia called logging ; very hard work it is. When a largo fallow is being cleared it is usual to call a "bee." All your neighbours come to help, each bringing his own team. You provide meals for the company, but give no wages, being yourself ready to render the same assistance in your turn. By this means a great deal of work is got through in one day* 74 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. arch rebel Mackenzie, who was supposed to be escaping in that direction. That my urothcr might not desert his guests one of our young men (Mr. Savage) took his place, and he was to follow the next day ; but when the morrow came it had been found that Mackenzie was elsewhere, so the pai'ty was recalled. The country was in a very anxious state for some time, and v/e felt as if any day the male part of our population might be summoned to the front ; however, the tumult subsided without further disturbing us in our remote district. 1838, As the winter advanced my father grew rapidly worse. We never saw any medical man ; he corresponded with the doctor we had made acquaintance with at Toronto, and he, and we all, were fully impressed with the belief that it was not a case where any advice could have availed. I believe wo were right, but at any rate the conviction seemed a providentifll support. Towards the last, at our request, the clergyman from Peterborough came up, that we might have the comfort of receiving the Communion once more together. Mr. Wallis received him as his guest, and he was still at Fenelon Falls 1838. when the end came (May the 3rd), and officiated at the funeral on the 7th. So my father, who had been so much interested in this scheme of emigration, was soon taken from the good and the evil of the new liie. I have often thought that if his life had been prolonged, even in his ordinary ■'.tate of health, it w-ould, when excitement and novelty were over, have been a dreary existence. He could not, at his years, have partaken of the pursuits of the young men, and there would have been no food for either his social or literary tastes. Whether he felt any regi'et at having brought us all out, I scarcely know. I am sure he thought that my mother would not be veiy long after him ; and I daresay he felt in looking forward, as I do in looking back, that she would be as happy STORY OF OUR FAMILi'. 75 in her Backwoods home, liS she would have been elsewhere. She was of an active nature, and took an interest in her household, and had pleasure in showing hospitality. My brother William continued his allowauco to her as long as shH lived, and the insurance money in addition made her comfort- able in her means, and able to be in some measure the "lady bountiful" of the neighbourhood ; and if this was a gratification it does not imply either pride or worldliucss. Our Saviour himself said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive." With regard to myself, my fxthcr was rather urgent in recom- mending me, when I should be left, to return home, but I did not lead him to expect that I should do so, for I had a pre- sentiment that my lot was cast in Canada. Ho did not know then how easy it would become to go backwards and forwards. Up to that time it had been held very doubtful whether steamers could ever carry fuel enough to bring them over the Atlantic; but I read to my father, in the paper, of the first steamer having crossed, the very morning that ho died. He had been sitting up by the fire, and then lay down on his bed and slept, and it was almost immediately after rising from that last slcf p on earth, that he sank finally to rest. On the 7th of May his remains, attended by all our young settlers, were carried by water, under falling snow, to the church hill at Fcnelon Falls. Wo had already, during the course of the first winter, experienced what it was to be without a servant, for Mary was wanted at home for a time. The farming man's wife, when she brought up the milk in the morning, would sometimes remain a few minutes, and help us over any difficulty, and we had a nice active lad, whoso chief business was to keep us supplied with firewood, but ho would give a helping hand some- times in an evening. This youth, William Dick, grew up and 76 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. married whilst we wero still living on the lakes. Ho after- wards migrated to Manitoba, and we heard lately thai he was a member of parliament there. He had just the qualities for rising in the world. He did us an essential sei'vice that sum- mer, and in all probability saved my mother's life. She had gone out to feed some young chickens, when she was attacked by a vicious cow. It had rather a bad character before, and the points of its horns had been sawn off, or matters might have been worse. As it was she was rolled over and over, and considerably bruised, but William Dick heard her from the wood-shed, and came to the rescue. Much alarmed indeed we were, seeing her brought in as white as a sheet. My brother was away, and of course no doctor v/ithin reach. I took upon myself what we conceived ought to be done, and applied the cupping glasses for the first time in my life. I had various occasions to use them afterwards for her and for others, and instructed this same William Dick in the use of them, to operate upon a neighbour. We learnt to act for ourselves, and a sort of self-reliance was given to us in our needs, which disappeared again when we came to be within reach of doctors. In a few days my mother was pretty well restored, but at first her breathing seemed so much affected that we were very uneasy. The cow suffered for its misdeed ; my brother had it killed at once when he got home. 1838. Our family party was enlivened during this summer by a guest of my brother's (Mr. Atthill) who was preparing to go into orders. He had found it difficult to study in his own house, where his brother and Mr. Toker were living with him, so my brother invited him to Blythe. I do not think, however, that he studied much more than he w^ould have done at home, for a regatta had been proposed, which was to come off in the autumn, and my brother's two boats were of course to appear STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 77 in the contest. What with preparing the boats, practising with the oavs, making sails, flags, itc. ckc., there was a great deal to bo done, and much excitement about it. The flags were mostly the ladies' share of the work ; we all got interested and talked of little else, so tliat aunt Alice pronounced a regatta to be as bad as a bazaar. I should mention that when we took possession of our house my brother still continued to sleep in his own, and likewise all his gentlemen visitors. The meals were taken at our house, and the evenings mostlj' spent with us. When we wanted to summon them to breakfast or dinner we used to blow a horn, or, if we were very imperative, spring a watchman's rattle in addition. I recollect on one occasion, when we had an alarm of fire late at night, cither from nervousness or from cold (it was a bitter night) I could not bring a sound out of the horn, so I had to run down to John's house and then run up the hill again as fast as I could ; and I should recommend anyone to avoid running when the thermometer is twelve below zero, for to get thoroughly out of breath at that temperature is most exquisite pain. When the regatta came ofl" we entertained company for the first time — that is ladies (Erasers and Fortyes). Mrs, Fortye was a Miss Hamilton. Before this I had counted ten months during which time we had not seen a single lady. The other houses all had guests, so that there was a large assemblage at Sturgeon Point, the chosen locality. My brother's boats were the "Alice" and the "Fairy." A rowing match in the latter we were sure to lose ; a sailing match in the former as sure to win. Unfortunately the last did not come ofi* ; for on account of some noisy, rough work in the crowd the party broke up pre- maturely. There were some gaieties the next day at the Falls fur the strangers, which of course I did not attend. Ife^?^ 78 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. fhtuol' my brother's boats were often iu use going to and fro, yet his private trijis were always taken in his canoe, and I often accom- panied him — more this first summer than afterwards, partly because, the place being still so much in the rough, there was no garden to look after ; and partly because I wanted to do a good deal of sketching to let our people at home see something oi our surroundings, — and this had not to be done again. I used to fear that, with only this watery highway, my mother would have many anxious moments when we were out of her sight ; but she took it all quite easily, thoroughly trusting that John knew how to take care. There had never been any accident on the lakes at this time. Alas ! they came, and then we were more ready to take alarm. Soon after the regatta Mr. Atthill left to be ordained, and the lakes knew him no more. The Dunsfords came out about this time, and occupied his house whilst one was being built for them on their own land. The two eldest, James and Hartley, had been out some months, but the circumstance of a family of ladies coming, occasioned a good deal of expecta- tion. I was not able to see anything of them until sleighing time enabled me to drive down, and call upon them. My brother took me one day in January, 1839. It was my first sleigh drive, for the wintei before I never dreamt of going anywhere. I felt just like a child who is going a journey, and walked about with my wraps on, in the greatest impatience for the sleigh to come +o the door. So we drove down and made our call, little dreaming ll0^^i; the future would unite us with the Dunsfoi'd family. In coming back we got an upset, had sundry minor mis- haps, broke the harness, and finally came home with a pocket-handkerchief taking the place of a strap. I do not remember all details, but I know John said it was a regular STORY OF OUU FAMILY. 79 epitome of bush sleighing ; I might cousitler that I k: ow all about it now. I had sundry other upsets later on, for they arc very common on those rough roads ; nevertheless, I consider bush sleighing plcasauter than sleighing on the best of roads. The very excitement of it is agreeable, and you are so much more sheltered in the woods, and, above all, the beauty that sur- rounds you, with the wreath'3 of snow arching over you i'.mong the branches in the most fantastic forms — you scarcely see what it is that upholds the snow — it seems quite a fairy structure. This is only in the depth of winter ; towards the end of February, however much snow has fallen, the growing power of the sun soon carries off a great part of it. Our first winter had been a mild one ; ihi;:' second was extremely severe. We had a great deal of wind, and so many storms happened on a Saturday, that we got into the way of saying, " It blows like Saturday night." I saw it observed afterwards, that it was remarkable how many stoj'ns there had been on the Atlantic on a Sunday. I remember when, on one of these dreadful nights, Ave had never been able to see the lake all day from the driving snow, "we received two visitors, who had been struggling through the drifts coming up from Peter- borough. They had attempted to take shelter in a deserted shanty, but fortunately at last made their way to Blythe, or I think they might have been frozen. After suitable refreshment they went dowui to sleej) at my brother's ; the one who had not a regular bed had his shake-down in front of a large log fire ; the heat of the fire had melted the ^now drifts in the loft above, and from the water dropping dowii, there "^as a little pyramid of ice on the top of him in the morning. I have often after washing found my towel stiffen in my hands, though standing before a blazing fire, and on one occasion I recollect finding a 80 STORY OP OUR FAMILY, good snow drift bclihid a chest of drawers, that had reiDanied uiitliawcd since a storm a fortnight before, though there had been regular fires night and morning in tlie room. It is marvellous how the fine powdery snow will penetrate where you would not imagine it possible, and I could give you otht r instances of its power of resisting such heat as you can obtain. Our house was at its coldest this winter, for a summer's heat had shrunk the unseasoned timbers, and no plastering could have been done until that shrinking was, partially at least, over. A second summer wo plastered the house out- side, and some of the rooms inside ; but those that had been hung and panelled for the sake of appearance at first, were not plastered, and remained very cold in consequence. I recollect the thermometer being only three above zero at our bed head cue morning, and, with the best fire we could keep, it never got many degrees higher, until at lasv we lighted a stove in an adjoining room, divided from ours only by a board partition, when we raised it to twenty, still, at the highest, twelve degrees of frost ! ! This was Canada, and we were not aware that cold could be excluded any better ; happily we know it now. It was a regular thing to find any water left in a basin at night a block of ice, and if we ever did have any water in a jug, it Avas sure to be cracked, so we always used tins. My mother had an insuperable objection to stove heat (aunt Alice shared it), and when later a necessary alteration in a chimney compelled her to the use of one, she was quite out of spirits at the thoughts of losing her open fire-place ; but she acknow- ledged afterwards that it had been infinitely to the increase of her comfort. 1838-9. This second winter we were not so well off in the domestic department. Our Mary was wanted at home. We often had a change of servants, when there had been no dissatisfaction on STUlCV OF OUU lA.MlLV. 81 either side, but there was no class looking to scrvic" as their regu- lar career. The farmers' daiightcrs were willing to hire out for a time, when there was nothing to do at home. When we losst Mary we thought to make ourselves comfortable by having a man and his wife, with a young girl to help ; but they got up a quarrel amongst them, which led to the elder pair departing, and leaving us with only this girl of about fourteen years of age, and so we remained the whole winter. I undertook all the bread making, and took a great interest in it, being as pleased to turn out a nice batch of loaves, as now an elegant bit of fancy work. I had already set down confectionery as one of the arts by which I might gain my bread if need be. My mother always liked to have something nice in the house in case of visitors, and though so far in the wilderness, there were seasons when we had a great many comers and goers, and of course, the further out of the world, the more need was there that hospitality should include feeding. We were not always very well provided. I recollect on one occasion — it was during the short interval between my mother's death and my aunt's — two gentlemen arriving when there was nothing in the house but a small bit of cold fish. By the help of plenty of bread crumbs I contrived to manufacture a dish that could be set before them, helped out by extempore bread rolls, and I congi'atulated myself that I had cleaned the windows that morning. One of these gentlemen was Mr. Daintry, the possessor now of a fine estate in Cheshire, not far from the Oak House, living, I presume, on the fat of the land, for I heard when in that neighbourhood that his son-in-law had buttoned up himself, his wife, and his child altogether iu one of Mr. Daintry's waistcoats. I do not think there was any particular event during the summer of 18.39. We began to be very busy making the a i?:i aiOlti' Ul' OUtt FAMlLi. outHido of the house rcspcctablj, and getting the garden into order. Once or twice we had a clergyman up at the Falls, who gave us one service in the little log church. At other times we always read a portion of it at home, and a sermon, and used to have a very fair congregation of neighhours, some- times between twenty and thirty. John had always done this before we cr,me out. Twice in the week I used to have a little scliool. I began with the children of John's farming man, an old Waterloo soldier (neither he nor his wife could read), and afterwards several of the neighbours' children used to come quite regularly, and from a considerable distance. I kept this up until we had a school established. In the autumn there was a second regatta at Sturgeon Point. I do not think it excited us as much in anticipation as the first, but there were more boats in the race, and more company invited to all the differeuu houses, and the hotel at the Falls was well filled. Alas ! the day ended with a most melancholy catastrophe. One of the men who had been rowing in John's boat (the winning one this time) fell back- wards into the water. No one was in the least alarmed, for he was known to be an excellent swimmer, but he never once appeared on the surface. Then indeed the excitement was terrible, and every effort was made to rescue him, but all fruitlessly. "When this had been going on for an hour, and life could most certainly not be saved, the search was dropped, and a most mjlancholy procession of boats returned to their re- spective homes, or went up to the Falls. The next morning several boats went down again with grappling irons, but it was some time before they succeeded in finding the body. From the position in which it was found it was presumed that he had been in the act of taking off his coat, and that his arms had been in some way pinioned ; either that, or that he had CJIUUY OF OUU FAMILY. 