was doubly precious to us, being the only one
left us of many; and he was fragile in body, we believed, and deeply
sensitive in mind. To keep him at home, and yet to send him to
school,--to combine the advantages of the two systems,--seemed to be
everything that could be desired. The two girls also found at Brentwood
everything they wanted. They were near enough to Edinburgh to have
masters and lessons as many as they required for completing that
never-ending education which the young people seem to require nowadays.
Their mother married me when she was younger than Agatha; and I should
like to see them improve upon their mother! I myself was then no more
than twenty-five,--an age at which I see the young fellows now groping
about them, with no notion what they are going to do with their lives.
However; I suppose every generation has a conceit of itself which
elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.

Brentwood stands on that fine and wealthy slope of country--one of the
richest in Scotland--which lies between the Pentland Hills and the
Firth. In clear weather you could see the blue gleam--like a bent bow,
embracing the wealthy fields and scattered houses--of the great estuary
on one side of you, and on the other the blue heights, not gigantic like
those we had been used to, but just high enough for all the glories of
the atmosphere, the play of clouds, and sweet reflections, which give to
a hilly country an interest and a charm which nothing else can emulate.
Edinburgh--with its two lesser heights, the Castle and the Calton Hill,
its spires and towers piercing through the smoke, and Arthur's Seat lying
crouched behind, like a guardian no longer very needful, taking his
repose beside the well-beloved charge, which is now, so to speak, able to
take care of itself without him--lay at our right hand. From the lawn
and drawing-room windows we could see all these varieties of landscape.
The color was sometimes a little chilly, but sometimes, also, as animated
and full of vicissitude as a drama. I was never tired of it. Its color
and freshness revived the eyes which had grown weary of arid plains and
blazing skies. It was always cheery, and fresh, and full of repose.

The village of Brentwood lay almost under the house, on the other side of
the deep little ravine, down which a stream--which ought to have been a
lovely, wild, and frolicsome little river--flowed between its rocks and
trees. The river, l