his period of my life closed by my being engaged on November
11, 1854, at Brighton, just eighteen years to the day after I went to
school there, and by my being married on April 19, 1855, at Harrow
church, where my father and mother were married forty years before.' The
marriage, he says, 'was a blessed revelation to me. It turned me from a
rather heavy, torpid youth into the happiest of men, and, for many
years, one of the most ardent and energetic. It was like the lines in
Tennyson--

A touch, a kiss, the charm was snapped
. . . . . . .
And all the long-pent stream of life
Dashed downward in a cataract.

I am surprised to find that, when I look back to that happiest and most
blessed of days through the haze of upwards of thirty-two years, I do
not feel in the least degree disposed to be pathetic over the lapse of
life or the near approach of old age. I have found life sweet, bright,
glorious. I should dearly like to live again; but I am not afraid, and I
hope, when the time comes, I shall not be averse to die.'

At this point the autobiographical fragment ceases. I am glad that it
has enabled me to use his own words in speaking of his marriage. No one,
I think, can doubt their sincerity, nor can anyone who was a witness of
his subsequent life think that they over-estimate the results to his
happiness. I need only add that the marriage had the incidental
advantage of providing him with a new brother and sister; for Henry (now
Sir Henry) Stewart Cunningham, and Emily Cunningham (now Lady Egerton),
were from this time as dear to him as if they had been connected by the
closest tie of blood relationship.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 49: I have quoted a few phrases from it in the previous
chapter.]

[Footnote 50: He says the 11th, and mentions more than once a date which
afterwards became interesting for another reason. The date given by my
mother at the time must be accepted; but this is the only error I have
found in my brother's statements--and it is not of profound importance.]

[Footnote 51: I have to thank Mr. Arthur D. Coleridge, my brother's
schoolfellow and lifelong friend for a letter containing his
recollections of this period.]

[Footnote 52: Macvey Napier correspondence.]

[Footnote 53: My father was sworn of H. M. Privy Council October 30,
1847, and on April 15, 1848, appointed by her Majesty in Council Member
of the Committee of Privy Council for the consideration of all m