MURDER 23 



whom at that time I also became acquamtecl, who might 

 have changed stations, much for the advantage of the 

 community, with their o^vn stable-boy or game-keeper ! 



Sometimes a sober divine — occasionally a dignitary of 

 the Church — I found seated by my side, whose conversa- 

 tion would awaken sympathies that the change of position 

 and the daily repetition of objects presented to my 

 observation had almost driven from my mind. At other 

 times a barrister, from Warwick assizes, who would raise 

 my wonder at recalling or rehearsing some extraordinary 

 trial, such as that of Abraham Thornton for the murder 

 of a female ; which caused a great excitement in the 

 neighbourhood about this time. His ingenious defence, 

 under the guidance of Mr. Campbell, was the first step in 

 the ladder that enabled his Counsel to attain to the 

 summit of his profession ; a proof that even the greatest 

 ability is sometimes indebted to accident, or some happy 

 conjunction, for the first and full development of the 

 acumen and depth of legal knowledge of its possessor. 



But all these things began to lose their charm, and my 

 thoughts would frequently revert, sometimes in a sudden, 

 strange, and unaccountable manner, to my former state, 

 and to the irremediable losses I felt I had sustained — the 

 first and greatest of which was domestic happiness ; and 

 I ruminated when alone on the comparative hardness of 

 my fate, and silently lamented the apparent waste of the 

 best years of my life. My two children were well cared 

 for by my elder sister after the loss of their mother, and 

 I had since then placed each, a boy and girl, at an excellent 

 school in the immediate neio:hbourhood of London. But 

 I had no establishment of my own ; and it is admitted as 



