left to her dear nephew, Henry Esmond Warrington,
of Castlewood, in Virginia, "in affectionate love and remembrance of the
name which he bore." The property was not great. Her revenue had been
derived from pensions from the Crown as it appeared (for what services
I cannot say), but the pension of course died with her, and there were
only a few hundred pounds, besides jewels, trinkets, and the furniture
of the house in Clarges Street, of which all London came to the sale.
Mr. Walpole bid for her portrait, but I made free with Harry's money so
far as to buy the picture in: and it now hangs over the mantelpiece of
the chamber in which I write. What with jewels, laces, trinkets, and old
china which she had gathered--Harry became possessed of more than four
thousand pounds by his aunt's legacy. I made so free as to lay my hand
upon a hundred, which came, just as my stock was reduced to twenty
pounds; and I procured bills for the remainder, which I forwarded to
Captain Henry Esmond in Virginia. Nor should I have scrupled to take
more (for my brother was indebted to me in a much greater sum), but he
wrote me there was another wonderful opportunity for buying an estate
and negroes in our neighbourhood at home; and Theo and I were only
too glad to forgo our little claim, so as to establish our brother's
fortune. As to mine, poor Harry at this time did not know the state of
it. My mother had never informed him that she had ceased remitting to
me. She helped him with a considerable sum, the result of her savings,
for the purchase of his new estate; and Theo and I were most heartily
thankful at his prosperity.

And how strange ours was! By what curious good fortune, as our purse
was emptied, was it filled again! I had actually come to the end of our
stock, when poor Sampson brought me his six pieces--and with these I was
enabled to carry on, until my half-year's salary, as young Mr. Foker's
Governor, was due: then Harry's hundred, on which I laid main basse,
helped us over three months (we were behindhand with our rent, or the
money would have lasted six good weeks longer): and when this was pretty
near expended, what should arrive but a bill of exchange for a couple of
hundred pounds from Jamaica, with ten thousand blessings, from the dear
friends there, and fond scolding from the General that we had not
sooner told him of our necessity--of which he had only heard through our
friend, Mr. Foker, who spoke in such terms of Theo and m