83 fainted aftei' his exertions in rowing, could alone account for his disappearing so completely. The accident had happened at a very short distance from the shore, but the water was deep. He was a neighbour, and was manied to the daughter of another of our neighbours, and he had been very frequently working at Blythe, so that we felt it a very great shock. This was not quite the first drowning accident wo had had. A few weeks before two men were upset, and drowned, on Camerons Lake ; one of these likewise had been occasionally working at Blythe. There wr're to be various gaieties at the Falls after the regatta. At first it was thought these ought to be given up, and my brother much wished it should be so, but there were so many strangers who had come from a distance, and who could not be so deeply interested as we were, that it was decided not altogether to disappoint them, so the amusements were resumed, but a sad damp was thrown upon everything. The unfortunate man left one child, a little girl, and a col- lection was made for its benefit amongst those who were present at the accident. A boy was born soon after his father's death, and the last time I was in the neighbourhood I heard from their grandfather that both these children had prospered very well in the world. We never had another regatta, nor anything of safficient importance to be the excuse for a regular gathering of strangers, though the advent of visitors, in one or other of the houses, would often lead to some small attempts at gaieties. 1838. Late in the autumn we invited our new neighbours, the .Dunsfords, to stay a couple of nights with us, so we cere- moniously entertained the future mistress of Blythe, I liad met them at the regatta, and during the winter before at Mr. Wallis', but I think the elder ladies had barely just seen them. It seemed very tardy hospitality, as they had been about a 81 STORY OF OUll FAMILY. year on the Lakes, but I have no doubt there were substantial hindrances besides our very limited accommodation. Wo never could have any ladies without my mother and myself vacating our room, and quartering ourselves with aunt Alice ; so that we began to contemplate making an addition to the house. I have no doubt that one reason for not asking visitors until the autumn was the bareness of the larder, for during the summer we could never have anything but salt pork or bacon. We could not kill any of our animals, for the meat would not keep until we could consume it, so that, unless it were an occasional fowl, we lived entirely on salted meats. We invented new ways of cooking them, so as to give ourselves a little variety in our diet ; but, though the consumers of the meal might be easily contented, it was veiy trying to the pro- vider to have so little opportunity of doing credit to her house- keeping. The preservation of the salted meats, too, was a great trouble, for there was a vicious little beetle that was given to infest them, and all the stores had to be perpetually looked over. Though going to market every day is not pleasant, yet it is a great comfort to have a butcher at hand. About October the slaughtering of our beasts began. Oh ! what a vision rises before mo of sheep, and quartera of beef and pigs, cutting up, boiling down, scewing and potting, &o. &c. ; and thep. to look into the larder, one felt as if one could never possibly get to the end of all that meat ; yet it used to disappear in due time. Then all the garden stuff had to be gathered in, and stowed away in the root house, and flower seeds had to be collected against the ensuing year, so that of all busy seasons the autumn was the busiest, and from morn- ing till night one was never able to sit down. A great deal of the cutting up used to devolve upon me. A man would have done it in half the time, but my mother was very par- "r STORY OF OUE FAMILY. 85 ticular in having tho joints properly shaped, ard it was not easy to get anyone else to take her directions; the men were nil too much in the rough-and-ready line. I acquired a good dual of experience. Once I displayed my acquirements very much to the astonishment of the company at a dinner party in England. It was at the house of a Scotch gentleman, and the conversatior turned upon their national dish, the sheci/s head, and the way of preparing it for cooking, when I quietly said, " This is the way I do it." How they looked round upon me ! I must confess that it was only onoe that we dressed the sheep's head, but on that occasion I did prepare it with my own hands. 1839. Near the close of that year a clergyman was appointed to Fenelon Falls. There had been a collection among the friends of all the settlers to form a little stipend along with the grant, which at that time the Society for the Propagation of tho Gospel gave to eke out the result of such endeavours, so that there was a maintenance in readiness. Mr. Fidler and his family were at first located at the taveni, but a parsonage was put up the following year. Both he and his wife had had a previous marriage, so there were two families to begin with, though only numbering four children together. Mr. Fidler was not exactly the sort of man we had w\anted for our pastor. He had most certainly not the faculty of winning hearts, a great step towards winning souls. Peace to his ashes ! he came at last to a fearful end, but this was not until tho year 1847. It was in the spring of the year, when the waters were very high and the cuiTents strong. He and two other men had been in his boat on Camerons Lake, and were just in the act of mooring it at the usual point, when, through some inadver- tence, it got twisted round and into the cuiTcnt beyond their control, and they were carried over the Falls. Only a boy had 86 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. witaessGu the occurrence ; lie gave notice immediately, but nothin:* could be done. It would not be many seconds before the fatal leap had been taken, and it was, moreover, getting dark. A n cssenger was sent down to Blythe, and my brother went up the first thing in the morning, to give what aid or counsel he could in the search for the bodies, bat it was many days — I think, nearly a fortnight — before that of Mr. Fidler was foimd. His watch appeared to have stopped at the hour of four — could it have gone so long under water? I was haunted with the idea that he might have sprung to the bridge, or caught some projecting bough, and been suspended some length of time over the inevitable doom. Had it been so, in the roar of waters no cries could possibly hare been heard : it is to be hoped there was no such protracted agony. But I must return to 1839. Another event of that year was the marriage of Mr. Dcnnistoun, the first of our yovmg settlers who took a wife. We had often looked forward to such events as what would bring us some lady-society, and, though a daughter of Mrs. Hamilton properly already be- longed to us, yet she spent so much of her time in Peter- borough that the arrival of Mrs. Dennistoun was almost a new importation. However, these marriages had uot quite the results we had anticipated, but rather led to a more speedy dispersion of the community. Mr5 Hamilton's youngest daughter was quite a child, only about nine years old, when we came to the Lakes, and we often had her to stay with lis at Blythe. She was a very nice bright little girl, and soon very companionable, and a pleasant variety ; but 9s she grew up into womanhood she drifted off moi'e into the world, and at last, during a visit to Toronto, engaged herself to a young clergyman, a Mr. McAlpine, and wp.s married wlien only seventeen. He afterwards had the church at Kcmptville, STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 87 between Ottawa and Prcscott, and when I have passed it, and looked that way, T have often thought of "poor Maggie," for the match was a very sad one. Clergyman as he was, he was a \ very bad man. She, I believe, never knew the worst of him ; she lived to have two children, and then died. His subsequent career was very disgraceful, and ended in suicide. The next year, 1840, began with another engagement — Mr, Wallis to a Miss Fisher, of Kingston. We alone were told of it, for it was to be kept quite secret until he appeared with his wife up the Lakes. However, when at Peterborough, on his way to be married, he saw first in the paper the death of one of his sisters. He wrote off the intelligence to Miss Fisher, omitting to say that he was too much overwhelmed with sorrow to appear as a bridegroom on the appointed day; so the wedding guests assembled, and there was no bridegroom ! After this awkward circumstance she put him off longer than he wanted ; however, they were married in the spring, but with- out the eclat of a surprise. They settled at the Falls for a time, but in a few months went over to Europe, and when they came back, took a house at Peterborough, and were no longer residents on the Lakes — so matrimony again proved of very little benefit to us. That summer my brother paid a visit to Newmarket, where his friend Mr. Atthill had been appointed to his first church after taking orders, and had already engaged himself to a young lady there. The match never took place, but he introduced my brother to the family, „ and this led^Jo their receiving an invitation to visit the Lakes, and stay at Blythe, of which they availed themselves more than once, a summnr and a winter visit. Undoubtedly we entertained more company when we lived at Blythe than at any other time in my remembrance; somewhat irregularly certainly, but at times, 88 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. especially when sleighing was good, there were a groat many comers and goers, and my mother was most hospitably inclined, and always willing to make her comfortable home useful. The Dunsfords by this time had got a good house built (The Beehive), and this same autumn of 1840 invived me to stay a couple of nights with them. On the intervening day they took me down to Bobcaygeon, where I had never been since we first came up, and for loug after I used to look upon Bobcaygeon as the great gates that shut uc in, and felt very much as if I had entered a convent. During this summer we had been building a new room, so as to have a spare one for visitors, all ready funiishtvl before the following summer, when we had the first visit from Col. 1841. Cotter and his three daughters, Mr. Atthill's friends. We had some of the Dunsfords to meet them, and got up an expedition to Balsam Lake, by way of entertainment. We filled two boats. One gentleman in our boat told the story, how a year before, when he was up there with Mr. and Mrs. Wallis, the latter, whilst walking across the portage from Camerons Lake to Balsam Lake, lost her brooch, and how they paced up and down but could not find it. Of course we never thought of looking for it a year after, but one of the ladies in the other boat (Miss Duusford) who had not heard the story, happened to see it, and picked it up, after a winter's leaves had fallen upon it, and the portage had been trodden over and over again both by Indians and whites. As we were to finish the day by spending the evening at Mr. Wallis', where there was a littlo gathering to meet the strangers. Miss Dunsford had some amusement in putting on the brooch, and observing how Mrs. Wallis' eyes fastened themselves upon it immediately, though she forbore to make any claim to it ; however, the general titter soon enlightened her as to the curious recovery of her STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 89 loss. In coming away from Balsam Lake, wc, or some of us, came down the rapids in canoes that had been brought on board the boats. My brother had not his canoe with him, and did not like the responsibility of bringing down another person's ; but Mr. Dundas had wholly declined the responsibility of bringing down his sister, so it seemed rather doubtful whether I should not have to go by portage ; however, the canoe was not quite so valuable as the sister, so John assumed the risk, and brought botli it and me down quite safely. In the autumn of the year 1841, my mother, who was now seventy-five years of ago, had a very severe illno«'i. On our first serious alarm we sent down for the doctor from Peterborough, and the remedies he prescribed seemed to have done her some good, but mercury had been amongst them, and she must have taken cold on leaving her bed for the sofix, for she became dreadfully salivated. Her mouth was in such a state that for many days she could not have spoken a word to save her life, whilst taking nourishment was a matter of the gi'catest difficulty, and she got alarmingly weak. We sent for the doctor again, but communication was at that season so un- certain that a succession of messages failed to reach him until after more than a fortnight ; he received them all together. In the meantime he had been up to Bobcaygeon, and had there been told that she was better, so had not come on, whilst we were waiting for him in the utmost anxiety. Many weeks elapsed before we had the happiness of seeing her again im- proving, but by the end of the year she was so far recovered as to come down stairs. In cases of 'sickness, when so far away from medical advice, there is, whilst waiting for a doctor, at least something to look forward to, but when he has been, and must leave you again, it is then that the heart sinks, on receiving instructions xipon which so much may depend. 90 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. For instance, in this case, when my mother was so much re- duced, the doctor took great pains to impress upon us that she must be supported : " She must have wine ; you must not bo afraid to give her wine often," iil.j, but it took me from half-past five in the morning to ten o'clock at night, walking all the time, excepting about half au hour at Mud Lake for breakfast, and half an hour at Bobca)go-ogressed my year in England was 'already considerably t needed. I turned my thoughts seriously to Canada, but I ^rd met all along with very gi^cat opposition from not oiily my brother and sister, but fi'orn all the friends who were entitled to express an opinion as to my plans. I fought a stiff battle, for mj own judgment remained unshaken. I need not go now into the controversy j suffice it to say that the life I seemed destined to lead in England appeared to me objectless, whilst the Canadian one I proposed to myself had a distinct purpose of usefulness. When going through the rft- repeated argument with my friend Miss Lowe, I expressed this feeling, and said, if I had a career in England it would be *I must say I felt very indignant, -when Smith O'Brien camo to Canada, to sco tlio Irish, and loyal Irish too, I holiove, nuiko so much of him. 148 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. difffent ; I should not feel that I was frittering my life away. Whereupon sue replied, " Come to us, our assistant governess is just leaving, you can supply her place," laying before me the advantages of such a course ; but^it did not appear to me to be a natural one, to be earning my bread when I was really sufficiently provided for, and 1 thought no more about it. But after I went home, she wrote to me with the same proposal, asking me not to put it aside without more consideration, and likewise requesting that I would show my brother her letter, and have his advice. I therefore gave it to him, and to my surprise he at once advocated this scheme, and suggested that others of our nearest and best friends should be asked for their opinion on the s abject. They were all of one mind, and feeling no great personal reluctance to nndertake the duties of such a post, and believing likewise that in another way I should bo til)le to promote the welfare of my less prosperous brother's family (for my salary would suffice for my wants, and I might lay by a little provision for the young ones that were begin- ning to appear in it, without separating myself from my many friends in England against so much remonstrance, and this, in a family to which 1 was by old friendship already attached), I allowed it to be so settled, and I was not unhappy, though suffering a little from misgivings as to my being really competent to fulfil all the duties expected f^om me. I communicated this change of plan to my brother in Canada, but when his reply came all my satisfaction in it vanished, and one letter after another so disturbed and unhinged me, that (was it weakness 1) I could no longer adhere to my project, but disappointed Miss Lowe, and returned to my originu? plans. However, opposition to them was now over, and one thing was gained, for it was proved that the pair in Canada had no reluctance to receive me as au inmate, which one very good STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 149 friend insinuated possibly might be. I did not, however, return to Canada immediately, for the cholera had broken out, and it was observed that travellers were very frequently the victims, so I was advised to remain at home for the present, and I had almost another year with my friends in England. It was 1850. early in the summer of 1850, that I finally took leave of them. I made arrangements with a young Scotch lady to unite as travelling companions. I had never seen her, but she was going out to visit a brother whom I did know.. I served as a cho.peron to her, and, as she was to be met by one of her brothers at New York, I benefited by her escort. To accom- modate her, I went to embark at Glasgow instead of going by a Liverpool steamer. My brother took me there, and at my request allowed his little son Henry to bo of our party. The boy was delighted, and so I was the first to inspire him with that love of travel which has taken him in maturer years almost all over the world. Of the life of the Canadians during my three years' absence I can only give a slight outline. I recorded the birth of a girl (Ellen), which took place at Peterborough, so that when they settled again in their own home it was as parents, and their cares and pleasures as such were in due time increased by the amval of a boy (Tom). Whilst a new generation was appearing death was making sad inroads with the preceding one. My sister-in-law lost two of her sisters during the time I was in England — both of decline. The youngest had already been seriously threatened Defore I left Canada, and only sur- vived until the following spring. Soon after her decease the sister, who had been her constant nurse am^ attendant, showed symptoms of the same disease, and followed her charge to the grave before long. My brother at one time formed a partnership with Mr. 150 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. Boyd. They intended to do something in the lumbering trade, but the business received some checks through an un- satisfactory commercial state of the country, and finally my brother withdrew altogether from the concern, not being able, on account of his health, to give that active attention to it that he should have done. He suffered for many months from a complaint in his throat, which he suspected was spreading downwards, and likely to attack hia lungs, so that we were feeling gi'cat anxiety about him, when I rejoined the family in 1850. Sometime before this h3 had offered himself a candidate for the representation of the county of Peterborough in tho Canadian Parliament, but he failed in his election. I do not remember the date, nor whether it was a general election or not. He certainly had not conceived any intention of leaving the Lakes when I returned, for I found them engaged in building a new room. Another clergyman had been appointed to the church at Fcnolon Falls during my absence, who had proved quite an acquisition to the very small society, but he had left it again before I returned, and we were once more without a pastor. Another appointment, however, was made just before we left the Lakes altogether. 