to the Lakes Old Crome accompanied them as
drawing-master. There is, however, one picture in the story of
unforgettable charm, the episode of the courtship of Elizabeth Gurney by
Joseph Fry, and this I must quote from Mr. Augustus Hare's pleasant
book:

Mr. Fry had no intention of exposing himself to the possibility
of a refusal. He bought a very handsome gold watch and chain,
and laid it down upon a white seat--the white seat which still
exists--in the garden at Earlham. 'If Betsy takes up that
watch,' he said, 'it is a sign that she accepts me: if she does
not take it up by a particular hour, it will show that I must
leave Earlham.'

The six sisters concealed themselves in six laurel-bushes in
different parts of the grounds to watch. One can imagine their
intense curiosity and anxiety. At last the tall, graceful
Betsy, her flaxen hair now hidden under a Quaker cap, shyly
emerged upon the gravel walk. She seemed scarcely conscious of
her surroundings, as if, 'on the wings of prayer, she was being
wafted into the unseen.' But she reached the garden seat, and
there, in the sunshine, lay the glittering new watch. The sight
of it recalled her to earth. She could not, could not, take it,
and fled swiftly back to the house. But the six sisters
remained in their laurel-bushes. They felt sure she would
revoke, and they did not watch in vain. An hour elapsed, in
which her father urged her, and in which conscience seemed to
drag her forwards. Once again did the anxious sisters see Betsy
emerge from the house, with more faltering steps this time, but
still inwardly praying, and slowly, tremblingly, they saw her
take up the watch, and the deed was done. She never afterwards
regretted it, though it was a bitter pang to her when she
collected her eighty-six children in the garden at Earlham and
bade them farewell, and though she wrote in her journal as a
bride, 'I cried heartily on leaving Norwich; the very stones in
the street were dear to me.'

In 1803--the year of Borrow's birth--John Gurney became a partner in the
great London Bank of Overend and Gurney, and his son, Joseph John, in
that same year went up to Oxford. In 1809 Joseph returned to take his
place in the bank, and to preside over the family of unmarried sisters
at Earlham, father and mother being dead, and many members of