ed good health. I have my amusements as well as work. I
go angling in the River Swale with rod, and salmon roe as bait, and
occasionally get a good dish of trout. I have also been a
nut-gatherer, and found my way to the woods, and have gathered
large quantities, which I have sold. I am fond of singing, and used
to play the piano a little at Liverpool. I have not had any
opportunities of doing so since. I do not always confine my leading
coals to the town of Richmond; I occasionally take a load of coals
or other articles, such as furniture, to a distance of 10 or 12
miles from the town. I was the other day employed with my horse and
cart at Crake Hall near Bedale, 12 miles from Richmond. Of course I
do all my work by myself and unattended by any one.

RICHMOND, _2d June 1859_.

Bessie refers in her diary at this time to MSS. in a considerable "state
of advance;" but the only part of her work actually completed by herself
and now recoverable is the title-page. She was too closely occupied with
the work done in the Euston Road to give much time to the writing of a
book. In the midst of a record of her literary work we come upon such an
entry as "sold two brushes." Indeed there was no time in which she
would not gladly throw aside anything else in order to "sell two
brushes."

Early in February she paid a short visit to friends at Ashling, in
Sussex; and on the 26th of February we have the last entry in her diary.
The full details of her busy life are at an end. There is no further
detailed account of the interminable letters and appeals, the visits to
blind men and women, the arrangements and plans and suggestions. They
are all to go on for many a long year; but the labour of recording them
is abandoned, and there is an attempt to diminish work which threatens
to be overwhelming.

One of her letters at this time is to Mr. Eyre, "Rector of Marlbourne."
What almost insuperable difficulties spelling must offer even to the
educated blind! How much more we all learn from sight, from reading,
than from the dictionary! When a word occurs for the first time to a
blind person he can only spell by ear; and Marlbourne for Marylebone is
a very creditable solution of a difficulty.

One of the most interesting workmen in the Institution at this time was
both blind and deaf. Levy heard of, and, at Bessie's request, visited
him in his own home. The poor fellow had worked t