1850. I embarked at Glasgow in the unfortunate steamer "The City of Glasgow." about the middle of June. We were twice agi'ound before we got out of the Clyde, each time having to wait for a tide to lift us, so it was two days before we fairly took leave of Scotland. I had made a great mistake in applying for my berths to be in the "ladies' cabin," supposing the ar- rangements to be similar to those of sailing ships, and was in some consternation when I found that it was only a sort of double state-room, with four berths instead of two, and with very little additional space to correspond, and even only one washing apparatus amongst us. Wliej we first saw our STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 151 accommodation, with the luggage belonging to the four inmates, my compaiiioc burst into tears. However, when packages were duly stowed away, matters looked more bear- able, but there were great discomforts. My carpet bag was hidden beneath the berths, and the first time I drew it out, to get at some article, I found it soalied through and through with dirty bilge water. I tried to persuade the stew- ardess to rinse out my linen for me, even in sea water, but it could not be. I could only hang it up to dry,- dirty as it was, by the chim' , where all the sailors' wet garments were hanging. I, rtunacely I had a piece of rope, and I contrived to rig myself up a private line. I sent for the ship's carpenter and had a grand turn out for repairs, after which we kept out the water. Besides being so crowded, this nominal "ladies' cabin" was, during the day, made a regular passage room. The stewards were perpetually coming through it. I tried to make a little more space by rolling up my cloak and put- ting it under a bench in the saloon, but the stewards soon threw it back again. Many things combined to make this journey, both by sea and land, anything but a pleasant one. My young lady flirted a gi'eat deal more than I hked ; besides this, I had to become the protector of another helpless young girl, coming out to friends who were not at New York to meet herj and she only knew she was going to Guelph, without having the remotest idea where Guelph was. As for our escort, Mr. M., the first thing we heard was that he had lost his own luggage, so I could scarcely feel that he was much to be depended on. Our principal possessions were placed upon the boat for going up the Hudson River in the morning, when my companions suddenly became bent upon staying another day in New York, and going by the night boat to Albany. So, when we got there, we had our luggage to hunt up, and I had 152 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. to nish along the quay to see that it was all safe. All troubles, however, came to an end, and after turning over one companion to the care of another fellow-passenger, and de- livering Miss M. at her brother's house near Cobourg, I proceeded to Peterborough, and thence home. Two of the Dunsfords took mo up in a canoe, leaving Mud Tjake after sunset for coolness, and rousing Mr. Boyd up at Boljcaygeon at one or two o'clock in the morning. The next day i ly journey up the lake was shortened by boiTowing a horse at The Beehive and riding up to Blythe. I say little of meetings. The most agitating one was with poor Angel Brandon, who had lost her husband during my absence. The little Ellen put her ai'ms round my neck in obedience to orders ; but the next morning she did it voluntarily, and from that time my place was estab- lished in the family circle. This circle was, however, soon to bo broken up for a time. My brother had decided that it would be advisable for him to go to New York, in order to have the best advice about the complaint in his throat, and he had only delayed doing so until my amval. At new York he had his friend Mr. McAndrew, whose hospitality was boundless, but there was something very mournful in seeing him depart alone in such very poor health ; and indeed he told us after- wards that when he got as far as Bobcaygeon he folt half inclined to return home again. Ho was, however, really about m: weeks away, and came back decidedly liencfited, but stiU continued more or less a sufferer for many months aftorvmrds. He was able tbixt autumn to make a little excursion with his wife, and she did at last see Niagara. The children were now sufficiently at home with me to allow of my assuming the care of them for a time. The winter passed quietly away. I re- member only one incident, viz., my going down to Bobcaygeon to stay a few days with Mrs. Boyd, and taking Ellen with me. STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 153 Mrs. Wickham came down with her children, and there were ah'eady three young Boyds running about, so they formed quite a meiTy Httle group, and were the principal amusement of their elders. A great change ! The new generation was asserting its importance. 1851. The next summer brought another little boy into my brother's family (HaiTy), who kept us very busy, for ho re- quired more nursing and soothing than any child that came before or after him. In the autumn an election was coming on, and my brother decided to offer himself again as a candidate for the county. He and Mrs. Langton went down to Peterborough, taking Ellen and the baby. I remained up at Blythe with Tom for another month, but we joined them afterwards, and remained altogether at Peterborough until the election was over, my brother having this time become the member. Sometime in November we came back to Blythe, but only for the remainder of the winter. The new circumstances made it expedient that Peterborough should become our home, and my brother was induced to make the pi.rcnase of certain mills near to it, with the hope of its proving a profitable investment, and giving him an in- terest and an occupation in the neighbourhood. A comfortable house was secured, and before the winter closed we packed the greatest part of our possessions, m order that they might go down by sleigh, and remained om'selves to come with the residue when the navigation opened. A removal from the Back- woods, where you are obliged to surround yourselves with so many things, is a formidable business. We left a good deal behnid lis, I daresay we at that time supposed that we should some day or other come back to Blythe, but we never did. Our final departure took place one afternoon in May, staying the night at Bobcaygeon, in order to be ready to start 164 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. early by the horse-boat, which now went regularly as a passage boat. The next day we encountered such a head wind on Pigeon Lake that we could scarcely sksead at all, but having a row-boat on board, we ladies, children, and maids, were put into it, with a couple of men to row us down, and, though the journey was a tedious one, we got into Peterborough at last about midnight, with our little people all fast asleep. My brot' " remained in the horse-boat along with the luggage, which was considerable, and they were, I suppose, all night out. I do not remember details, but I recollect he told us that they were getting very hungry, and might have remained so, only one woman had a barrel of meal with her, so they opened it and made some stirabout. We settled ourselves in our new home as speedily ris we could, for we had asked Mrs. Hartley Dunsford to come to us for a confinement she was expecting, as she was now living in the Backwoods, and we enjoying the facilities of a town residence. So she came, and her sou James was the first of four children that were born in our house within one year. The morning he appeared my sister came to my room early, looking very tearful. The confinement was happily over, but intelligence had ueen received that Mr. Dunsford was dead. Mr. and Mrs. Dunsford had gone to The Beehive, to visit their eldest son, and there heart disease suddenly terminated his life. Mrs. Dunsford from that time made The Beehive her home, and when she came to Peterborough it was as a visitor. Of course we had not to make acquaintauce with the society of Peterborough. It was pretty well known to us already, and was quite a place where everybody knows everybody ; but with a young and increasing family, it suited us to keep very quietly to ourselves, and without being at all unsocial we abstained from getting di'awn into the small gaieties of the place. An a STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 155 occupation camo to mo, which brought mo in-'-o closer contact with somo membcra of the society than I should otherwise perhaps have had, uamely the chui'ch organ, through tho absence, followed by the death of the clergyman's wife, who had always played it. When she went away to her dying husband, I heard she had said she did not know who could tako the organ, unless it were Mrs. or Miss Langton, so I naturally assumed the pobt; and, having recently had a harmonium given me, I had been playing more organ music than anything else, and was not unprepared for the task. Tho widow would have taken it again after a time, but she died, not many weeks after her husband ; so for the present it remained in my hands. A great part of that autumn my brother was away at Quebec, attending to his parliamentary duties, and again in tho spring, when we at home were awaiting the arrival of another 1853. little stranger. Mrs. Wickham came down from the Lakes, to sec how her sister was getting on, and intending to be with her at the crisis ; but alas ! when oui* baby was daily expected, she herself took it into her head to introduce two into the world. One of them was not alive, and the other did not survive as much as twenty-four hours, but the event threw the household into groat commotion. In tho midst of tho trouble it was impossible not to see something ludicrous in the affair. Happily, our own arrival was a little delayed. One of the worst consequences to me of all this derangement was that Easter Sunday was at hand, and I could not meet my choir for practice. When the day came, I gave out the Easter hymn, depending upon the words being in all the prayer-books, as they were in my own. This proved not to be the case, and when I played, expecting a full choir of voices, only one or two joined. It was a miserable silence for an Easter morn. However, if things did not go on well in church, they were at 156 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. that timo doing so at homo, and the little girl that had come to us (Agnes) was most welcome. But matters changed after- wards ; my sister became ill, and the monthly nurse took fright, and at five o'clock one morning was found to be gone, leaving us in the lurch without the slightest notice. My sister now required a great deal of attention, and the baby suffered in its own way. We were dependent upon chance assistance obtained from some of the neighbours, and, for about six weeks, were really in a very bad way. I heai'd our friends said they were quite as sorry for Miss Langton as for Mrs. Langton, but I believe this arose from my having a bad inflammation of the eyes, and when I w'cnt to answer kind enquiries people thought I had been Crying. I did not bear my troubles quite so badly as that, but tliey were more serious to me on account of my brother's absence. When he got home matters had mended, and I think w^e had quite an uneventful summer, though an illness of the baby made us fear we might lose it at one time. However, it still lives to gladden our house, I am thankful to say. One thing at this time was very unsatisfactory. The mills were not answering to expectation. In a great measure the Crimean war was indirectly the cause, for the prices of every- thing rose enormously, upsetting all calculations and estimates, and they never went down again. 1854. In the spring of the following year John went home to England to see his brother, and consult him about his aifairs. When he returned he had certainly made up his mind that the mills were a losing concern, and that the sooner they were abandoned the better. He brought our niece Ellen (now Mrs. Herbert Philips) back with him. Some of her friends rather mai'vellcd at her heroism in being willing to accompany him. The journey is not so much thought oi in these days. I think she was quite the first person from England I had ever wel- STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 157 comcd, thougli one or two of our friends had appeared in the country during my absence from it. But this year we had quite an influx of visitors besides herself — Charles Weld, Salis- bury Baxendale, and Henry Hornby. We began to feel our- selves not quite out of the world. The first arrival, however, after that of our niece, was another little Canadian (Willie), fifth member of the nursery party. He helped to make tho house a very busy one during this summer, but other circum- stances contributed. We received the whole MoAndrcw family (five in number) as our guests, and they remained with us about a month. There was also another election, but, as there was no opposition, it passed off' without excitement. When our niece was about to return to England I accompanied her to Quebec, where we remained in 1 )dgings together for some weeks, until the party she was to join on the return passage was ready to depart. We, the McAndrews, and Mr, Baxendale all left Peterborough at the same time, and went together to Toronto and Niagara, where we parted and went our several ways. Our life at Quebec was very dilTcrent from that at Peterborough. There were dinners and evening parties at Government House, besides other gaieties, which might have been more enjoyed than they were ; for EUeri was by no means in very good health, and I was strange to that sort of thing. So I believe we were both glad when we could return to oiir respec- tive homes. We came in for an invitation to a Government expedition up the Saguenay in a couple of steamers. Several of the ministers were on board, nominally to inspect harbours ; but some said the real object was to put on time, and delay some crisis. The political aspect of the affair I forget ; how- ever, when we landed at one of the points, we wero greeted with salutes, and decorations, and a banquet ! ! This sounds extremely grand, but the banquet consisted of eggs 158 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. and bacou aud other homely fare, and the gunpowder and greenery were all paid for beforehand by the Government itself, which was supposed to be the object of this demonstration. It does not sound a dignified proceeding, but we saw the Saguenay. My duties at the organ were turned over to a German Pro- fessor who had come to Peterborough, but he afterwards quarrelled with a member of his choir, and resigned, when I resumed my post. Our professor, however, was in the mean- time an acquisition, greatly assisting in getting up a series of concerts this winter in aid of the sufferers in the Crimean war — " Patriotic Concerts," I think wo called them. We had another engrossing and less agreeable matter, a visitation of whooping cough, whilst the Wickham family were staying with us, so that both sets of children were suffering from this noisy complaint at the same time ; I going backwards and forwards between Peterborough and Bobcaygeon, where the same trouble existed, besides other nursing and nursery work. The few occasions when one has found oneself distinctly useful remain among the recollections that one would not lose. About this time we began to look forward to another change of abode. My brother had been promised the post of Auditor General, though the appointment was not made im- mediately. Our family party was not very long left to itself. 