14 FISHES AND PISHING. 



relatives as occasional visitors, but requested they 

 would come so conveyed and attired as not to injure 

 his respectability amongst his neighbours, workmen, 

 and servants. The result was a total cessation of all 

 intercourse between the families during about seven 

 years. 



Strange indeed are the mutations of this life, and 

 an illustration may not be improperly introduced. 

 My aunt's brother, who could at that time merely 

 read and write English tolerably well, became under 

 usher to a clergyman, who kept a school at or near 

 Cambridge, and had married into my aunt's family. 

 From that station this cabinet-maker, by diligence, 

 came to be head usher of the clergyman* s school ; and 

 at that time, when " literate persons" were freely 

 ordained, he entered the church, subsequently mar 

 ried a person with a little property, became incum 

 bent of one, if not two benefices in the county and 

 diocese of Lincoln, and died respected by his parish 

 ioners. His fellow workman married the widow of 

 a person who kept a colour shop. This second hus 

 band invented an article for the embellishment of a 

 portion of ladies' persons, which became sofashionable 

 that he acquired a good fortune by its most extensive 

 sale ; though now, such are the vagaries of fashion, 

 that any lady wearing blue silk stockings, would be 

 considered as having a very extraordinary taste in 



