14 MY LIFE 



As a result of this series of misfortunes the children who 

 reached their majority had little or nothing to start with in 

 earning their own living, except a very ordinary education, and 

 a more or less efficient training. The oldest son, William, was 

 first articled to a firm of surveyors at Kington, Herefordshire, 

 probably during the time we resided at Usk. He then spent 

 a year or two in the office of an architect at Hertford, 

 and finally a year in London with a large builder named Martin, 

 then engaged in the erection of King's College, in order to be- 

 come familiar with the practical details of building. He may 

 be said, therefore, to have had a really good professional edu- 

 cation. At first he got into general land-surveying work, 

 which was at that time rather abundant, owing to the surveys 

 and valuations required for carrying out the Commutation of 

 Tithes Act of 1836, and also for the enclosures of commons 

 which were then very frequent. During the time I was with 

 him we were largely engaged in this kind of work in various 

 parts of England and Wales, as will be seen later on ; but the 

 payment for such work was by no means liberal, and owing to 

 the frequent periods of idleness between one job and another, 

 it was about as much as my brother could do to earn our living 

 and travelling expenses. 



About the time I went to live with my brother my sister 

 Fanny entered a French school at Lille to learn the language 

 and to teach English, and I think she was a year there. On 

 her return she started the school at Hoddesdon, but after my 

 father's death in 1843 s ^e obtained a position as a teacher in 

 Columbia College, Georgia, U.S.A., then just established under 

 the Bishop of Georgia ; and she only returned after my brother 

 William's death in 1846, when the surviving members of the 

 family in England were reunited, and lived together for two 

 years in a cottage near Neath, in Glamorganshire. 



My brother John, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, was ap- 

 prenticed, first to Mr. Martin and then to Mr. Webster, a Lon- 

 don builder living in Albany Street, Regent's Park, where he 

 became a thorough joiner and carpenter. He afterwards 

 worked for a time for Cubitt and other large builders; then, 

 when he came to live with me at Neath, he learnt surveying 