1855. The Wickhams could not leave imtil fine weather had set in, and during the summer we asked Mrs. Boyd— she was delicate and needed change — to come down to us with her young family. Mr. Boyd was at this time almost constantly away on business. I have no dates to refer to, and do not exactly bear in mind the progress of events, but a very painful one was at hand. Mrs. Wickham had been suffering from ague during tJio summer, aud for chauyre of air she aud Mr. Wickham came STORY OF OUU FAMILY, 159 down to Peterborough. Our house being occupied with tho Boyd family, they went to the hotel, and there Mrs. Wickham was taken ill and died, remaining perfectly unconscious from the very first alarm about her until tho end. Her youngest child was still under a year old, and became immediately our charge. Our removal to Toronto was now in contemplation. Tho Government had accomplished its four yeai*8 at Quebec, and was now to be for the same length of time at Toronto, where the Auditor was to commence his duties. My brother and sister went over to look for a house, and when they came back, having taken one, they said we must be off in a fortnight, or the navigation would be closed. But, alas ! our little Wick- ham was alarmingly ill, and during the time that all our packing was going on my sister, Mrs. Boyd, and myself were sitting up with the child by turns every night, besides giving it the closest Jittention at all times. We got through in a manner, and the little one, almost against hope, recovered sufficiently for us to remove, but we felt the effects of the hurried nature of our proceedings in various ways. A sort of feeling betw'ecn desperation and indifference possessed us, and we left things behind that we afterwards regretted. The Boyds, I think, remained with ua until very near the last. We certainly got off before the navigation closed, and a pretty specimen of what Lake navigation could be we had. Soon after we embarked at Cobourg, such a gale arose as our Captain had seldom experienced. He said he had been 25 years sailing on the Lake, and never had the cabin windows broken in by the waves as on this occasion. My sister, being at all times a bad sailor, was soon prostrate in the saloon. I, who had a better reputation in this respect, went down to the Ladies' Cabin to help to take care of the little ones, for sea- IGO STOliY OF OUR FAMILY. sick nurses were not very fit to look after sea-sick children. The two elder children were able to manage for themselves, and stayed above with their parents, but below the scene was a miserable one. My reputation did not hold good. There was no standing this amount of motion, no lying down and taking care of oneself, with so many little ones to look after. We had generally two heads over one basin. The stove-pipes soon came rattling down, so that we could not have a fire, or make any warm food for the baby, and it was so cold that we were obliged to keep the children in all their mufilers. Then the cabin windows gave way, and a wave poured down upon little Harry, so we were obliged to rush upstairs, leaving some of our belongings floating on the cabin floor. When we did at last laud it was as mujh as we could do to breast the wind in walking from the boat to our cab. We were, for a few days, at a hotel, whilst making our house habitable. It had boen taken for two years, but we did not remain so long in it. AVe sacrificed half a year's rent in order to move into a healthier quarter. We had a suspicion of imperfect drainage, for every little ailment of the children took an intermittent character, and the younger girl (Agnes) had a very severe fever. I was from home at the time, having gone to take care of Mrs. Boyd and another young arrival in that house. The Boyds had come down to live at Peterborough. 1843. I was there for some time, for when Mrs. Boyd was better she went from home with her husband and baby, and I remained in charge of the household. I rather enjoyed my reign. I gave a children's party. I visited my old friend the organ ; and I had a horse and buggy at my command, which I never had before or after.* *Mr8. Dunsford was down at Mr. Bojd's part f tho time, and though she was a nervous, timorous person, and my oxpcncncc with tho reins not SrORY OP OUR FAMILY. 161 "When I retiunsd home, tha little invalid was just beginning to recover the use of her legs, and was often patronisingly handed about by her younger brother. Veiy oooii after our arrival at Toronto, my brother was elected Vige^Chanccllor-of^llic^^Uuiversity. I do not think there was any other particular incident to record whilst we remained in our first house, though I have many memories connected with the time, some agreeable, some otherwise. We renewed our acquaintance with Dr. Clarke and his sister, who had once visited our lakes, but we were. chiefly brought together on account of their having been known to the Dunsford family in England, long ago. They lived at Oshawa, about thirty miles from Toronto, but the railway made that distance a trifling one. and they were very hospitable in c ^casionally receiving one or other of us, when health or any circumstances made a little change desirable. I must mention here, that Mr. Wickham came over from England and took hia little girl back with him, to be under her grandmamma's care. She died when about seventeen or eighteen years old. 1857. Ill the spring of 1857, we moved up to Yorkville, and hero, besides enjoying purer air, we were brought into very agreeable society. Many of the Professors connected with the University were residents, and also families belonging to the Civil Service, who, moving like ourselves along with the Government, vvere numbered amongst our associates as long as we remained connected with it. very large, she always trusted herself with me ; but one of our drives was a failure. We wanted to make a call, but the door of our friend's house was a little off the road. How were we to get to it ? The old lady dared not trust herself to hold the reins whilst I got out ; she eould not get out herself without assistance ; she would not let mo got out to help her, unless there was some one to hold the horse's head. There was no one, so we had just to tarn round and give up our call. 31 1C2 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. As soon as wo were settled in our Yorkvillo home, Mrs. Boyd came to see us, and alas ! it proved to be her last visit. I hclicvc it was an enjoyable one. We took her to Niagara, and she appeared in excellent spirits. Soon after this another little boy (Jack) was added to our family, but whilst wo were rejoicing in my sister's safety, the sad intelligence reached us that Mrs. Boyd, her last surviving sister, had died in a similar trial. I pass over these things rapidly, but this was a sorrow that sank very deep. Before these events I went np the Lakes to visit Mr. and Mrs. Wallis at Fenelon Falls, where they were staying during the summer — this was the second Mrs. Wallis. The first had died during the time that I was in England, and Mr. Wallis married again shortly before we came to live at Peterborough. I had Harry with me. It was a great enjoyment to the little fellow, especially a visit to Blythe, where his old nurse and her brother (our tenants) made a great deal of him, the one treating him to her thickest cream and the best dainties of the farm, and the other putting him upon horseback, which was a still greater treat. In going this expedition, we hau to travel by the long railway bridge across Rice Lakes, which was reported to be in such a frail condition, that my brother recommended that we should stand out on the platform of the car, to be in a better position for saving ourselves should any accident occur ; but we returned by the new Lindsay and Port Hope railway, though it was not nearly ready for passenger traffic. There were no proper cars, and we had to sit upon our boxes in a van. There were other movements in the family occasionally. I remember more than once, being in charge of the household whilst my sister made visits amongst her relations, and I made more than one visit to Peterborough myself. I cannot help here remarking that my old original friends, of the time when I first lived in Canada, occupy o m o I— I > STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 163 quite a diftorcnt place to mo, or I to them, from any recent ones. Increasing years and deafness operate in part ; I do not go into society, and have in a measure lost my individuality. To return, however, to ray visits to Peterborough. The march of events does seem very rapid when I have to relate that during the last visit which I paid there before I left Yorkvihe another son was bom to Mr. Boyd by his second wife. There was a little romance belonging to this marriage. When left a widower, with six young children, and no one belonging to him living near, Mr. Boyd was wise indeed to look out early again for a helpmate. In the familj^ in which ho fiad been reared in Ireland, when sent home by his parents from India, there was a young girl, quite a child when he left, but still remembered by him. His sister wrote him word that she had grown up a very charming person, and that if he camo over she thought he might find in her a very suitable wife. But Mr. Boyd could not easily go away from his business and his family, and stay long erough to woo and to wed; so he wrote to the lady, not with any proposal, but upon the plea of making enquiries from her about her brother (who had been his particular friend, and was dead), and about other of his early associates. So a coiTespondence Avas started, and after a time he suggested that she should come and pay a visit to the country, and that possibly they might like each other well enough to remain together. She, too, was a good deal alone in the world, having lived with this brother, who had died. So the result was that she did come out, accompanied by an aunt, and before long they did agree to remain together. They v;ere married, and the aunt went home. She took her place amongst all the connexion quite naturally, has ever been sisterly in her relations to this family, and always "Aunt Boyd " to the children of it. 164 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. A principal interest connected '/itii our sojourn at Toronto was the raising of its beautir';i University buildings. My brother had a good deal to do with the selection of the site, and laid the first stone, but without any especial ceremonial. It ought to have been the task of tho Governor General, but ho was away at tho time, so the laying of the last stone on tho top of tho turret was reserved fur him, and celebrated with all due ixlat ; my brother being still there to see the termination of the work. In leaving Toronto he lost a great source of in- terest in the University, as well as a salary which had been a /comfortable addition to our income. At Quebec he held for a time tho post of Inspector of Prisons, but an office which took him into other parts of the country seemed likely to interfere with his auditing business, and ho did not long retain it. 1859. It was in the autumn of 1859 that we took our departure for Quebec. My brother went over earlier to look for a house ; and I recollect feeling some alarm about the climate we should encounter there, when a Quebec gentleman asked him to look into tho yard of his house to see whether the snow had been removed — and this W03 in June ! Hitherto the children had gone to day schools ia our neighbourhood, but when we went to Quebec Tom was left as a regular boarder at Upper Canada College. Han*y was placed there for a time, only joining us when we^ settled. Tho house, or cottage, we occupied at first was in the country, about three miles from Quebec, and it necessitated cur having a man, horse, and vehicle. The children went into town daily to school, and the loss of so much time on the road, besides other inconveniences, made us glad, when spring came, to take one of the new houses which had been built to accommodate the increased population that came with the Government. It was a much more roomy house, and towards autumn we had a good many visitors. This was STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 1G5 the year that the Prince of Wales made his visit to Canada, and some of our relations hving at a distance were glad to have the opportunity of seeing him, and partaking in the festivities and excitements which the presence of royalty occasioned. The Prince landed at Quebec, and when he went forward to the Upper Province my brother followed in the stream, as ho had to do some of the honours. At Kingston he was, as Prison Inspector, to have received the Prince at the Penitentiary, one of the important institxitions of the country, but circumstances prevented the royal party from landing.* This was very mortifying, because a list of prisoners had been mado who were to have received their pardon on the occasion of the royal visit. At Toronto, my brother, who still held the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University, took part in the re- ception. Sir Allan McNab had also asked him to bo a guest at his house when he received the Prince on his visit to Hamilton. My sister was likewise in Toronto during the gaieties there. I at Quebec was looking forward to the approacli of another visit to England. I had been now again ten years absent from it. My sister-in-law in England had said in one letter, " Could Lydia make up her mind to part with one of her children ? We should be very glad if you could bring one with you." And this led to a decision that Ellen should accompany me. The child bore the thoughts of the separation very well ; there was pleasure in prosjjcct to counterbalance it, but at the last moment sho threw herself into her mamma's arms with a little shriek. She soon recovered herself, and she ♦The cause of the Prince's tot landing at Kingston was that a very large Orange demonstration had been got up, and this distinctly against the expressed wishes of the authorities, for it was earnestly desired that there should bo nothing to arouse party feeling in any of the receptions. Thcrcforo the Prince would not land. 166 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. says now that she recollects very little of that voyage. I remember it well, however, especially one stormy night, when we were fortunately allowed to keep our lights burning, for I found myself soaked in my berth, and had to get up and dress. Ellen, in the lower berth, fared better, A very graphic description of our storm appeared in all the papers, because the Prince of Wales was likewise in it. He had sailed from New York about the same time we did from Quebec (a day or two later, I believe), and he must have had a longer passage, for I recollect there was some pnxiety about him at home before his ships were heard of. The "North American" landed us in Liverpool about dusk. The arrangements on shore were the least comfortable I ever remember, for the goods of all the passengers were pro- miscuously scattered on the quay, wnere there was no shelter, and we had to get a lantern to hunt up our possessions. The Custom House officers, too, were not pleasant. In the case of one of our boxes, which was screwed down, they insisted upon inspection, and we had to wait some time until a screw-driver was obtained, and, after all, when the lid was oflF, they just gave a pat to the contents, and left us to screw it down again. However, with the help of my cousin William Langton, who met us, we got through just in time to go by the last train to Manchester. And so I found myself onc^ more in England, after another ten years' absence. My brother William's family had just taken up their abode at Litchford Hall, a large house about five miles from Manchester. The changes were great. I had left a parcel of children, and now they were all grown up, or nearly so. Two had married,* and the elder had died, leaving a little grand-daughter in her place. The youngest of my *Tho second man-iago was that of my niece Anna Margaret, to Mr. Charles Ileywood, June 18, 1858. STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 167 brother's childrcx was very little older than Ellen, and they soon became great friends, and likewise schoolfellows. It was always intended that Ellen should be sent to school, but to a more economical one than that of my friend Miss Lowe, but my brother took the matter into his own hands, and said she should go where his own daughters had "been, and generously undertook the cost. So, after the Christmas holidays, ho accompanied her cousin Frances to the Misses Lowe, who had their school now at Southgate, about nine miles from London. Ellen was not like my Canadian friend who thought England " beautiful, beautiful, beautiful." She was chary of her admiration both of persons and things, and, I think, was afraid of being unfaithful to her own friends and country. I resumed my old life, sometimes remaining quietly at Litchford, sometimes going to see other friendb. In every visit to England I have somewhat extended my acquaintance with it. Now, for the first time, I was introduced '.o the beauties of the lake country, for my cousin Skinner Langton having settled himself at Barrow House, on Derwentwater, I went to stay there. I was glad that my visit was during the holidays, and that I was asked to bring Ellen with me, and could show her something really beautiful in England. Two of her cousins, Willy and Katie, were also of our party. Wo took Bolton Abbey, Settle, Clapham, &c., on our way. When we returned I went to see my friends, the Misses Lowe, at May- field, Southgate, and stayed with them for the remainder of the holidays, and likewise for the whole of the succeeding term, only co"^"ang back along with the girls for Christmas. At thi»\ time public news was painful and anxious. The death of the Prince Consort was mourned by the whole nation ; and that matter denominated "The Trent affair" occurred, which made me feel extremely anxious, af war with the United 108 STORY OV OUR FAMILY. States seemed fiir from improbable, in which event Canada would of course have been a principal scene of operations. The circumstance is almost now forgotten, and some of my younger readers may scarcely remember what it was, so I will briefly tell them. The war in America, between North and South, had just broken out, and a Northern naval officer had boarded an English passenger ship (the "Trent") and taken from it two obnoxious Southerners. Wo cared nothing for the men, but resented the insult to our flag, and demanded that the prisoners should be given up to us again. Had the American Government refused, war would have been the consequence, Great preparations were made in England, and troops already despatched to Canada, when the Yankees wisely yielded, and the trouble came to an end. The private intelligence I received during my stay at May- field was very pleasant, namely, the engagement of my niece and godchild, Ellen Josephine, to Mr. Herbert Philips. The marriage took place in February, the two girls, Francos and Ellen coming home to officiate as bridesmaids to their sister and cousin. During the summer I made acquaintance with some more of England's beauty, through my cousin, Mrs. Kawdon being at that time at Clifton, where I visited her. I crossed the Severn and saw Chepstow Castle and Tintem Abbey, and other atti'active parts of the comitry. I have always a great admiration for England's magnificent trees. The primeval forest, at least in our part, can show nothing to equal them. 1862. I was still in England when the great Exhibition of 1862 was opened, and had just made arrangements Avith our friend Miss Clarke, now living in England, to have lodgings together for a fortnight in London, when I received a summons from Canada, and made immediate preparations to sail in a week. STORY OP UUU FAMILY. 