246 PRÆTERITA-II

father told us, with real sorrow, the stages of the child’s protracted suffering before he died; but observed, finally, that it was better he should have been taken away,-both for him and his parents. Evidently the poor mathematical mind was relieved from one of its least soluble burdens, and the sad face, that evening, had an expression of more than usual repose.

I never forgot the lesson it taught me of what human life meant in the suburbs of London.

5. The rigidly moral muse of Mr. Pringle had by this time gone to Africa, or, let us hope, Arabia Felix, in the other world;¹ and the reins of my poetical genius had been given into the hand of kindly Mr. W. H. Harrison in the Vauxhall Road, of whom account has already been given in the first chapter of On the Old Road² enough to carry us on for the present.

I must next bring up to time the history of my father’s affectionate physician, Dr. Grant.³ Increasing steadily in reputation, he married a widowed lady, Mrs. Sidney, of good position in Richmond; and became the guardian of her two extremely nice and clever daughters, Augusta and Emma, who both felt great respect, and soon great regard, for their step-father, and were every day more dutiful and pleasing children to him. Estimating my mother’s character also as they ought, later on, they were familiar visitors to us; the younger, Emma,⁴ having good taste for drawing, and other quiet accomplishments and pursuits. At the time I am now looking back to, however, the Star and Garter breakfasts had become rarer, and were connected mostly with visits to Hampton Court, where the great vine, and

¹ [Pringle died in 1834; he was succeeded in the editorship of Friendship’s Offering by W. H. Harrison. The Preface to the volume of that miscellany for 1836 says: “The gentle spirit which, for so long a period, presided over Friendship’s Offering, is now a denizen of a happier memory ... Africa has raised an enduring monument to him.” For Pringle’s connexion with Africa, see Vol. XXXIV. p. 97.]

² [“My First Editor”: see Vol. XXXIV. pp. 93-104.]

³ [See i. § 111; above, p. 97.]

⁴ [Afterwards married to Sir Herbert Edwardes: see Vol. XXXI. p. xxxix.]

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