quence of a large portion of it having been taken as building
land, has been so great as to place them in most affluent circumstances.
About a year after my marriage I had notice from Lady O'Connor that a
certain gentleman had arrived there who had shown great attention to
Virginia; and she added that he had been very well received by my
sister, being an old acquaintance of the name of Sommerville, a
clergyman with a good living, and a very superior young man. I
immediately recollected him as the preceptor who had behaved with such
propriety when my sister was persecuted by the addresses of the young
nobleman; and I, therefore, felt very easy upon the subject. A few
months afterward I had a letter from Virginia, stating that he had
proposed, and that she had conditionally accepted him. I wrote to her,
congratulating her upon the choice she had made, giving her father's
consent and blessing (of my mother hereafter); and shortly after they
were married; and I am happy to say that her marriage has turned out as
fortunate as my own.

We had remained in the cottage for some months after my own marriage,
very undecided what we should do. Bramble did not like to quit the
seaside, nor, I believe his old habits and localities. Money was of
little value to him; indeed, on my marriage, he had insisted upon
settling upon Bessy and her children the whole sum he had received for
the salvage of the Dutch Indiaman, reserving for himself his farm near
Deal. It did so happen, however, that about that period, while we were
still in perplexity, I received a letter from Mr. Wilson's son, at
Dover, telling me that the manor-house and three hundred acres of land,
adjoining to Bramble's farm, were to be disposed of. This exactly
suited, so I made the purchase and took possession, and then sent for my
father to join us, which he hastened to do. Bramble did not, however,
give up his cottage on the beach. He left Mrs. Maddox in it, and it was
a favorite retirement for my father and him, who would remain there for
several days together, amusing themselves with watching the shipping,
and gaining intelligence from the various pilots as they landed, as they
smoked their pipes on the shingle beach. It was not more than half a
mile from the great house, so that it was very convenient; and Bessy and
I would often go with the children and indulge in reminiscences of the
former scenes which had there occurred.

My father and mother parted very good frien