12 MY LIFE [Chap. 



to the General Chronicle as if that were the title of the 

 recently defunct magazine, and he admits that my father 

 may rightly consider himself an ill-used man, though wholly 

 denying that he, Mr. Rendall, had any part in bringing about 

 his misfortunes. 



The result was that my father had to bear almost the 

 whole loss, and this considerably reduced his already too 

 scanty income. Whether he made any other or what efforts 

 to earn money I do not know, but he continued to live in 

 Marylebone till 1816, a daughter Emma having been born 

 there in that year ; but soon after he appears to have re- 

 moved to St. George's, Southwark, in which parish my 

 brother John was born in 18 18. Shortly afterwards his affairs 

 must have been getting worse, and he determined to move 

 with his family of six children to some place where living 

 was as cheap as possible ; and, probably from having introduc- 

 tions to some residents there, fixed upon Usk, in Monmouth- 

 shire, where a sufficiently roomy cottage with a large garden 

 was obtained, and where I was born on January 8, 1823. In 

 such a remote district rents were no doubt very low and 

 provisions of all kinds very cheap — probably not much more 

 than half London prices. Here, so far as I remember, only 

 one servant was kept, and my father did most of the garden 

 work himself, and provided the family with all the vegetables 

 and most of the fruit which was consumed. Poultry, meat, 

 fish, and all kinds of dairy produce were especially cheap ; 

 my father taught the children himself; the country around 

 was picturesque and the situation healthy ; and, notwithstand- 

 ing his reverse of fortune, I am inclined to think that this 

 was, perhaps, the happiest portion of my father's life. 



In the year 1828 my mother's mother-in-law, Mrs. Rebecca 

 Greenell, died at Hertford, and I presume it was in conse- 

 quence of this event that the family left Usk in that year, 

 and lived at Hertford for the next nine or ten years, re- 

 moving to Hoddesdon in 1837 or 1838, where my father died 

 in 1843. These last fifteen years of his life were a period of 

 great trouble and anxiety, his affairs becoming more and 