169 i was more distappointeu for Miss Clarke than for myself, for to set against anything of the kind on my own account, I felt exceedingly glad of this proof that I had an amount of value in the Canadian branch of the family. The cause, too, of my being wanted, was not a serious one. The children had been ordered to the seaside, on account of that troublesome com- plaint, ringworm, and it was impossible for my sister to go with them, as she was expecting another addition to her family. So I made very few personal adioux, but took my passage in the " Norwegian," and, for the iirst and only time, crossed the Atlantic without any companion whatever. We had a veiy good passage. I occupied one of the best state-rooms all alone, and landed at Quebec sooner than they had at all expected me. They had not given me credit for so much promptitude. The landing and Custom-house work, without any one to help mo, was rather confusing, but I got through my difficulties very well, and took my sister quite by surprise. She was alone, for the children were already sent away, Avitli a very good, steady housemaid and one of their cousins, and my brother was gone to Toronto. I waited for his return, bringing Tom with him from school, who was to go with me to join the other children, and then he and I embarked in the " Victoria" for Dalhousie, in New Brunswick. This rather distant post was chosen because there was a telegraph direct to it. Wo were three nights out in the "Victoria;" that is, we landed about three o'clock a.m. of the third night. Most of the children, who had been full of expectation, woke up on my arrival; but Jack (the youngest) slept through the commotion, and it was only when I jumped out of bed, and went to his cot the first thing in the morning, that he saw me. Though he was only just three years old when I left, and I had been away nearly two years, his greeting was as affectionate as that of the other children. 170 8T0BY OF OUU FAMILY. However, "aunt Anne" must hnvo been merely a tradition, for ho told rae I did not look quite the same as I used to do, that is, I suppose, as his own imagination had pictured me. I enjoyed my two months with the children at Dalhousie very much. We boarded with a Mrs. Carter, so had no household cares, and I wandered about with my charges all the time, seeing them bathe every day, and living almost altogether out of doors. Once, when they were playing in the hayfield, I went off alone for a sketch. The haymakers joked with them, and said that, as I was alone, perhaps the Indians would take me ; so when I appeared again in the hayfield, I am sure it was to the younger ones a great relief, for they rushed into my arms in a transport. What the children enjoyed, above all things, was what they called " an expedition ; " that is, a rather longer walk than usual, with a basket of provisions instead of coming home to dinner. It was but ? very scanty meal that we could contrive to carry with us, but the " short commons" was abundantly compensated for by being consumed as we sat on the ground under a tree. Sometimes, by way of a treat, I gave them an expedition from our more settled home, but the last effort of the kind was a failure ; it was from Ottawa. We took a boat, and crossed the river to a very inviting point of land, where wo contemplated rambling about and enjoying ourselves until evening, when we appointed our boatmen to come for us. Alas ! this delightful spot was an especial resort of the mosquito tribe, and wo were beset by them to such a decree, that we were obliged to keep walking all the time, for the moment we sat down to rest the enemy was upon us in over- powering numbers. Wo kindled a fire and tried to shelter ourselves in its smoke. At length rain came on, so we planted some stakes in the ground, and with our shawls and wraps made a tent, under which wo crept. We tried to be very STORY OF GUP FAMILY. 171 cheerful, tolling stories and playing games. The rain, however, did us infinite service, for our thoughtful boatmen cam j for us before the appointed hour, and thankful we were to cut short our day of pleasure. I believe the mosquitoes even might have been fun in earlier days, but my children were getting too old to enjoy an adventure at the expense of comfort. There are a great many grown-up children, however, who take great delight m camping out for a few weeks together, and in some families it is an annual indulgence. I never partook of, and doubt whether I should have been fascinated with it. I visited such a camp the last time I was at Bobcaygcon. Some of Mr. Boyd's family, with a party of friends, had been two or three weeks in the woods bordering on Pigeon Lake. We went in his steamer "Beaubocage" (supposed by him to be the origin of the name Bobcaygeon) to visit the camping party. They numbered about eight besides three children, one of them an infant. There were fom* tents of various dimensions, and one besides, a little removed, devoted to cookery, under the care of a man. Some of the sleeping apparatus consisted merely in cloaks, rugs, and blankets spread on the ground ; in other cases blankets were spread over logs raised from the ground, so as to form a sort of hammock ; but this, though more comfortable in some respects, is less warm, as the air gets underneath. All seemed to be in excellent sjurits, enjoying the fresh air and the dolce far niente exceedingly. We visitors were a large party ; nevertheless, they spread their table, and gave us a substantial luncheon, including even various delicacies, such as sardines and orange mar- malade ; and when we apologised for making such an in- road on their provisions, they said ** Don't be alarmed ; wo could keep you for a week." Later on, when they came homo from their encampment and told us some of their adventures, it 172 8T0UY OF OUli FAillLV. did not sound so delightfully luxurious. They had some very heavy thunderstorms, and one night sat up in their tents holding umbrellas over their heads all the time. Some strange cattle came amongst them, too. I do not remember the details of that story, but I know the mother was in a panic about her children. On the whole, I thought people were better at home, or should give themselves an al fresco holiday nearer to their own doors. This has been rather a long digression, and I must go back to Dalhousic. Some of the families there wex'e very kind and attentive to us, and I was very glad more recently to learn a little about them from another frequenter of the place. A railway had recently been constructed in the neighbourhood, and some of the Dalhousie "belles" had married engineers. One, Avhom we knew, had been engaged to a young engineer who fell ill and died. But at the last he was anxious to make her his wife, so the marriage ceremony was performed at his bedside in the night, and he died the next morning, thus leaving her his name, and perhaps something besides ; but the rest of her history I do not know. This young lady was in charge of the telegraph, and she came one night, bringing herself the telegram which announced to us the birth of a boy at Quebec. The stranger, Hugh, had arrived on Jack's birthday, so I told him the next morning that ho had had a splendid birthday present. I am afraid ho did not much a])preciate it when he heard what it was. Tom and Harry loft us at the expiration of their holidays, but I had three still with me. When our own time for departure came, as the steamer "Lady Head" came into the bay at all hours, but mostly in the night, only staying to discharge or take in passengers and going off again immediately, I got a young man whom we knew to watch for her lights and give us notice of her approach. Then, having STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 173 sent, our lucrgage down to the shore, I let the children lie down on sofas and chairs in all their clothes, loavinp; nothing what- ever but their comforters to tic on. Even then, when we got down, the passenger boat had put off, and had to go with the luggage loaded to the water's edge. If it had not been a per- fectly calm night the transit would scarcely have been safe. The next night was as calm and beautiful, so I let the children sleep on deck, covered up with shawls, until about one o'clock in the morning. But our last night was of a very diflbrent kind. A tremendous gale arose, and we were all as sea-sick in the river approaching to Quebec as ever on lake or ocean ; and in the cabin of a very small steamer, with the screw — some- times in the water, sometimes out of it — just under your, head, the noise and clatter is a great aggravation to your sufferings. The excitement during this winter arose in a gi'eat measure through our dear little new baby. My sister, for the first time, was not able to nurse her child, which was at first a great distress to her. She thought it would not have the same affection for her, whereas there never was one of her children which manifested from first to last such a marked preference for its mamma over everyone else. The substitutes for the performance of her maternal duties were not all we could wish, and when, after some changes, we had a nurse in most respects quite satisfactory, we had suddenly to part with her under very unpleasant circumstances, as the end of the story I am about to tell will reveal. One day, Avhen my sister and I had been out together, we were met at the door by two of the servants, showing great consternation. Thjy said tliat "Mrs. Langton's watch had been stolen." It usually hung in the dining-room, which was an inner room, but it was gone from the nail. They said that Master Jack had left the door open when he went out, and that someone must have come in and 174 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. taken it. Hero was a trouble — watch, gold chain, and orna- ments belonging to it, all gone ! There was nothing to do, however, but to give notice at «ome of the jewellers, where such a thing might be oftered for sale. Not very long after, when I woke in the morning and looked round to my watch, which always stood at my bedside, it was not there. Now, we felt sure the thief was in the house. Suspicion fell upon the cook. She was about to leave us. She had been down much earlier than the other servants, and, from these and one or two other circumstances, we were led to send for the police, and give her in charge, in time to prevent any abstraction or hiding of the booty. She said she had found the watch- stand on the rug at the door, as if thrown down by someone before leaving the house. We searched everywhere in the house where the watch might have been hidden, but without result. The cook was set at liberty, but we were not satisfied. It was about a month after this that the housemaid came running into the room one day, saying she had found Miss Langton's- watch in tlie wet nurse's purse. It had seemed so heav^' and bulky that she had opened it out of curiosity, and there was my watch, chain and all, and, besides these, the small ornaments that had been attached to my sister's watch chain. So the thief was found. We had never suspected her. She had had the run of the house, and used to take the baby about into all the rooms, saying she was giving it an airing, and we had never missed any of our small possessions. Of course she left. I recovered my property, but my sister's watch and chain never turned up. We then in our own minds acquitted the cook, but a workwoman we were employing at the time told me afterwards she was convinced that the two were in league j and I believe it. 1864. We were obliged to leave our comfortable house in the STORY OF OUn FAMILY. 175 spring, as the landlord wanted to let it for a term, and wo could only take it from year to year, as tho Government might move to Ottawa at any time, though as yet none was fixed. Wo could only get a house lower down in tho town, so my brother, in order to give the children fresher air, took a small cottage for three mouths at Point Levi ; where they could remain and their elders change about, now in town, now in the country. Wo were to take alternate weeks, my brother and sister one week and I another. I went to Point Levi for tho first week, and then sptJit one at homo quite alone. I really enjoyed my solitude, my liberty, and my reading, but I never had another turn of it, for my sister received intelli- gence of her mother's illness, and went to Peterborough to see her, and afterwards brought her back with her to Quebec. Our Point Levi life was very like tho Dalhousie one ; not quite so free, for we were housekeepers, but we spent a good deal of time rambling about, and bathing was again the supreme delight, often enjoyed twice in the day. Whilst Mrs. Langton was away, my brother frequently came over to have an early dip with his sons, and breakfixst with us, and he would often carry a basket and do a good deal of marketing for us on his way. We all assembled in town again for the winter. Christmas unfortunately brought us several troubles. In the first place Rubidge Dunsford, who was to have added greatly to its brightness, became an invalid. Then my sister fell ill, and was confined to her bed. One day, when I vms just taking her up her dinner, leaving the children at the table, we heard such an outcry as betokened something seriously amiss. Down stairs we rushed, and found that Willie and Jack had been quarrelling over a carving knife — that Willie held the handle and Jack the blade, so that in the contest the latter hod the worst of it, and had received a severe wound across his 176 KTORY OF OUU FAMILY. Iiiind ; whilst Tom had also been cut in separating the two. Though Tom's thumb was cut to the bono, he never said a word, but rushed olF for a doctor, as Jack's wound was a great deal worse. Fortunately the doctor was close at hand ; the wound was properly dressed, but Jack has never been able to move his thumb since. It is not stiff; he can move it with the other hand, but not by the force of his own will. Then, besides some more trifling mishaps, there was a great fight in the kitchen. Two of the maids quaiTollcd ; one of them used her nails to the great disfigurement of the other, who became so bitter and so full of revengeful threatenings, that we were obliged to send her away at once, and unfortunately it was the better servant that we lost. So much for our private mis- fortunes. We had an earthquake, too, this winter, but it did not do any great harm. A much greater calamity was an explosion at the powder magazine, Avhich caused considerable loss of life, and did a gi'eat deal of damage in adjoining parts of the city. The streets near it were strewn with glass. We had one window broken, and one of the double windows shaken down into the street, but ours was about the last house that suffered any damage. 18G5. Xn the spring we had another move, and this time we took a house a little out of town, for half a year only, still expect- ing that the icmoval of the Government to Ottaw^a would very soon take place. It is customary at Quebec for all leases to date from the first of May, so that on that day there is a general " change all." It is extremely inconvenient some- times, as it was on this occasion. Our predecessors in the country house were going to the Isle of Orleans, but it was so stormy that they could not get off, and, though they left the house themselves, o great deal of their furniture was still there when ours was going into it. In our case one of the 8T0UY OF OUIl FAMILT. 