233 



SECTION VIII. 



1856-65. 



MY mother-in-law died after a long illness this year, to 1856. 

 the great sorrow of her three sons. Though there was Mr & De 

 great difference of opinion, chiefly on doctrinal matters, 

 between my husband and herself, there was strong mutual 

 affection, and some resemblances of character. He shared 

 with her the quality which he used to find troublesome 

 when he lived in her house ; namely, anxiety to a morbid 

 degree about those she loved when they were out of her 

 sight. If he came home an hour later in the evening 

 than she expected, she conjured up all kinds of terrible 

 accidents which he might have met with. One reason 

 of this, on Augustus's account, was his want of sight on 

 the right-hand side. He was very like her in this morbid 

 anxiety, so that those who left the house in the evening 

 had to be punctual in the time of their return if they 

 wished him to be easy. From his mother he inherited his 

 musical talent, and most probably his mathematical 

 power, for she w r as the granddaughter of James Dodson, 

 the author of the Mathematical Canon, a distinguished 

 Mathematician, the friend of Demoivre, and of most other 

 men of science of his time, and an early F.R.S. But he 

 was Mathematical master at Christ's Hospital, and some 

 of his descendants seem to have thought this a blot on 

 the scutcheon, for his great-grandson has left on record 

 the impression he had of his ancestor. When quite a boy 

 he asked one of his aunts * who James Dodson was ; 3 and 

 received for answer, ' We never cry stinking fish.' So he 

 was afraid to ask any more questions, but settled that 



