was to be a minister of
Christ. Can I ever be one?" asks Elizabeth Gurney in her Journal.

V.

THE LAST YEAR AT HOME.

The early months of 1799 were passed in Norwich, where she engaged in
works which she believed to be right and useful. She visited the poor,
doing what she could to relieve distress, yet cautious lest she should
appear to do too much, telling her friends that in such charity she was
only agent for her father, who approved of her thus helping others. She
held what are now called "mothers' meetings," reading and talking to a
little group of people about fifteen in number. Her "Sunday School" had
also gradually increased, till there were sometimes seventy poor
children receiving instruction from her. Cutting out and preparing
clothes for the poor, and occasional visits to hospitals, and once to
Bedlam to see a poor woman, were among the occupations of the winter
months. She had not yet, however, made any decisive change in her social
habits, for she occasionally accompanied her sisters to balls and other
entertainments, yet finding less and less satisfaction in what she in
calmer moments disapproved.

The doubtful, wavering condition of mind led her to think more seriously
of openly avowing her religious principles.

In the autumn her father travelled to the north of England, taking with
him his son Samuel and his daughters Priscilla and Elizabeth. He was
going to visit an estate belonging to him; also to attend the general
meeting at the Friends' School at Ackworth, after which they were going
to Scotland. All this expedition Elizabeth much enjoyed. At Ackworth she
took part in the examination of the scholars, and had pleasant
conversation with the headmaster Doctor Binns, and with Friends
assembled on the occasion. At York they saw the wonderful Minster; at
Darlington, found themselves in a living colony of Friends; and
Elizabeth was gratified by receiving a note and a book of grammar from
the famous Lindley Murray, whom she had met and taken tea with at York.
Durham, Newcastle, Alnwick Castle, and Edinburgh, were successively
visited, and afforded abundant materials for entries in her Journal, and
for agreeable recollections after returning home.

VI.

MARRIAGE, AND SETTLEMENT IN LONDON.

On August 19, 1800, Elizabeth Gurney was married, at the Friends'
Meeting House, Norwich, to Joseph Fry, youngest son of William Storrs
Fry, of London. He had been to Earlham, and made an offer of