177 children (lltirry) was so ill that until there was some decent room and bed ready we could not remove him. Mra. Langton went to make preparations whilst I stayed with the invalid, and the incoming tenant seemed ou the high road to getting settled before wc were able to leave. lie was an army doctor, and I was amused to see the rough and ready way in which these military gentlemen accomplish their moves. This one brought half a dozen soldiers with him laden with his ca\'pet8 and curtains, and they laid down the one and put up the other in no time ; his drawing-room was ready for occupation in an hour. Wc enjoyed our country house and garden very much. The only interruption to the " even tenour of our way " was Jack having his leg broken. The first night after the setting, when he lay on the sofa unable to move, the poor Loy (the most restless of mortals) was in great trouble, but from that time he bore his month's confinement extremely well. I de- voted myself to him, and what with games and readings I think he passed his time pleasantly enough, and even when he was able to be moved and sit in the window, from which ho could watch his brothers at their play, he never manifested the least impatience to bo amongst them again. My brother and sister went over to Ottawa to secure a house for us thero, and the family moved in the autumn, but the Government did not, so my brother had to remain at Quebec. He came up with us, however, and saw us into our new abode, and a very tedious and uncomfortable settling it was. Our own journey was well perfonncd, but our posses- sions, which came up in a slower way — in barges — arrived at last in a lamentable condition. A great many of them were soaked through and through. The piano was foimd to be standing in two feet of water, and, if it had not happily been in a tin case, must have been ruined. Instead of getting into N 1.78 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. our house, wo had to make fires iu all the rooms, and spread out our things before all the fires. Many of our books were injured, but, with regard to our clothes, wo were rather for- tunate, for it was happily the linen, anJ not the dresses, that suffered, and the first could be washed and dried. Bundles of bedding were very wet, but the packing of them had been good, and the water had filtered tlirough so many wrappers that they were very little soiled. Wc had to remain several days at the hotel before we could begin to make things straight at the house, and then, of course, my brother had to roturn to (Quebec. Ho had a bed iu his office, and lived there altogether, the consequence of which was that he worked night as well as day, until his friends began to bo uneasy about him. In tho winter my sister, and her youngest child, went to spend a few weeks with our friends Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, near Quebec, where my brother joined her. This would have been a pleasant break, but almost immediately after she got there she received the tidings of her mother's death. First there came a sunnnons for her, which, though forwarded immediately, did not reach her until another telegram to lier brother at Quebec announced the end. So she was spared the necessity of a very long journey in the middle of winter. For the summer months a cottage was again taken at Point Levi, where Mrs. Langton went with some of the children, thus taking my brother out of his office hermitage. Mean- while I remained at Ottawa along with the three schoolboys. I felt very busy all this summer. One of my out-dcor tasks was to look out for another house, as we had determined not to remain iu the one we occupied longer than we could help. Besides being a very cold house, the water came in so much in the basement stoiy that wo had to lay down boards to walk across the kitchen, and everything got damp and mouldy. I STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 179 had scvcrtil long rambles in this search, but was, after all, un- successful. Wo had to spend another winter where we wore. Then I had more sociabilities to do than when my sister was at home, to say nothing of hospitalities. I enter- tained one family of friends whilst they were packing up for leaving Ottawa, and another family I received whilst they were getting themselves settled in the place. Another friend came to stay with mo whilst looking out for a house. Again, as wo could not leave our damp abode, I had to employ workpeople to get it made more comfortable, to have a chimney built, ai d the drains inspected. It was something new to me to feel both master and mistress of the house. I had not my three buys all tho time. Willy seemed rather delicate, and went to join his parents at Point Levi, and Harry was transferred to Upper Canada College, Toronto. Jack was at last my only com- panion. In the autumn tho Govenmient did really move to Ottawa, so when the family came homo wc had no more separations. During this summer Tom, who had finished school and was about to enter the University, went on a visit to England, and when he returned brought his sister Ellen out with him. Her schooling had been over some time, but on account of the Government's and our uncertain movements, no steps had been taken for bringing her home, and she remained an inmate of her uncle's family. Tom arrived in England just in time to join in an expedition to Paris, along with his Heywood cousins and Ellen. 866. The principal event of this winter was the severe illness of my sister from inflammation of the lungs. It was happily sub- dued, but she remained delicate for some time. In the spring she was well enough to go with my brother and Ellen to kcc her relations at Lindsny, Bobcaygeon, and Peterborough. Tliey 180 STORY OF OUtt FAMILY. brought back with thorn her iiiccc Annie Boyd, who spent some months with us — the last of her maidenhood, for she was married from our house. In the meantime a house had been built — though not by us, still expressly for our habi- tation — and early in the summer we took up our abode at Sandy Hill, where a good deal of building had been going on, and where many of the families connected with the Govern- ment were established. We bought a piece of ground alongside it for a garden, and hoped we were settled for good. There was a great deal of i"^ easiness in the country at this time on account of the threatenings of the Fenian brotherhood. Having such numbers of Irish amongst us scattered in all parts, there was no knowing how many might secretly belong to this organization. I believe that very few of the Canadian Irish had anything to do with it, but from the United States a very serious raid was made this summer. On the 2nd of June the battle of llidgway was fought, and a volunteer corps from the University suffered largely. Besides several wounded, three promising yoiuig men were killed. All that we had o^ military were ordered to the front, whilst a portion of the Civil Service Corps, which had been organised at the time of the "Trent affair," remained to defend the capital. My brother at that time held the rank of private in it, and he had to perform the honourable duty of standing sentinel at the Governor's resi- dence. At other times occasionally, on days of ceremony, ho descf -.ded from his auditorial chair, donned his regimentals, and stood in the ranks to grace the display. When Confeder- ation was established, and the corps reorganised, he became captain. Annie Boyd's wedding took place this summer ; her sister Mary came over to be present, and when she and the James Dunsfords (who were likewise our guests) returned home, I STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 181 went along with them, and paid a rouivd of visits amongst my 1867. old friends. In the winter, my brotaei' and sister went to England, Agnes was sent to school at Toronto, and I remained with the rest of the young party. Ellen, now grown up, shared my cares. We had not a very easy time of it. Our fii'st operation was getting all the stove pipes taken down, which • once in the winter is always thought necessary. We had just completed the work and got all cleaned up again, when our land- lord came and told us that there was a great deal of imperfect plastering in the house, and that if the needful was done at once it would come into his contract with the builders ; but that if it was postponed he should have the expense of it himself. We could not object, and so were obliged to have every room by turns submitted to the operations, ani^ such a turning out, such scattering of lime and dirt, was never, I think, seen before in an inhabited house. There cannot have been a great interval between this and our regular spring cleaning, and then, having a little time to spare, we made ourselves more work by papering our basement parlour with pictures from tho Illus- trated News, for nothing was so pleasant as making preparations for the return of the absentees. Tho pleasure of my sister's return was damped to her, by meeting at New York, the news of her brother Martin's death. My brother and sister's visit to England had not been altogether to see their relations, though that object was attained by it. The former was a great deal in London, working along with the Canadian ministers, who were at this time negotiating with the Government tho terms of the new Confederation, and Mrs. Langton was often with him there. They were both present at the wedding of John A. Macdonald, who became "Sir John" when the Dominion was ^publicly declared the succeeding first of July. Business, now to be settled with our now provinces, took my 182 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. brother both to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and my sister was glad to accompany him on these expeditions. During their absence we had a great anxiety at home. Tom, who was with us for the long vacuiion, became seriously ill, alanningly so, and we had no means of letting his parents know, for they were moving about all the tim . Our own doctor, too, was absent from home, and we had only his young substitute. However, the worst was over when my brother and sister got home, though Tom was even then scarcely able to speak to them, for besides weakness he was salivated by the treatment. But we were all thankfulness for his restoration. How the grave and the gay are mingled in this world ! and in my little sketch they seem to come almost together, as there is nothing to show the number of months that divided them. This winter we went into more gaieties than usual, and we gave two large parties, dancing the first, music the second. This last party was larger than we expected, for some young men played the ridiculous trick of sending invitations in our name. Some of those thus invited happily sent refusals, very nmch to our astonishment, and those who came never found out that they had really not been asked. My brother and sister had been away at Montreal, and only came back on the evening of this last party, the former unhappily quite ill. He did contrive just to see his guests, appearing in the room for a short time, b\it from that evening we had another long spell of great anxiety. The attack became inflammation of the lungs, at his age a very serious matter. At one time he was better, and then came a relapse still more alarming j but, thank God ! he was spared, and re-established in health. In the spring of this year I went again to England, with Agnes for my com- panion. She was to go to school to Miss Lowe's, as her sister had done, again through good uncle William's means. We STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 183 went by New York, staying a couple of nights with our friends the Mcadrews, at Staten Island. We sailed in the " City of Baltimore," and had a fair passage, considering the season, without much rough weather until our last day, when, after leaving Queenstown, a strong head wind checked our progress, and obliged us to lie off a whole tide before we could cross the bar at the mouth of the Mersey. Meanwhile, a tug came out to us, bringing newspapers, and it was rather amusing to read the news by the " City of Baltimore" some hours before she was able to land. So much for telegraphing facilities ! We disembarked shortly before midnight, were met by my nephew Henry, and left the next morning for Manchester. It is curious how the details of a visit to England not very far back have escaped my memory — not the circumstances themselves, but the succession of them. I have felt inclined to confound the doings of one visit with those of another. I have had some difficulty in bringing it all back to my mind clearly enough to feel sure that I give the outline of our movements conectly, which, when you hear the variety of them, you will hardly wonder at. Just after Easter we went up to London, staying a week with my cousin Mrs. Rawdon, and I was able to take my little niece to all the principal sights of the metropolis before de- positing her with my friend Miss Lowe. I stayed at Mayfield two or three days myself, and, returning to London, found my brother William there ; so we visited some art collections together, and travelled down in company, stopping at Bath to see our cousin Jane Langton. We parted at Crewe, for I was desirous of visiting my Liverpool friends, whilst en route, so as not to make another absence from Manchester very soon. I j;:, ->; stayed a week at Saudowu before returning to Litchford. The summer holidays brought Agnes down, and she went with me 184 STORY OF OUB FAMILY. to Barrow, and so was introduced to very kind cousins, and to the beauties of English scenery. I hoped that she would have had a peep at Wales likewise ; but the house we were going to occupy there, lent by a kind friend to my brother William, was not at liberty until the holidays had expired, so she returned to school just as we set out for the Principality. Wo spent about six weeks at Pcnmaenmawr very pleasantly. The house (Plas-mawr) was largo, and we had a succession of visitors to enjoy the beautiful scenery along with ourselves, making various excursions in the neighbourhood, but never longer than could be performed in one day. Later in the autumn I went to the Isle of Man, where my cousin Mrs. Rawdon was staying with her sister, Mrs. Robinson, so the company of both was enjoyed at the same time. When I left I claimed cousinly hospitality for a night at Liverpool, and proceeded thence to Barmouth, where ray cousin Jane Birley had invited me to join her, and there I remained, extending my acquaintance with lovely Wales until after Christmas, reaching 18G9. Litchford for the family gathering at the New Year. My brother's married daughters congregate with their husbands' families on the cai-licr festival, but the later one always unites our own circle. Before Easter I set forth on my own rambles again, first to see Miss Clarke, who was living near Tewkesbury — quite a new neighbourhood to ine. She took me for a day to Cheltenham, where I had never been. It reminded me a good deal of our Canadian towns, having so many streets beautified by trees. I asked Miss Clarke to come to me in lodgings in London for a fortnight, for, though there was no Great Exhibition to show her, it was still a pleasure for her to visit the metropolis, where she had never been. Before this, however, I went to spend the Easter vacation with Miss Lowe STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 185 at Mayficld, going for n night on my way to seo Mrs. John Langton's relations at Faringdon. I passed throiigh Gloucester, and attended service (it was Good Friday) at the Cathedral, When the school re-assembled at Mayficld I took possession of my lodgings in London, and enjoyed my stay there not less than my companion. I exceedingly like going about the metropolis in perfect independence, and I am sure one can there have more enjoyment for a moderate sum than in any other place. Whilst in London an invitation came to me to join my cousin Jane Birley at Vcutnor, in the Isle of Wight. Without making a regular tour of the island I saw some of its interesting points. After a sojourn there of a fortnight, I proceeded to pay a visit to my friend Miss Coddington in Ireland. Passing through Liverpool without any pause, T embarked on a night boat, and found myself the next moraing in Dublin. A fortnight was generally the length of my visits, and after spending one hero I stayed another with Mrs. Langton in Liverpool, during which time I hunted up sundry old friends in the neighbourhood, and felt greatly amazed at all the changes. I had a drive along the north shore, where we had gone to live in 1826 almost in solitude, and found one continued street all the way from Liverpool to Bootle, the docks even extending far beyond our old abode. This ended my rambles for a time ; but I must observe that I take no notice of little visits paid to nieces and cousins near to Man- chester. When Agnes came down for the holidays we had another invitation to Barrow, and a charming scheme was planned for a meeting at Bolton Abbey. Agnes and I were first to pay a visit to Miss Swale at Settle, and then join my brother and sister from Litchford, and the Skinner Langtons from Barrow, and see the beauties of the Wharfe together. But at Settle 186 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. Agnes foil ill, and wo quite despaired of being able to got to the rendezvous; howover, just at tho last, we mustered courage and went to Bolton Bridge for one night — a too hurried view of those scenes for Agnes. The rest of our project was duly carried out ; wo returned along with the Skinner Langtons to Barrow, and had another spell of enjoyment there. I also took Agnes over to Lorton Hall to see her mamma's relations there. I must mention one pleasant incident on our return journey. I had carelessly mislaid my tickets — in fact I thought I had lost them — and I wondered what Avas to be done, for I should have to pay our fare a second time, and had not money enough. The moment I had said so a lady in the carriage, quite a stranger, put her hand into her pocket and oflfered me any- thing I might wart. I got her i idress in order to repay her, and, curiously enough, tho very first time we went into Man- chester we encountered our kind lady. I may mention that I found my tickets when I got home, and recovered the second payment fi'om the railway oflB.ce on producing them. Some of my minor visits were paid this autumn without Agnes. About this time we received very iudiflFerent accounts of Ellen's health in Canada. It had been found necessary to give her tho benefit of change of air, and a cottage had boon taken at Riviere du Loup, bat my brother and sister were un- able to go with her, so her only oscort was her brother Tom. It seemed so dismal to me that I felt as if I ought to go back, as I had done during Ellen's school-days ; but Marian volun- teered to go and help to look after her, and with very short deliberation she started, her brother Willy taking her there, but staying a very short time only, as upon his return he had almost immediately to sot out for India. In the winter I asked my friends at Sandown if they could receive Agnes and myself for the few days between Christmas STORY OF OUR FAMILY. 