her. But
Margaret, my young companion, laughed and opened an umbrella, or a cock
crew, or some door banged, and the fleeting visions of fancy
disappeared.

Many well-authenticated ghost stories describe the apparition of bygone
persons, and lo! when the figure vanishes, a letter is left behind! Some
such experience seemed to be mine when, on my return, I found a packet
of letters on the hall table--letters not addressed to me, but to some
unknown Miss Belsham, and signed and sealed by Mrs. Barbauld's hand.
They had been sent for me to read by the kindness of some ladies now
living at Hampstead, who afterwards showed me the portrait of the lady,
who began the world as Miss Betsy Belsham and who ended her career as
Mrs. Kenrick. It is an oval miniature, belonging to the times of powder
and of puff, representing not a handsome, but an animated countenance,
with laughter and spirit in the expression; the mouth is large, the eyes
are dark, the nose is short. This was the _confidante_ of Mrs. Barbauld's
early days, the faithful friend of her latter sorrows. The letters, kept
by 'Betsy' with faithful conscientious care for many years, give the
story of a whole lifetime with unconscious fidelity. The gaiety of
youth, its impatience, its exuberance, and sometimes bad taste; the
wider, quieter feelings of later life; the courage of sorrowful times;
long friendship deepening the tender and faithful memories of age, when
there is so little left to say, so much to feel--all these things are
there.

II.

Mrs. Barbauld was a schoolmistress, and a schoolmaster's wife and
daughter. Her father was Dr. John Aikin, D.D.; her mother was Miss Jane
Jennings, of a good Northamptonshire family--scholastic also. Dr. Aikin
brought his wife home to Knibworth, in Leicestershire, where he opened a
school which became very successful in time. Mrs. Barbauld, their eldest
child, was born here in 1743, and was christened Anna Laetitia, after
some lady of high degree belonging to her mother's family. Two or three
years later came a son. It was a quiet home, deep hidden in the secluded
rural place; and the little household lived its own tranquil life far
away from the storms and battles and great events that were stirring
the world. Dr. Aikin kept school; Mrs. Aikin ruled her household with
capacity, and not without some sternness, according to the custom of the
time. It appears that late in life the good lady was distressed by the
backwardness of h