THE AUSTINS 73 



Barron. The pair were close friends : ' W. T. and 

 a pipe render everything agreeable,' writes Barron 

 in his diary in 1828 ; and in 1833, after Barron had 

 moved to London and Taylor had tasted the first 

 public failure of his powers, the latter wrote : ' To 

 my ever dearest Mr. Barron say, if you please, that 

 I miss him more than I regret him — that I acquiesce 

 in his retirement from Norwich, because I could 

 ill brook his observation of my increasing debihty 

 of mind.' This chosen companion of William 

 Taylor must himself have been no ordinary man ; 

 and he was the friend besides of Borrow, whom I 

 find him helping in his Latin. But he had no 

 desire for popular distinction, lived privately, mar- 

 ried a daughter of Dr. Enfield of Enfield's Speaker, 

 and devoted his time to the education of his family, 

 in a deUberate and scholarly fashion, and with 

 certain traits of stoicism, that would surprise a 

 modern. From these children we must single out 

 his youngest daughter, Eliza, who learned under his 

 care to be a sound Latin, an elegant Grecian, and to 

 suppress emotion without outward sign after the 

 manner of the Godwin school. This was the more 

 notable, as the girl really derived from the Enfields ; 

 whose high-flown romantic temper I wish I could 

 find space to illustrate. She was but seven years 

 old when Alfred Austin remarked and fell in love 

 with her ; and the union thus early prepared was 

 singularly full. Where the husband and wife 



