CHAP. II.] Life in Bath. 33 



with myself, occupied the attic. The first floor, which was 

 furnished in the newest and most handsome style, my 

 brother kept for himself. The front room containing the 

 harpsichord was always in order to receive his musical friends 



and scholars at little private concerts or rehearsals 



Sundays I received a sum for the weekly expenses, of which 

 my housekeeping book (written in English) showed the 

 amount laid out, and my purse the remaining cash. One of 

 the principal things required was to market, and about six 

 weeks after coming to England I was sent alone among 

 fishwomen, butchers, basket-women, &c., and I brought 

 home whatever in my fright I could pick up. . . . My 

 brother Alex, who was now returned from his summer en- 

 gagement, used to watch me at a distance, unknown to me, 

 .till he saw me safe on my way home. But all attempts to 

 introduce any order in our little household proved vain, 

 owing to the servant my brother then had a hot-headed 

 old Welshwoman. All the articles, tea-things, &c., which 

 I was to take in charge, were almost all destroyed : knives 

 eaten up by rust, heaters of the tea-urn found in the ash- 

 hole, &c. And what still further increased my difficulty 

 was, that my brother's time was entirely taken up with 

 business, so that I only saw him at meals. Breakfast was 

 at 7 o'clock or before (much too early for me, who would 

 rather have remained up all night than be obliged to rise at 

 so early an hour). . . . 



" The three winter months passed on very heavily. 

 I had to struggle against heimweh (home sickness) and low 

 spirits, and to answer my sister's melancholy letters on the 

 death of her husband, by which she became a widow with 

 six children. I knew too little English to derive any 

 consolation from the society of those who were about 

 me, so that, dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to 

 myself." 



