1823-1824] Amateur Doctoring 155 



been ill, but with the help of three bleedings, a blister and 

 three doses of calomel, I think I have made a cure of him, 

 as it was high time, you will think, I should." 



Bessy, who till now had kept remarkably young, began 

 to show signs of age. She thus describes her life (March 9th, 

 1824): " I only divide my time between riding Peggy and 

 reading Sevigne by the fire with an interlude of knitting my 

 stocking." She had " a little ass ' (Peggy) on which she 

 rode whilst the girls walked beside her. I remember my 

 mother's telling me of these walks on the sandy paths 

 amongst the wild heath and through the fields of Maer, as 

 if they were one of the happy memories of her youth. 



Emma Wedgwood to her sister Elizabeth. 



I 



[MAER, March, 1824.] 



. . . Will you get four fine cambrick pocket handkerchiefs 

 and eight common ones for everyday ? Then a common 

 printed cotton gown. I do not wish to give more than 10s. 

 for it. I should like a blue, pink, or buff one. If you 

 happen to be in a ribbon shop, will you get 3 yds. of not 

 very handsome ribbon for a turned straw bonnet. I am 

 quite indifferent about the colour, except not straw colour. 

 Do not give yourself any trouble about the rib, for I can 

 get it very well here. 



A year or two later it was Emma who took charge of her 

 elder sisters' dress and appearance. Elizabeth and Char- 

 lotte were both extremely indifferent on the subject, and 

 Elizabeth always wanted her money for purposes of charity. 

 Their mother wrote to her husband (April, 1825), "pray 

 make the girls go out well appointed. My dear Eliz. I 

 particularly mistrust because she always goes on the prin- 

 ciple of wearing the nearest to inadmissible she can." 



Emma, with her clever hands, was hair-dresser to the 

 whole party on all state occasions ; she used to twist up 

 their long hair into little bows on the top of the head, with 

 curls on each side; this she described as most becoming. 

 Her own glossy brown hair kept its warm tint almost to the 

 end of her life, with hardly a grey hair in it. It was abundant 

 and long. She could sit on hers, but Charlotte's beautiful 

 fair hair reached to her knees. 



