members of each family, especially of the
ducal one; an infinite number of brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces,
cousins and clansfolk, friends and acquaintances, all arranged in
different carriages, according to their rank; ladies, gentlemen, servants,
and horses, decorated with white and silver favors, in so long a line,
that it extended from Coley Avenue to St. Mary's Church. The first
carriage, a low phaeton, drawn by ponies led by grooms, containing three
children, two of five and six years old, niece and nephew of the
bridegroom, who, with myself (already a lady of experience in that line),
were to officiate as bride-maidens and bridegroom's man; the last, also an
open carriage, with only the bride and my dear papa, who gave her away.

How well I recollect the crowd of the street, the crowd of the
church-yard, the crowd of the church! There was no crying at this wedding
though; no crying, and far fewer smiles.

The young couple proceeded to Bath and Clifton from the church door; and
the rest of the procession returned to our house to eat bridecake, drink
to the health of the new-married pair, and be merry at their leisure;
after which many dispersed, but the members of the two families and the
more intimate friends remained to dinner; and in the confusion of
preparing to entertain so large a party, the servants, even those
belonging to the nursery, were engaged in different ways, and we children,
left to our own devices, and finding nearly the whole house free to our
incursions, betook ourselves to a game at hide-and-seek.

Now in honor of the day, and of the grand part we had filled in the grand
ceremony of the morning, we small people had been arrayed in white from
top to toe, Master Martin in a new suit of jean, richly braided, his
sister and myself in clear muslin frocks, edged with lace, and long
Persian sashes, the whole width of the silk, fringed with silver, while
all parties, little boy and little girls, had white beaver hats and heavy
ostrich plumes. We young ladies had, as matter of course, that instinctive
respect for our own finery which seems an innate principle in womankind;
moreover, we were very good children, quiet, orderly, and obedient. Master
Martin, on the other hand, our elder by a year, had some way or other
imbibed the contempt at once for fine clothes and for the authorities of
the nursery, which is not uncommon among his rebellious sex: so the first
time it fell to his lot to hide, he en