187 and tho New Year. Wo went there on the 26th, and this 1870. being my cousin Hugh Hornby's birthday, we came in for the great family gathering. It waa a formidably large party for Agnes, but to mo really a very great pleasure to see so many of the Hornby clan assembled together. Some were new mem- bers of the family, but the majority very old friends indeed, and my young companion got on well amongst them all. The holidays are always very noticeable landmarks. During the Easter vacation we had the pleasure of seeing Tom (who had just taken his degree), arrive from Canada. One night my brother brought word that the steamer by which we expected him had come in. So Agnes and I went to Manchester in the morning, supposing ho would appear by the first train from Liverpool ; but one or two came in and no arrival, when looking into a paper I perceived that tho notice was that the steamer had como into Moville, not to Liverpool. So we took the omnibus home, and the first thing we saw on arriving at Litch- ford was Tom's, luggage ! He had reached Manchester just after we left thootation , and, coming by the other road and by a quicker conveyance, he was at Litchford before us. The Charles Heywoods soon took their two young cousins a trip to the Isle of Man and the Lakes, intent then, as ever, on giving as much pleasure as possible. This next school term was to be Agnes's last, and in the autumn we were to return, all together, to Canada ; so all my visits now were parting ones. I went once again to Barrow, along wi'th my brother and sister, and thence to Sandown, where Tom joined me. After a little time we started together for London. Our friends wondered at our setting ofl without any pre-engaged lodgings, but we took a train which brought us in by the middle of the day, and were comfortably estab- lished before it closed. I had another spell of enjoyment in 188 STORY OP OUR FAMILY. rambling about tho metropolis with Tom. All its interests were new to him, for he had only just passed through it on his first visit to England. Wo met our Canadian friends, Mrs. Tom Ross and her brother, and the latter joined Tom in some of his independent doings, and they went to more concerts and theatres than I cared to go to. Agnes came from Mayfield for a day or two, and Frances from near Windsor, where she was staying, and our lodgings accommodated tho whole party. After a time I left Tom to take care of himself, and went to Mayfield for a last visit ; it was in terra time, and reminded me of my former sojourn when Ellen was at school, and it was pleasant to see something of her schoolfellows. From Mayfield I went for a week to Torquay, where Mrs. Rawdon was staying during tho summer in the house which has since become her regular residence. Here some more beautiful scenes were planted in my memory, besides those I passed through on my way to Chester, whore I went for a last visit to my cousin Birleys. Marian was now on her way back from Canada, and I felt a great desire to meet her at Liverpool. Jane Birley kindly entered into my scheme, and came with rae when the steamer had been telegraphed. We stayed all night in Liverpool, and surprised Marian by appearing on the " Moravian " before breakfast time. Her brother Heni-y was there to meet her, but we were before him. I finished ray visit at Chester, and afterwards went once more to see my friends the Misses Lowe. This was at Abbots Bromley, where they had purchased a house (the Crofts), with the view of its being a home for thera when they were able to retire from tho school. They were now only spending the summer holidays there. This was the last of my visits whilst I remained in England, and the last I was ever to pay to my old friend. When I came home the 8TUUY OF OUU FAMILY. 189 next timo she had attauicd to a moro perfect rest than the one she contemplated enjoying at the Crofts. After I left Tom in London V9 paid a visit to Scotland, and, by dint of most won- derful economy, contrived to see a great deal of it. Near the end of September I embarked, with Tom and Agnes, in the ** Moravian," the ship that had brought Marian home, but had made another trip in the meantime. We had high winds, and a miserable tiiree days at firet, but our troubles came to an end. We landed on a fine frobty morning at Point Levi, and enjoyed a ramble amongst all our old haunts on both sides of tlio river before taking a night train for Ottawn. The bush fires round that place had been most disastrous this year. We passed some of the burnt districts on our way, and heard many sad tales afterwards. The railways, I am sure, are often responsible for these catastrophes. The dry woods in many places come close down to the line, and we know how sparks from the engines fly about. I have seen the grassy banks on fire even in England, and our wood fuel is iu this respect still more dangerous. We were the bearers of several packages of clothes for the sufferers, contributed by our friends at home. After this reunion, I find little for some time to re- 1871. mark upon, and during the year 1871 only one noticeable occurrence, but that a tragic one. We had three dogs — a fine Newfoundland in the yard, and two smaller ones that were free of the house and drawing-room. These had been with us, gay and happy as usual, at breakfast time, and an hour after- wards all our canine friends were dead, poisoned by some unknown enemy of theirs or ours. We never knew by whose hand this gri(;f was inflicted upon us, though we were told of a Bource of certain information. But we did not wish to know. It could do no good, and we could give vent to our indigna- tion more freely without a distinct object for it. There would 190 bTORY OF OUIl FAMILY. have been moro bitterness in knowing the miscreant than in bearing the trouble. The vacancy was filled up by a small puppy, which is still, in his old ago, the family pet. 1872. The summer of 1872 was a remarkably hot one. It is impressed on my mind by the recollection of our nephew Ho»\ry', who then paid his firet visit to Canada, on his way from China and Japan, looking quite exhausted in our verandah, and using his fan as regularly as a Chinaman. My sister and Ellen were away from home at the time, attending Mary Boyd's wedding. Henry has been hero various times since then, at different seasons, but he has never made acquaintance with our winter. Our own Willy went to England during this summer, and, when ho came back, it was accompanied by our niece Frances, who was destined never to return. But I must not forestall the sorrow that ensued on account of this dear girl. The winter was passing over quietly, though busily in preparation for a bazaar in which my sister held a stall, when towards the close of it I had a severe illness. The period of it is all haze in my recollection. I only know that I was nursed tenderly into life again, and that during the progress of recovery I felt full of gratitude both to my Heavenly Father, and to my kind attendants. I was sufficiently reinstated to assist at the sale of our bazaar goods, and as spring advanced I resumed a project I had entertained of taking my English niece and Agnes a little tour, to make the fonner acquainted with our old homo up the Lakes, and with the beauties of Niagara. We paid six different visits amongst our old fnends, and I think it was a great interest to poor Frances to see the interior of Canadian households, as well as the country itself. At Boboaygeon we had to attend the wedding of one of Mr. Boyd's daughters (Caroline, Mrs. Macdonald), and Mrs. Langton and Ellen joined us there. My brother was to have been of the party, but some STOUY OF OUK FAMILY. I'J I Bpocial l)u»iuo88 proveuted him, and very well it \\a.ti that he had been obliged to remain at homo, for a most disastrous fire occurred in the neighbourhood of our house. Ac one time it was thought impossible that it could be saved, and a great deal of the furniture had to bo removed. The difficulties, too, of saving our possessions, might have been increased by our drawers and wradrobes being locked up during our absence. Perhaps, as it proved, this was well, for a small drawer of mine, which could not be locked, must have fallen out, as its contents wore lost. A timely change of wind saved our house. Some of the boys were at homo, and stood on the roof in different parts, quenching the burning brands as they fell. The fire was first perceived afte» midnight, and by six in the morning our furniture had been carried back again into the house, but there was a great desert all around. After the ]3obcaygeon wedding my sister and Ellen went home, whilst I and my two companions paid the remainder of our visits, proceeded for a few days to Toronto, and afterwards to Niagara, to which we could only devote a couple of days. Returning thence, we only stepped from one boat to another at Toronto, taking up Willy, whom we afterwards dropped again at Prescot on his way home, and were ourselves going forward to Montreal, when the attack came on from which our dear Frances never recovered. Details of the sad time that ensued have been narrated to all those who are likely to read these papers, and I will not write them here. We took her to the hospital at Montreal, by the advice of the doctor summoned, and telegraphed for my sister, whose capabilities of nursing I had 80 recently experienced myself; and after a five weeks' illness she was laid to rest in the beautiful cemeteiy near Montreal. Most painful it was to me to be obliged to leave her for a part of this time, but the doctor recommended that there 102 STORY OF OUU FAMILY. bhould be fower persons round her, for wo had but one room for every purpose day and night ; so Agnes and I went back to Ottawa. When more alarming accounts reached me, I returned to Montreal, and remained beside her to the last. Her brother Henry and Marian came from England on first hearing of her serious illness, and reached Montreal two or throe days before the end. I was to have gone back to Eiigland along with poor Frances. Now I returned with Marian after short preparations at Ottawa. Henry had started for home direct from Montreal. We sailed in the "Prussian," and had a perfectly uneventful voyage. Our arrival at home was naturally a painful one. I had to learn thou, too, the commencement of another trouble ; my brother William's failing eyesight. A removal from Litchford had been some time in contem- plation. The house was large, and the family was diminishing. Willy was in India, Katey was married,* and now another was gone. Hopefield, near Eccles, had been chosen for the new abode, and that autumn the removal took place. Just during the crisis I went for a few days to each of my nieces Ellen and Katey, but returned to Hopefield before the settlement was complete. My brother soon went up to London to take advice about his eyes, or rather the one that was then affected. An operation was recommended, and a time fixed for him to put himself into the oculist's hands. He, my sifter, and ^lariau went up to town in November, and during f.tieir absence I went to Chester, to visit my cousins Birley. Jack had, by invitation in the meantime, come over from Canada and joined our party, In order to pursue his education at The Owens College. His *Her marriago with Dr. Greenwood, Principal of Tho Owons College (and now Vice-Cliancollor of tho Victoria University), took place April 18th, 1871. STORY OF OUR FAMILY 193 Heyvvood cousins at Chascley received liim. Some weeks elapsed before we could all rc-asscmble. The operation was said to bo successfully performed, but it was stated that a long time must elapse before the result could be ascertained. Alas ! tlio event proved that it had not led to any permanent good. 1874. My visits to remote friends soon commenced. I saw the two remaining Missos Lowe, enjoying peace and rest in their comfortable home at Abbots Bromley. During the short Easter vacation, Jack and I made a trip into Wales. We left Hopcfield on Monday, saw Holyhead, its harbour of refuge and lighthouse, the suspension and tubular bridges over the Menai Straits, Carnarvon and Conway castles, Snowdon, and three waterfalls, went over a mountain pass, and through a beautiful valley, were two nights with our cousins at Chester, going with them on the intervening day to see friends near Liverpool, and got to the end of our travels on Friday. BlesBings on the railways ! what magic this would appear to our grandfathers ! ! ! My Liverpool visits were paid later in the spring. When the summer vacation set Jack at liberty again, my brother sent us together on a pilgrimage to London, kindly supplying us with funds for our expenses ; so I had for tho third time the pleasure of introducing a young companion to the glories of the metropolis. We trusted again to our luck in finding lodgings, and were settled in good time in tho evening, near to the Paddington Station, as on both former occasions I had found tho locality convenient. Wc certainly found accommodation more expensive than on my former visits, but in other respects we were very economical. We stayed a fort- night, going about the whole time, seeing all the principal sights, the exhibitions, an oi)era, a play, and another evening entertainment. We went to tho Crystal Palace, Gi-eenwich, o 194 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. and Windsor (the last, Jack only), and this, with eating and drinking, only cost XI 15s, Certainly, locomotion in London is cheaper than anywhere else. On one occasion, on a former visit, when staying at Southgate, I came into town to see Tom in his lodgings, near the Paddington Station, two miles, I suppose, from King's Cross ; I paid another visit in another direction, and when I got back to Southgate I had spent 2s. 5d. I was never afraid of going second class. Jack and I returned by Cambridge, most interesting to us both, and, after only a few days at home, we went together to Barrow House, where we spent a couple of pleasant weeks ; Jack being able to indulge his climbing propensities to his heart's content. A little later we were together at the Oak House, near Macclesfield. Our hostess, Ellen Philips, took us a two days' tour in Derbyshire — to Chatsworth, ^nd Haddon Hall, the last above all things interesting — altogether a most pleasant excursion. During a second visit to the Crofts, that autumn, I made acquaintance with a new sensation, that of great danger. For, during a drive with Charlotte Lowe, the pony ran away, and for about a mile we were going at a gallop, f "-ying from side to side of the road, expecting any moment to be thrown out, and especially that when a sharp turn to his stables should come, a catastrophe would be inevitable. However, the pony came to its senses in time, slackened its pace, and allowed itself to be stopped at our door -, but all the rearing and kicking that had preceded the runr.ing away had broken the carriage in more than one place. This pony afterwards played the same trick to his own cost, for he was himself very much injured and had to be shot. This autumn, Herbert and Ellen Philips, who had each paid one previous visit to Canada, resolved to go there together. We mustered a large party at the station, on September 10th, STORY OF OUR FAMILY* I95 to see them off. In all such previous musters I had been one of the departing ones, and the adieux had been very different when a long and indefinite separation was looked forward to. This was only a pleasure trip, and not a very long one ; they were about ten weeks away. They sailed to Quebec, and returned via New York, having visited our home at Ottawa, unfortunately in bad weather, and I am afraid brought away a dismal impression of the place. On th- home voyage they became jscorts to my niece's friend. Miss Carry Wickstead, and they had also another companion, of whom we had heard nothing. They arrived at their Manchester home on Sunday morning, towards the end of November, and were to come and dine at Hopefield on Monday, and meet the other sisters and their husbands. Henry went over to see them on Sunday, and being let into the secret, kept it strictly from our party, and assisted in giving eclat to the discovery, for he met their can-iago at the gate, and abstracted the unexpected one, bringing her hi by another entrance; so that all the first greetings were over when Herbert slipped out of the room, and presently returned with our Canadian Ellen on his arm ! It was a great surprise, and, it may be supposed, a very agreeable one. She remained in England, to return when Jack and I did, but was the guest