xx A QUAKER HOUSEHOLD 265 



Little time indeed could he spare to his nieces, besieged 

 as he was by visitors at home and by calls abroad ; but 

 when at last he came in at night, although often very 

 weary, he made " us happy with his enlivening conversa- 

 tion. Surely," she writes, " he is the first of men. With 

 the becoming dignity of age he unites the cheerfulness and 

 liberality of youth. He possesses the most virtues and 

 the fewest failings of any man I know." " When," she 

 says again, " my uncle returned from the meeting, his 

 presence, like the rays of the sun, dispelled every gloomy 

 cloud." One evening he "drew us forth into dispute 

 upon the prerogatives of husbands and wives, insisting 

 upon the blind obedience of the latter to the former : we 

 as strenuously opposed him. After he had diverted us a 

 little he placed the affair upon a proper footing that 

 there should be no obligation on one side more than on 

 another, but a mutual endeavour to promote each other's 

 happiness. We all concurred in this sentiment, and 

 so the affair was amicably adjusted." Dr. Fothergill's 

 sister, who ordered the busy household, was a person in 

 whom native ability and penetration had overcome the 

 narrowing effects of early training ; she had much enter- 

 taining to do, and it was not as a rule until ten o'clock at 

 night, when the nieces had retired, that she could get her 

 quiet tete-a-tete with her brother. Full as was their life, 

 it was so well regulated by a spirit of patience and of 

 charity, that the house had, we are told, " a serene 

 atmosphere." 



Amongst those who shared Fothergill's hospitality 

 were some men and women of mark and influence outside 

 the Quaker world. Under date of May 18, 1770, the 

 journal notes that " the celebrated Dr. Franklin, who 

 is an intimate friend of my uncle's, stayed most of 

 the afternoon." " My obliging uncle " on another day 

 " entertained us with a view of part of his large collection 

 of paintings. These were of plants and flowers drawn 

 from nature, and finished in the most exquisite manner. 

 This was a feast to Friend Barclay, who possesses herself 

 a masterly pencil. Everybody almost," adds the diarist, 



