Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/55

an arch. The tardy branches were at length extending to meet her hopes, when, in luckless hour, Fardy the gardener, either ignorant or forgetful of the wishes of his mistress, rounded off the tops with great dexterity and ill-timed officiousness. I need not add what vexation and disappointment ensued.

At the head of the household was placed Elizabeth Haughton, a near relation of Richard Shackleton's first wife, who, being left a widow in narrow circumstances, accepted of this charge, her two children being taken in also. She was a religious woman, of an excellent disposition, kind and humane; and "cousin Betty" was universally respected and beloved.

The steward was William Gill, a man of strict and approved fidelity. He was advanced in years, of a portly person and comely countenance. He had served Abraham Shackleton in the days when Edmund Burke went to school to him, and was attached to that great and amiable man by those ties of affection and admiration which bound all who knew him.

There also lived in the family, at this time, an old man named John Buckley, son of Allan Buckley, a shoe-maker, to whom Richard Shackleton and Edmund Burke resorted when they were boys, when Edmund used to amuse himself making mathematical figures out of Allan's wax. I supposed Allan was a Quaker, for his remains were laid in our graveyard; and his son with pious attention dressed his grave, a mark of filial affection which reflected more honour than the headstone placed at the grave of Abel Strettel. John