of the cousins who brought her during her stay. However, vc saw a good deal of each other, and sometimes she and I met in Manchester to do our shopping together, the omnibuses bcin- very convenient on both roads. Also she came and stayed at Hopefield a httlo before Christmas, and helped to enliven the party very much. With the Canadians, the young people were ■ in sufficient force to plan a little surprise for their elders and 1875. visitors on New Year's day. There was a little present of small value for everyone, servants and all, and these last were invited into the drawing-room to partake of the amusement of their 196 STOEY OF OUR FAMILY. distribution. "Father Christmas" (Jack) appeared in a coat of snow (white cotton wool), long white beard, (tc, and with a large bag, out of which he drew the several articles, handing them according to direction. To each was attached a card with some appropriate rhyme. Some of these rhymes were very telling, and added much to the amusement j indeed the presents were, in some cases, a mere excuse for the rhymes. The only difference made between the company and the domestics was, that the presents for the latter were substantial and the rhymes omitted. Another part of the entertainment was an "Art Exhibition," of which a neatly printed catalogue was handed to each person, upon the party being ushered into an adjoining room. Of what they saw there one specimen may suffice for this history. In the catalogue, " No. 2, The Red Sea and the plains beyond," by A Carpenter. A large letter C painted red, and a couple of planes lying behind it. There were twenty- eight of these choice paintings. I do not recollect anything of much importance until May. The Philips family, v.'ith their guest, had gone to their summer home, near Macclesfield, and I joined them there in order to proceed together to Abbots Bromley, where the first stone of the Memorial Chapel to Miss Lowe was to be laid on the 27th. Others of the fiimily, who wished to be present, met us in the train, and wc were a large party to add to the assemblage for the occasion. The Chapel was to be in connexion with St Ann's School for girls of the middle class. My cousin, Anne Mary Hornby, laid the first stone of the Chapel, and Mrs. Selwyn, the wife of the Bishop of Lichfield, that of a new wing for the school. The Bishop himself read the prayers, and spoke afterwards. A collection, for the work in hand, was made on the ground, and afterwards there was luncheon, spread in a large marquee, with more speeches. To all pre- STORY OF OUR FAMILY. X97 sent it was an interesting day. Bishop Selwyn himself was a remarkable personage, from his great work in New Zealand and Polynesia, and he was led to allude to it, and to his late coadjutor Bishop Patteson, from the circumstance of two of the latter's cousins being of the group present. All of our party returned homo the same night, excepting myself. I was so far on my way to Malvern, where I was goino- to see Miss Clarke, that I was glad to stay, and as Miss Lowe's house was full I got a bed in the village, and pursued my journey the next morning. Malvern was quite new to me, and my hospitable reception added to the pleasure of making acquaintance with a place so much famed and frequented for the sake of its charms. From Malvern I went for a last visit to Chester, and then completed the triangle by coming again across the country to Abbots Bromley. Here Ellen met me, and we paid a take-leave visit to our friends together. There were 3ome ueiibv^rations as to the details of our return to Canada, but it was at last decided that we should all three sail early in August, and our passages were taken in the " Sarmatian." There were a few weeks still wanting to that time, and we decided to have one more trip for the especial benefit of Jack. This time Marian was of the party ; Ellen did not join us. Our Yorkshire tour was as successful as our Welsh one had been. Going by Lancaster, itself a very picturesque and interesting town, wo visited Clapham, Settle, Wethercoto, Gordale, Bolton Abbey, Ripon, Fountains Abbey, and York, where we spent Sunday, returning via Leeds. Plenty of interesting localities to bo seen in one week. This was our last pleasure trip ; our next journey was to Liverpool and the " Sannatian." I have recorded a good deal of running up and lown the country, but there were other minor movements un- 198 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. noted — short visits to my nieces, and a night or two sometimes spent with other accessible friends. I was twice at Southport, once with Jack, showing him Blytho on our way. The images of persons and places crowd on my memory as I write, and the names of friends young and old, deserving a place in this chronicle, have escaped unnoticed from my pen. I fear to make my narrative too long for the patience of my readers. Not much remains now to be told. Kind members of the family accompanied us from Manchester to see us on board the *' Sarmatian," and Liverpool friends met us on the pier for those last words that I neither like to think of nor to write about. One always feels it a relief when the final adieux are over. The tedium of tiioso hours spent at Moville waiting for the mail bags was relieved this time, by our witnessing the process of sending down a diver to search for an anchor that had been lost. He remained a considerable time under the water exploring the bottom, but was not successful in his search. Our voyage by the "Sarmatian" was the most perfectly beautiful of any I have ever had. Old Ocean was literally like an inland lake the whole way. That is not saying much when I re- call our troubles on Lake Ontario. I had better simply say that there was perfect calm from first to last. The variety we had was from the number of icebergs we encountered, which afforded much greater enjoyment to the passengers than to the captain. They were really sometimes most beautiful in the bright sunshine. Jack counted sixty-two of them in sight at one time. Some were distant, but many of these floating islands came quite near to us. In shape, not large uniform masses, but broken into hill and dale, with manifestly lovely scenery, if one could have landed to enjoy it. We heard that, (luring the night, we had nearly touched one, and the captain had judged it necessary to slacken speed ; nevertheless our STORY OF OUB FAMILY. 199 passage was a veiy short one, and could have been still more so, if a fog had not met us as we entered the river, continuing all the way as we steamed up the St. Lawrence, so that nothing at all could be seen of the land on either side of us. I felt veiy sorry for some of our English passengers, who, coming to make acquaintance with the Dominion, missed this noble entrance to it. We landed early on Sunday morning, and drove out to Glenalia to spend that day with our friends there. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas were from home, but the sister of the latter, Mrs. Mercer, was staying there, and the old doctor received us with his usual hospitality. Mrs. Mercer likewise kindly suggested that we should rest at her house when we reached Montreal, instead of going to the hotel, as we had several hours to remain there. Some of our time at Montreal was occupied with a visit to the cemetery, where I made a sketch of poor Francie's grave. We travelled by a night train from Montreal, and reached our home at Ottawa to breakfast. I do not dwell upon meetings or partings, but I may just say that our little dog, Dot, though I had been two years away, gave me a most affectionate greeting. The family were no longer in the house in which I had left them, The removal from our old homo had not been voluntai-y. The landlord wanted it for some of his own family, so we had to quit it. My brother was still for- tunate in being able to place himself close to his own garden, and, though we had an ugly house in a dull situation, we were very comfortable. We found the family at home all well, excepting Willy; ho had just come back from staying with some friends at Portland, in hopes of being benefited by the sea air, but improvement did not follow. Month after month he became more miserable, more like a skeleton. So the winter passed gloomily. In the spring he was himself very anxious to try what a residence at 200 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. Dansvillc (a hygienic ostablishment near Rochester, U.S., of wliich he haJ heard something from a friend) would do for him. It seemed a last chance, and one upon which we could not build much hope, but ho was very much in earnest, and our own doctor said ho could do no more for him. It was very sad to see him go away from us to such a distance. Ellen went with him to Dansvillo. and remained there a few days to see him settled. He was happy and hopeful, and during the year that he continued imder Dr. Jackson's care, we had the satisfaction of receiving almost regularly improved accounts. It was a marvellous restoration ; no wonder that ho retains luilimited confidence in Dr. Jackson and all his theories. Soon after Willy left us, Agnes became exceedingly delicate, and in the summer, with the hope that the change would be beneficial, she joined a party of friends going to England, and became once more an inmate of her uncle William's house. For a time she seemed to got worse instead of better, but eventually her going home had the best of consequences, for the advice and treatment of first-rate physicians by degrees restored her to health and comparative strength. She was with her uncle's family when they removed to a new home in the South. My brother William's second eye had soon followed the first. Even before I left England it was plain that total blindness would bo his doom, and I had proposed, if as a reader or otherwise I could do any good, to remain in England altogether ; but ray own infirmity had much increased, and was becoming quite a hindrance to general usefulness, and I could perceive myself that I could be of little avail to lighten the burden of the family. My brother's resignation of his post in the Manchester and Salford Bank was a natural consequence of his blindness, and a house at Ingateistonc, in Essex, that had been inhabited by a friend, becoming vacant, his son-in-lavv, Herbert STORY OP OUR FAMILY. 201 Philips, purchased it, and my brother and his family have been the occupants ever since. But I must return to our home in Canada, and I am sorry to say to further anxieties. Now EUen foil ill, and another 1877. miserable winter was spent. In the spring we were further alarmed by a telegram from Dansvillo which made us anticipate the worst for Willy, and my brother and sister set off there directly ; but the wording of this telegram had been very misleading, and on arriving at Dausville they found their son not worse but a very great deal better — even ready to come away with them. He went for a little time to his brother Tom at Toronto, and then came home. . Ellen continued very much out of health, and an invitation to go to England as her sister had done, coming at the time that her friends the Wicksteads were just setting out there, she resolved, prepared, and started in two days' time. Wliat a small party we were left at home ! Jack was at Portland learning his profession, our youngest, Hugh, at school in Toronto, where Tom was definitely settled, Hany in British Columbia, only Willy at home, and he keeping Dansville ways and hours. We three elders used to sit down to dinner alone. It was not, however, quite so always, as Jack and Harry were backwards and forwards from time to time. I have mentioned several sources of anxiety from which, by the goodness of the Almighty, we have since been relieved. I must now name a most signal mercy, my dear brother being saved from imminent peril. The affair happened in an addition to the Parliament buildings in process of erection. He was coming down a staircase round a shaft intended for an elevator, when, his foot tripping over something, he fell forward across part of the opening, his hands catching against the sides, but without any power whatever, by any effort of his own, to save 202 STORY OF OUR FAMILY. himself from an immediate fall to the bottom, which, from the height, must have been fatal. Happily, what caught the foot sustaiued him a moment, and a workman employed near the spot, contrived to seize hold of his clothes, and calling to •another man near, the two were able to raise him. He received a deep wound under the chin, in some way or another, but the whole transaction was so rapid that ho scarcely knew when or how. When it was all over he remained so calm that, after going into his office for a short time, ho walked homo, and was himself the first to give us the intelligence, and this so quietly that we only realised gradually the amount of danger from which he had been rescued. 1878. In 1878 my brother's connexion with the Government terminated. He had been Auditor for twenty-three years, just the same length of time that my brother William was Managing Director of the Manchester and Salford Bank. John was now seventy years old, and his years, together with some changes that were to be made in the organization of his department, led to his receiving the superannuation allowance and retiring. This brought about our leaving Ottawa altogether. My brother's eldest son was permanently settled at Toronto living in lodgings, his youngest a boarder at Upper Canada College, and destined afterwards for the University, so that making a home from them was a more natural course than living where we had no longer any tie ; we therefore packed and took leave of our friends at Ottawa. At our departure there was just such a gathering by the railway as we have known on the quay at Liverpool. We left Ottawa a little sooner than we should have done, in order to get the confusion of dislodgement over before our two girls came from England. A furnished house was taken temporarily at Toronto, to allow us the more deliberately to 8T0KY OP OUR FAMILY. 203 look out for a permanent home. One was found before very long, and we became residents once more at Yorkville, not very near to our former home, which exists no longer, ^ut in a nice airy situation ; the house somewhat larger than wo desired, but really not too large for the number that inhabit it. At present we sit down nine to table when quite alone, and from being so much nearer to old friends and relatives in the Lake region, wo have many more occasions for filling our spare rooms than formerly. We were scarcely settled in our new home, when Willy, Agnes, and I accepted a very sudden invitation from Mr. Boyd to accompany him back to Bobcaygeon. Mrs. Boyd gave ready hospitality to her unexpected guests, and wo had the pleasure of seeing something of our old neighbourhood, and afterwards of visiting our friends at Peter jorough. Whilst thci-e, I was once more in great danger during a drive. I was with Mrs. Wallis, and in crossing a railwry line a backing train came so close upon us as literally almost to graze us. At this point a large building conceals the line until you are close upon it, and the driver only saw the train when it was too late to draw back, and dashed across not one second too soon. The real danger lasted no more than a second or two, but the horror of it was much more enduring. My companion burst into tears, and it was some time before she could recover herself, but they were tears of relief and thankfulness. This autumn, my brother undertook a mission to England. It had not all the results that were anticipated from it, but it gave him the opportunity of once more seeing his brother William, and many of our friends in the old country. He had never before had so much time to go about amongst them, and though the meetings were often very short ones, they renewed old recollections, and were pleasant to dwell upon afterwards. 1879. The girls had arrived just before we came up to Yorkville. My brother got home in January. As we had been residents at Toronto before, we had already many acquaintances, and the 204 BTORY OF OUR FAMILY. number of them was soou greatly enlarged, but wo entered not ut all into the gaieties of the place. The two girls had both recently been invalid h, and were still far from strong. They prudently resolved to abstain altogether from evening sociabili- ties, so wo passed a very quiet winter. In the spring an excitement came to us, by Harry's announcement of his engagement to Miss Carruthers, and there was great interest for the girls, in making the acquaintance of a future sister. She came more than once to stay with us, and was soon regarded as one of the family. The autumn brought us very stirring times. First the vice-regal visit to Toronto was the ( casion of filling all our spare rooms with coimtry cousins, loyally desirous of seeing the daughter of their Queen. Later we had tho pleasure of receiving English relations : Charles and Annie Heywood, ■with our nephews Homy and Willy, and also Marian. This was not all at one time, so that our enjoyment was spread over some weeks, and when they were not with us, some of our young people were always with them, travelling about both in Canada and the States, having an immense amount of enjoy- ment. Another still more important event terminated tho year. Harry's marriage took place. He had to be away all tho summer at his engineering work. In the meantime we had leanit to know and like the lady, so were prepared to think tho thirtieth of December an especially happy day. And may not these pages, which I have divided into three little volumes,* fitly conclude, like a novel, with a wedding 1 * They were so divided in the original manuscript. Tub End. i r::u:~^7« r ^1 " 'W '^ ^ ,«^^ ^^"^ / f^ i ^ i .,_.^ LAKE '\