delphia. She was a vivacious old
lady, and was accompanied by her nephew, Hamilton Beckett, in whom I
found a congenial playmate. His name made a strong impression upon my
memory, as I was then reading the history of Thomas a Becket, the
murdered Archbishop of Canterbury. I have heard that this friend of my
childhood went eventually to England to reside. The Penningtons of
Newark had a cottage near us. William Pennington subsequently became
Governor of New Jersey. I also enjoyed the youthful companionship of his
daughter Mary, whom many years later I met in Washington. In the
interval she had become a pronounced belle and the wife of Hugh A. Toler
of Newark.

The guests of the boarding house were inclined to complain that the
beach was too exclusively appropriated by two acquaintances of ours who
were living in the same house with us, Mrs. G. W. Featherstonhaugh and
Mrs. Thomas M. Willing, and their train of admirers. They were sprightly
young women and daughters of Bernard Moore Carter of Virginia. I
remember it was the gossip of the place that both of them could count
their offers of marriage by the score. Mrs. Willing was a skilled
performer upon the harp, an instrument then much in vogue, but whose
silvery tones are now, alas, only memory's echo. Mr. Featherstonhaugh,
who was by birth an Englishman, after residing in the United States a
few years, wrote in 1847 a book entitled "Excursion through the Slave
States from Washington on the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico." I
recall that in this volume he spoke with enthusiasm of the _agrements_
of the palate which he enjoyed during a few days' sojourn at Barnum's
Hotel in Baltimore. He dwelt particularly, with gastronomic ecstasy,
upon the canvas-back duck and soft-shell crab upon which he feasted, and
was inclined to draw an unfavorable comparison between the former hotel
and Gadsby's, the well-known Washington hostelry. Upon his journey he
visited Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson. His encomium on
this distinguished man appealed to me as I am sure it does to others; he
spoke of him as the "Confucius of his country." Altogether, Mr.
Featherstonhaugh's experiences in America were as novel and entertaining
as a sojourn with Aborigines.

Just off the beach at Long Branch was a high bluff which descended
gradually to the sea, and at this point were several primitive bath
houses belonging to Mrs. Sairs' establishment. Following the prevalent
custom, we wore