Beaux and Belles of England | Page 7

Britain. After many dreams of success and many conflicts betwixt
prudence and ambition, he resolved on putting his scheme in practice;
the potent witchery possessed his brain, and all the persuasive powers
of reason shrunk before its magic.
Full of the important business, my misguided parent repaired to the
metropolis, and on his arrival laid the plan before the late Earl of
Hilsborough, Sir Hugh Palliser, the late Earl of Bristol, Lord Chatham
(father to the present Mr. William Pitt), the chancellor Lord

Northington, who was my godfather, and several other equally
distinguished personages; who all not only approved the plan, but
commended the laudable and public spirit which induced my father to
suggest it. The prospect appeared full of promise, and the Labrador
whale fishery was expected to be equally productive with that of
Greenland. My parent's commercial connections were of the highest
respectability, while his own name for worth and integrity gave a
powerful sanction to the eccentric undertaking.
In order to facilitate this plan, my father deemed it absolutely necessary
to reside at least two years in America. My mother, who felt an
invincible antipathy to the sea, heard his determination with grief and
horror. All the persuasive powers of affection failed to detain him; all
the pleadings of reason, prudence, a fond wife, and an infant family,
proved ineffectual. My father was determined on departing, and my
mother's unconquerable timidity prevented her being the companion of
his voyage. From this epocha I date the sorrows of my family.
He sailed for America. His eldest son, John, was previously placed in a
mercantile house at Leghorn. My younger brothers and myself
remained with my mother at Bristol. Two years was the limited time of
his absence, and, on his departure, the sorrow of my parents was
reciprocal. My mother's heart was almost bursting with anguish; but
even death would to her have been preferable to the horrors of crossing
a tempestuous ocean and quitting her children, my father having
resolved on leaving my brothers and myself in England for education.
Still the comforts, and even the luxuries of life distinguished our
habitation. The tenderness of my mother's affection made her lavish of
every elegance; and the darlings of her bosom were dressed, waited on,
watched, and indulged with a degree of fondness bordering on folly.
My clothes were sent for from London; my fancy was indulged to the
extent of its caprices; I was flattered and praised into a belief that I was
a being of superior order. To sing, to play a lesson on the harpsichord,
to recite an elegy, and to make doggerel verses, made the extent of my
occupations, while my person improved, and my mother's indulgence
was almost unexampled.
My father, several years before his departure for America, had removed
from the Minster House, and resided in one larger and more convenient
for his increased family. This habitation was elegantly arranged; all the

luxuries of plate, silk furniture, foreign wines, etc., evinced his
knowledge of what was worth enjoying, and displayed that warm
hospitality which is often the characteristic of a British merchant. This
disposition for the good things of the world influenced even the
disposal of his children's comforts. The bed in which I slept was of the
richest crimson damask; the dresses which we wore were of the finest
cambric; during the summer months we were sent to Clifton Hill for the
advantages of a purer air; and I never was permitted to board at school,
or to pass a night of separation from the fondest of mothers.
Many months elapsed, and my mother continued to receive the kindest
letters from that husband whose rash scheme filled her bosom with
regret and apprehension. At length the intervals became more frequent
and protracted. The professions of regard, no longer flowing from the
heart, assumed a laboured style, and seemed rather the efforts of
honourable feeling than the involuntary language of confidential
affection. My mother felt the change, and her affliction was infinite.
At length a total silence of several months awoke her mind to the
sorrows of neglect, the torture of compunction; she now lamented the
timidity which had divided her from a husband's bosom, the natural
fondness which had bound her to her children; for while her heart bled
with sorrow and palpitated with apprehension, the dreadful secret was
unfolded, and the cause of my father's silence was discovered to be a
new attachment--a mistress, whose resisting nerves could brave the
stormy ocean, and who had consented to remain two years with him in
the frozen wilds of America.
This intelligence nearly annihilated my mother, whose mind, though
not strongly organised, was tenderly susceptible. She resigned herself
to grief. I was then at an age to feel and to participate in her sorrows.