er's house) one or two, besides either
this brother or sister; the mother coming up to town about once in two
or three months, leaving the house and children in the care of her
sister. We had a HAMPER, with a lock and two keys, which came up once a
week, or oftener, bringing me fruit and all sorts of country fare, for
the carriage of which, cost free, I was indebted to as good a man as
ever God created, the late Mr. GEORGE ROGERS, of Southampton, who, in
the prime of life, died deeply lamented by thousands, but by none more
deeply than by me and my family, who have to thank him, and the whole of
his excellent family, for benefits and marks of kindness without number.

303. This HAMPER, which was always, at both ends of the line, looked for
with the most lively feelings, became our _school_. It brought me _a
journal_ of _labours_, _proceedings_, and _occurrences_, written on
paper of shape and size uniform, and so contrived, as to margins, as to
admit of binding. The journal used, when my son was the writer, to be
interspersed with drawings of our dogs, colts, or any thing that he
wanted me to have a correct idea of. The hamper brought me plants,
bulbs, and the like, that I might _see_ the size of them; and always
every one sent his or her _most beautiful flowers_; the earliest
violets, and primroses, and cowslips, and blue-bells; the earliest twigs
of trees; and, in short, every thing that they thought calculated to
delight me. The moment the hamper arrived, I, casting aside every thing
else, set to work to answer _every question_, to give new directions,
and to add anything likely to give pleasure at Botley. _Every_ hamper
brought one '_letter_,' as they called it, if not more, from every
child; and to _every_ letter I wrote _an answer_, sealed up and sent to
the party, being sure that that was the way to produce other and better
letters; for, though they could not read what I wrote, and though their
own consisted at first of mere _scratches_, and afterwards, for a while,
of a few words written down for them to imitate, I always thanked them
for their '_pretty letter_'; and never expressed any wish to see them
_write better_; but took care to write in a very neat and plain hand
_myself_, and to do up my letter in a very neat manner.

304. Thus, while the ferocious tigers thought I was doomed to incessant
mortification, and to rage that must extinguish my mental powers, I
found in my children, and in their spotless and