1S37 -3*. CHEMISTRY HIS LADY-LOVE. 99 



ential family of very ancient origin, which can show incontes- 

 table proofs of having nourished in the dark ages, under another 

 title, and which received great additions to its power and 

 influence, under the reigns of Elizabeth and James L, under the 

 Chancellorship of Lord Bacon. If you wish to see the birth, 

 descent, and fortunes of the family, I would refer you not to 

 Burke's Peerage, but to the Encyclopaedia, where, under the 

 article ' Sciences,' you will find a minute history of the family ; 

 and if you ask me which of the daughters has awakened in me 

 such admiration, I reply, the ' Eight noble the Science of Che- 

 mistry,' who in my eyes is by far the most attractive and 

 interesting of the family. In case a kindly feeling to the writer 

 should incline you to know more of this noble house, and its 

 collateral branches, I would refer you to a work written by a 

 lady, deeply versed in this branch of Heraldry, Mrs. Somerville's 

 ' Connexion of the Physical Sciences.'" 



We shall now be greatly indebted to the series of letters, 

 addressed to his brother, just settled in London, for information 

 as to his employments and aspirations. Speaking of this cor- 

 respondence, Daniel says : " London, to one crossing the Border 

 for the first time, had perhaps greater novelties then even than 

 New York or Washington at a later date, and some of the allu- 

 sions in one of his first letters are in reply to an account of its 

 marvels. Amongst these, one of the oddest, to my unpractised 

 eyes, was the public display of the undertakers' establishments, 

 with miniature coffins and all the" paraphernalia of death, so 

 totally unknown in Edinburgh, where, excepting an ambiguous 

 sign-board, labelled 'Upholsterer and Undertaker/ there is 

 nothing to indicate the fact that the last sad rites supply a pro- 

 fitable trade to the craft of undertakers. In total contradistinc- 

 tion to any such decorous euphemism, the London tradesman 

 engraves a couple of coffins on his card, and presents it to you 

 with a courtesy that clearly says how happy he will be to find 

 you speedily requiring his services ; and in full accordance with 

 this he paints boldly on his signboard, ' Funerals performed ! ' " 

 To a description of these and other London wonders, George 

 thus replies, with a running pun on the names of two London 



