dated 14th January 1837. It gives an account of
the globes, maps, boards, etc., in use in the Edinburgh Asylum, and
shows what rapid advance has been made since the little boys were
examined by the managers in 1833.

Mrs. Gilbert would learn not so much from the account of the things
done, as the manner of doing them; from the explanation of the method of
adapting ordinary maps and globes to the use of the blind, and of
employing gum and sand and string and pieces of cork; the little holes
in the map instead of the names of cities, and the movable pegs. All
these hints were very valuable to her; and every one of them was turned
to good account in the schoolroom at Oxford.

In 1839 Mr. J. Wintle sends raised books from London. In 1840 he has
gone, out of health, on a visit to his friend Mr. Ellis, Inverleith Row,
Edinburgh. One of his first visits was to the Edinburgh Asylum, and he
writes an account of it to Mrs. Gilbert, "in the hope of being useful to
your daughter Bessie." He promises further information from Glasgow,
which is, so he learns, "the fountain-head of all works for the blind,
save those published in America," and he announces a copy of the New
Testament as almost ready, price L2: 2s. It was ultimately procured by
Mrs. Gilbert and presented to Bessie.

And now we may lay aside the time-worn, yellow paper, the large and
copious letters, the anxious inquiries and the willing replies. They
did not, however, end at this period, they went on throughout the whole
life of these good parents. There was no new invention, no new system
into which they did not at once inquire, nothing that could be procured
which they did not obtain for their child.

But they never swerved from their original intention to educate Bessie
at home in the schoolroom with her sisters. The apparatus which replaced
pen and pencil and slate might differ, as slate differs from paper. She
had to put her fingers on the globe upon which her sisters cast their
eyes, and to feel the movements of the planets around the sun, in the
orrery which gave her so much pleasure; but her lessons were given and
learnt at the same time, and she lost none of the happiness and
stimulating effect of companionship in work and play.

There can be no doubt that she was influenced throughout life by her own
early training, which had made it impossible for her to believe in the
numerous so-called "disabilities" of the blind. Some of her friends
thought that she