On my first arrival, before it was quite settled how I should be received among them, I was interrogated by many of the young ladies, as to the station of my father, or rather, respecting the figure he made in the world. "Does your papa keep a coach?"-"No."-" How many servants have you ?"-" Four."-" Dear, only think, miss's papa does not keep a coach, and they have only four servants!" My wardrobe was next examined, and fortunately passed muster pretty well, until it was discovered that I had not a gauze suit of linen.-"How ill-natured must be her mamma!" was the universal exclamation, "not to buy her a gauze suit of linen!" On the subject of personal beauty, nothing was directly said, and I believe that the want of this would have been atoned for, had my father lived in splendour, and kept a coach; but as there was nothing magnificent to throw into the opposite scale, even this was hinted at, and I soon found that the current set very strong against me. It was immediately discovered however, that I had brought along with me, a small stock of money, also of thread, tape, needles, &c. I was instantly beset by a crowd of little borrowers, one wanted this article, and another that, all promising to pay me again in a day or two. At first I lent them whatever they desired. but soon found that the promise of payment was a mere matter of form: that it was the constant practice to pillage in this way every new comer ; and I determined to put a stop to it before my little stores were wholly exhausted. On refusing to lend any more, the clamour was prodigious

and the exclamation general, "How stingy must miss be!" I felt very indignant at this, for I never had been thought covetous. It was in vain, however, to remonstrate, and I determined to wait patiently for an opportunity of convincing them how much they were mistaken. Fortunately, this opportunity soon occurred. My mother sent me a present of a large plumb cake, which I unpacked in public, and after reserving for myself one small wedge, divided the rest completely among them, adding, "you will not again call me covetous, for you see what I consider as really my own, is freely at your service." A buzz of general approbation announced my triumph, and I was treated ever afterwards with the greatest respect.

It is obvious to remark how exceedingly pernicious to the future character, were the ideas that prevailed in this school, respecting the things that are most to be desired and coveted. Far from correcting, it is not unfrequent for the governess herself to foster these misleading prejudices. "This madam," said a schoolmistress, of considerable celebrity, to me many years after, "is the elegant pink bonnet and cloak of miss B.," holding it in her hand, and her eyes sparkling with apparent exultation, that the fortunate little girl should be her scholar. "Her papa has an estate," she continued, "of twenty thousand pounds per annum, and he never grudges miss any thing. You see with what very fine lace her bonnet and cloak are trimmed." It was true that her papa did possess this fortune, and that he was very lavish in the expenditure, but he was a man of

most profligate character, and her mother had been his kitchen-girl, whom he had seduced and abandoned; yet, because he bought her fine clothes, this poor forlorn child was held up by the very person, who ought to have instructed them better, as an object of envy to the whole school.

I cannot say whether the mistress of the school where I was boarded, was exactly a person of this character, for we never saw her but at dinner, and during school-hours, when she was very distant and stately, and seldom vouchsafed to give her sentiments upon any subject. It is probable that she knew little of the general manners of the school, and nothing of the different dispositions of her pupils, and particularly of the shameful want of moral honesty in respect of each other, so prevalent among them; yet this she ought to have known and to have corrected. I do not think, however, that although the latter of the two evils just mentioned, was certainly the most flagrant, that its future consequences would be the most pernicious; and for this reason, that the scandal which would attach to any species of direct dishonesty, among persons in the rank of gentlewomen, when they afterwards came into the world, would eventually put a stop to such practices; but the vehement desire of fine clothes, and of a splendid establishment, and the habit of estimating character according to these, are so congenial to the mistaken wishes and erroneous pursuits of that world itself, that if they have once been suffered to take deep root in the youthful mind, and have been fostered and cultivated

there, little hope remains that the baneful influence will ever be totally eradicated. For my own part, I was quite indignant at the meanness of the first, but in respect of the other, although I felt the injustice of being appreciated according to the riches and splendour of my father, as far as it respected myself, yet I could not help breathing a secret wish that he kept a coach, and that my mother had bought me a gauze suit of linen.

During my absence from home this summer, our excellent friend, old Mrs. Maurice, ceased to be an inmate in our family, after having resided with us about nine years. Her daughter marrying, and going to live at Newcastle, she thought it right to accompany her thither. Her son, who was now a lieutenant in the navy, gave his sister, upon this occasion, the whole of his prize money, amounting to about four hundred pounds. He had all the virtues, and unfortunately, many of the vices also, of the seaman's character. He had weathered many a storm, especially during a winter's cruise in the bay of Biscay, and had fought courageously in various sea engagements; he was generous, and disinterested, but sadly deficient in the virtues of self-government, which, unhappily, at length proved his ruin. Most deeply on my return, did I lament the loss of my honoured preceptress; and often did I pace, with sorrowing steps, the now deserted apartment, where she had been wont to rehearse her lessons of wisdom!

About two years after this, I was kindly invited

E

by my two maiden aunts, who continued to live at York after the death of my grandmother, to spend a few months with them, in order to have the benefit of further improvement in dancing, and to be taught arithmetic. I was very desirous also of learning French, and was indulged with having a master, who provided me with a grammar, a dictionary, and a Telemachus, to translate. He told me on his first visit, that I must get the verbs, and he read to me the first auxiliary verb, which I was to repeat when he came again; he also gave me the first sentence in Telemachus to translate, saying, that I must look in the dictionary for the words. After he was gone away, nothing could exceed my perplexity. I had heard indeed of the Latin grammar, the Greek grammar, and the French grammar; but I conceived of them as merely so many vocabularies, in which all the words of their respective languages were contained, with the corresponding English words opposite to them. I had no idea whatever of the different parts of speech, or that there were verbs in the English, as well as in other languages. The labour of getting a verb, I considered as peculiar to the French, and I could not understand the end that was to be answered by it. A vocabulary was a precise thing; I comprehended very well, for instance, that maison was French for house; but to repeat a string of words that varied continually, according to the relation in which they stood, appeared an intolerable burden, and I could get no light whatever on this difficult subject.. On