NE WFO UNDLAND. 55 



" Charley would occasionally invite me to accompany 

 " him over to Harbour Grace, about three miles distant, 

 " to spend the evening with his family, sleep with him, 

 "and return to business next morning. His parents 

 "were a venerable pair of the ancien regime; all their 

 " manners and their furniture told of high breeding and 

 " ' blue blood.' There was a vast oil painting, covering 

 "nearly one wall of the dining-room, such as we 

 " occasionally see in old mansions, representing a great 

 "spread of fruit, and a peacock, in all the dimensions and 

 " all the splendour of life. Charley had two sisters — 

 " Hannah, a sweet, sunny girl, with bright eyes and 

 " auburn hair ; Charlotte (Lotty), a little deformed, very 

 "gentle, but retiring, and less attractive. Both were 

 " very sweet, amiable girls. 



" One day (I think within my first year), having 

 "occasion to go over to Harbour Grace, I borrowed a 

 "horse to do the journey en cavalier. I think this was 

 " the first time I had ever crossed a horse's back, unless 

 " it was in going with my cousins Kemp from Holme to 

 " Corfe Castle, and then I had not attempted more than 

 " a walk. Now, however, I was more ambitious ; and 

 " as my steed broke into a gentle trot, I jerked from 

 " side to side in a style quite edifying and novel to any 

 " passing pedestrians, no doubt ; for I had no notion of 

 " holding with my knees. The success of the experi- 

 * ment did not encourage me to repeat it, and I didn't 

 " know how to ride till I learned in Jamaica, in 1845. 



"The facilities for reading afforded by the library 

 " I eagerly availed myself of, particularly in novels, of 

 " which I presently became a great devourer. Several 

 " of Scott's, several of Bulwer's, of DTsraeli's, I read ; but 

 " the American tales of Cooper, and the Irish series 

 "published under the nom de guerre of 'The O'Hara 



