106 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, vm 



rather awful but rare events. Her servants, however, Mrs 

 Morrey, Martha, and Henry Hemmings, were our dear 

 friends, and whenever life was a little flat at home, we could 

 troop off, crossing the three fields that separated our house 

 from Petleys, sure of a warm welcome from them. The 

 flowers that grew in her garden seemed to us to have a mys- 

 terious charm, and once a year there was the excitement of 

 gathering bullaces in the hedge of her little field. Mrs 

 Morrey's gingerbread was like no other we have ever tasted 

 before or since, and Martha would sing us songs which only 

 gained by repetition. 



All the family but the Frank Wedgwoods had now left 

 Staffordshire. The Harry Wedgwoods settled at The 

 Hermitage, near W T oking; the Josiah Wedgwoods at Leith 

 Hill Place; and the Langtons at Hartfield Grove, on the 

 borders of Ashdown Forest, in Sussex, all within a year or 

 two. Elizabeth shortly after built herself a house, The 

 Ridge, about a quarter of a mile from the Langtons. The 

 site was a little group of fields, formerly filched from the 

 open heath and bordered with hollies, beeches, and firs. 

 All the cousins have the happiest remembrance of visits to 

 these two houses ; there was the same atmosphere of freedom 

 as there had been at Maer, and the surroundings were 

 particularly delightful for children. There were streams 

 where we fished for minnows, sand to dig in, and wild heathy 

 commons to wander freely about. Lately, when I looked 

 down on both houses from the top of Gill's Lap, a high fir- 

 crowned hill about two miles to the south, I thought that it 

 was even wilder, and more full of charm than I remembered. 



Elizabeth built a little school on the edge of her land for 

 the few children near by. They came from little straggling 

 cottages originally belonging to squatters on the forest. It 

 was her regular occupation every morning for an hour or 

 two to teach in this school. Before this, but when does not 

 appear, she had built a little school on Caldy Island, near 

 Tenby, and, I presume, endowed it, 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



27 Aug., 1847. 



I feel disposed to write to you to-day, dearest, because 

 my head is full of you and of your works, which I believe 

 I was one of the first to think romantic. Let me make 



