THE EARNEST PHILANTHROPIST. sons. She appreciated keenly the charms and beauties of nature, though she rarely looked higher ; and imbued the minds of her children with tastes which served to grace and embellish their lives. At Norwich, in May, 1780, Elizabeth, their third daughter, had beenborn. A golden-haired, shy, timid little creature she was, trembling at every sound, and bursting into tears if earnestly looked at ; her fond mother's "dove-like Betsy." Quiet, timorous, shrink- ing, full of nervous and causeless terrors, the little Elizabeth clung to her mother's side with an intensity of love and unutterable affection almost morbid and overwhelming; for a constant dread that death would sunder them made her constantly creep to that mother's couch during the day, to listen and watch her while sleeping, haunted by the idea that she might cease to breathe ; and the same fear often caused her, when seven or eight years old, to lie awake for hours at night, weeping bitterly. Hand- in-hand she would walk with her mother in the rambling old garden at Bramerton, attending to the beds of flowers ; and, listening to the stories ofAdam and Eve in Paradise, would fancy Edenmust be the exact counterpart of that dear spot. In her strong, clinging, yearning, though some- what diseased affections, she frequently wished, despite her fearful nature, that mighty walls would crush her and all she loved together, that they might be spared the agonies of separation ! With the intensity ofunreasoning terror, Elizabeth r
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