Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/62

ever, a little reconciled me. Yet, when, in taking a survey of the family of his friend, he stood over me as I sat in a little chair and viewed me through the glass which assisted his short sight, I felt so abashed and confused that I directly annexed the idea of austerity to his countenance ; nor could the testimony of many witnesses efface that idea, till I afterwards saw him in London in the year 1784, when with a very uncommon sensation of pleasure and surprise it was at once put to flight ; for never did I see so much benignity and intelligence united, as in the manly beauty of that countenance, in which were blended the expressions of every superior quality of the head and of the heart. This visit was previous to the purchase of Beaconsfield, and to his "taking root in England," as he expressed it.

He was frequently in Ireland, and of course often in Ballitore. At one time my mother, while walking in the fields at the foot of the Nine-tree-hill, was surprised to hear a familiar voice behind her ; she turned and beheld Edmund Burke, who was going in search of her, and having just arrived, took some path remembered by him which she did not know of, and had got behind her. Their little son sometimes accom- panied them in their visits, in one of which he was in disgrace with his mother, and she kepot him at a distance ; but the fond father was solicitous to put up a bit of bread for him when they were setting out. He was now the only child, for they had buried another son. My father and mother went once to visit Ed-