Part 5 (1/2)

Now don'tFor iven you, at least since this delicious weather, for we have been out aldon, did so, and came back before breakfast

[Inquiries about friends follow, and then:] Question upon question; but no h I think ht If it was Mr Ashworth it was very kind, for I think they were the first he had found this spring Take care what you put in your letters to grandpapa The last but one was pronounced by a judge whose opinion I aht, to be very dignified and a perfect speciraphy There were cries of ”It won't do” all through the letter Do you think you shall coin to want to see soe of one of the little girls She writes: ”I think Katie is iet up; so please ask et up, for now it is not ht and often some time after”

Now to an elder sister ants to do her shopping at Abingdon before breakfast, Miss Katie must have been a trial But Bessie herself was by no means perfect in this respect Soe paid a visit to an old lady, cousin of their father's, in Yorkshi+re This cousin rose early, was very punctual, and expected her guests to be the saet Bessie up in the h I represented that it ard Miss Dawson's wishes as well as herself, and was not fair The only answer I could get was, 'I say nothing;' and the nextshe was as late as ever” Whether Mrs

Gilbert was in this case also appealed to ”to fix the hour” we are not told

In the autu to her faithful Mary, she says: ”The week after next our house ree There will be the Halls, the Churtons, the Woods fro of reading in St George's Schools thirteen years previously), the two Archdeacons, Mr Garbett, Mr Siner, if he co like--won't it? I think mamma liked her visit to----”

The Bishop, his wife, and one daughter, had been paying short visits to influential people in the county The young lady sends home letters which show close and ht into character The rooms, the pictures, the plate and china, all are described, and she ends by saying:

I suppose you will expect a coentleh B---- is , and , yet A---- seeth of er than Lady D,plain, has not the appearance of being used to the ho story of a short but pleasant time, and if it has tired your patience, at least you cannot coiven you a full account

Looking over these letters, taken back into the past by the yellow paper, the faded ink, the old-fashi+oned writing, all angular and sloping, letters fresh and vivid with youth, intelligence, and goodness, one cannot but wonder if those written by a girl of seventeen, in these days of high pressure, will be such pleasant reading forty years hence

Bessie was greatly interested in these visits, and she writes to Mary at Culham: ”Mamma saw some beautiful miniatures of the Pretender, the Cardinal York and their sister the Princess Louisa They were very small, and set in turquoises and dia of Sardinia”

The Rev T Lowe, Vicar of Willingdon, who left Chichester thirty-five years ago, says that he often eneral society at Chichester; that he made use of every opportunity he had to cultivate her acquaintance She liked to talk of music, and he ”remembers well the sweet expression of her nation that dithin These, no doubt, made her so alive to all pleasures within her reach It was a touching sight to see her joining, with evident enjoy party at home or elsewhere”

Mr Lo her occasionally after he left Chichester She was interested in some blind persons in his parish One she rescued froenial life of the workhouse;” another acted as an agent for her society; and she was specially interested in a third, both blind and deaf, now dead ”Her sympathy with these sufferers was full of comfort to them; and as to the, patient suffering; of her submission to the heavy trial laid upon her; of her thankful enjoy endeavours to alleviate like suffering in others--will, I doubt not, bring forth good fruit in other hearts and other lives”

Mr Wintle at Culhaave much anxiety to Mrs Gilbert After she had left Oxford one or two of her daughters were nearly alith their grandfather One of his latest letters, written fros, was to his favourite Blossom

_27th Noveained the reputation of not caring for what I do or say, whywhat is found upper been addon Literary and Scientific Society, you atelle warehouse than for graver subjects culled froe But previous to opening et let me express a wish that I may soon hear from one of the nu left her, and that you are all as well as the da As you probably knew nothing of hbour Chaundy, hair-dresser and perfu that he is h Street, nor will you bethat Mr ---- tells his Oxford tradesmen that as he deals with the of hi that Mr A and Dr B have nominated five select preachers, all ultra low church, of whom Mr C is one, who takes an annuity of 500 fro froes of gossip ending:] And noith love to you all, affectionately a of 1846 the Bishop and Mrs Gilbert, with ht Mary was again at Culha from a serious illness, and had been out ”in a sedan chair” Bessie writes full accounts: ”You should have heard Nora begging to go She has gained her point, you see;” and then follows a description of the little house at Ryde, of their visitors and friends, the books they were to read, etc During this visit Bessie once walked from Ryde to Shanklin, and was proud of the achievement

The Bishop's house in London at this time was in Green Street, Grosvenor Square He and Mrs Gilbert with sohters were there in the early part of the year 1846, and Bessie was left in the post of honour, at ho any allowance for blindness She is to give orders and arrange for their return just as Mary would have done

MY DEAR BESSIE--I write to you as Mrs House, Mrs Po, under your aunt and Miss Deiss, sovereign rule in the domestic, horticultural, and floral departments at Chichester, but not as Mrs Ceres, as with respect to the farm I reserve the rule therein to John and Symonds, and Smoker and s in that departest to you to order preparations for the return of the veritable heads of the family, possibly on Friday next, to dinner, but you ain Then, in the horticultural, know that a tub of regent potatoes, and eke a tub of blues, containing each about a sack, may daily be expected They are to be used as seed at your and Holmes's discretion Those which are not so used you may direct to be put from time to time into a pot and saved for dinner In your floral departreater will be your responsibility if either violets are drooping or snowdrops and crocuses not in sufficient abundance

Poor one while I have been s when I come, or I may prove a rat without a tail Pray, why do none of you little pusses write tofroet on here all by myself? Yes, indeed! Pray, look to it, Mrs House, and h, but let me have my letter from all in a cluster, and I daresay in a clatter too forthwith So no more at present fro father, A T CHICHESTER

I suppose you know poor aunt E M has left you her piano If your grandpapa does not think it too large and would let it go to Culhaust 1846 Bessie co poeundy, that the first flohich blossorave of a departed friend links the soul of the departed in eternal love to that of the person who gathers it” The verses are reat promise of excellence in that department

It is, however, characteristic of the writer that she represents the ”departed friend” not as a lover, but as the father of the girl who has gathered the first blossoiven to her through prayer In patience all her woe to bear, Clearly her duty to discern, And never more her life to spurn

She lived, not wrapt in selfish grief; Wherever she could give relief-- In poverty, sickness, or despair, A spirit of comfort, she was there; One of that heavenly sisterhood Who only live for others' good

Such words are like a feather thrown up in the air, they show the direction of the prevailing current