14 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



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, Hereford- 

 shire, 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 become familiar with the practical details of building. 

 He may be said, therefore, to have had a really good pro- 

 fessional education. 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 idle- 

 ness 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, she 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 

 apprenticed, first to Mr. Martin and then to Mr. Webster, a 

 London 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 



