nd
mother and sisters, and believe me, my dear Miss Bessie, your
obliged and faithful friend, MARTIN J. TUPPER.

Miss Bessie Gilbert.

In 1849 Bessie, with two sisters and a brother, paid visits in Ireland.
One of her chief pleasures was in listening to the echoes at Killarney.
Wherever she went the young blind lady called out warm sympathy. On the
way from Glengariffe to Cork they stopped at Gougon Barra to see the
famous "Healing Well." The guide besought Bessie in the most earnest and
pathetic manner to try the water, saying that he was sure it would
restore her sight, and entreating her brother and sisters to urge her to
make use of it.

This was the first time, since the visit to Liverpool, that she had been
far from home, and she enjoyed her journey. She liked staying at hotels;
the novelty was refreshing, and she liked the feeling that she also
could travel and "see" the world.

The Bishop writes to Bessie on the 11th September 1849 from the "Old
Ship private house," Brighton, as follows:--

Now I doubt not that you enjoyed the mountain scheme as well as any
of them, and, with the aid of the mountain air, the potatoes too
and milk of the cottagers, not omitting, however, I daresay, the
more substantial viands which accompanied you from the Hospitable
Hall. As for the wetting and all that, of course you treat that as
heroines are bound to do--that is as trifles, where it is not
convenient to exalt them above their true character.

The "Hospitable Hall" is that of Lismore, Archdeacon Cotton's house,
where the travellers stayed for some time. Bessie's eldest brother
married Archdeacon Cotton's daughter the following year, so that the
visit was one of special interest.

The Bishop had now a house in London, 31 Queen Anne Street, and the
family life was divided between London and Chichester. When she was
twenty-one Bessie had the command of her own income. One of her first
acts was to subscribe to the Philharmonic concerts. The daughter of an
old friend of her parents, Mrs. Denison (now Lady Grimthorpe), lived in
the same street, and also subscribed; she used to call for and take
Bessie with her. The impression which Lady Grimthorpe received at that
time was, first of all, "How merry she is:" and next, what an intense
appreciation she had of beautiful music, and what a happy, trustful
confidence in those about her. One night at the concert the gas sudden