XVII] RESIDENCE AT NEATH 



263 



the town in a small pony-cart. But the rent was too high, 

 and it did not pay ; so in the spring of 1849, he gave it up 

 and sailed for California in April, soon after the discoveries 

 of gold there and when San Francisco was a city of huts and 

 tents, and he lived there till his death in 1895, having only 

 once visited England, in the winter of 1850-51, in order to 

 marry the only daughter of his former employer, Mr. 

 Webster. 



Shortly after this my sister married Mr. Thomas Sims, 

 eldest son of the Mr. Sims with whom I and my brother had 

 lodged in Neath. He had taught himself the then undeve- 

 loped art of photography, and he and his wife settled first in 

 Weston-super-Mare, and afterwards came to London, where 

 I lived with them in Upper Albany Street, after my return 

 from the Amazon. 



