another daughter of that same
worshipful mayor, married David Martineau, grandson of Gaston Martineau,
who fled from France at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes.[35] Harriet and James Martineau were grandchildren of this
David. The second son of Richard and Margaret Taylor was John, who
married Susannah Cook. Susannah is the clever Mrs. John Taylor of this
story, and her daughter of even greater ability was Sarah Austin, the
wife of the famous jurist. Their daughter married Sir Alexander
Duff-Gordon. She was the author of _Letters from Egypt_, a book to which
George Meredith wrote an 'Introduction,' so much did he love the writer.
Lady Duff-Gordon's daughter, Janet Ross, wrote the biography of her
mother, her grandmother, and Mrs. John Taylor, in _Three Generations of
Englishwomen_. A niece, Lena Duff-Gordon (Mrs. Waterfield), has written
pleasant books of travel, and so, for five generations, this family has
produced clever women-folk. But here we are only concerned with Mrs.
John Taylor, called by her friends the 'Madame Roland of Norwich.' Lucy
Aikin describes how she 'darned her boy's grey worsted stockings while
holding her own with Southey, Brougham, or Mackintosh.' One of her
daughters married Henry Reeve, and, as I have said, another married John
Austin. Borrow was twenty years of age and living in Norwich when Mrs.
Taylor died. It is to be regretted that in the early impressionable
years his position as a lawyer's clerk did not allow of his coming into
a circle in which he might have gained certain qualities of _savoir
faire_ and _joie de vivre_, which he was all his days to lack. Of the
Taylor family the Duke of Sussex said that they reversed the ordinary
saying that it takes nine tailors to make a man. The witticism has been
attributed to Sydney Smith, but Mrs. Ross gives evidence that it was the
Duke's--the youngest son of George III. In his _Life of Sir James
Mackintosh_ Basil Montagu, referring to Mrs. John Taylor, says:

Norwich was always a haven of rest to us, from the literary
society with which that city abounded. Dr. Sayers we used to
visit, and the high-minded and intelligent William Taylor; but
our chief delight was in the society of Mrs. John Taylor, a
most intelligent and excellent woman, mild and unassuming,
quiet and meek, sitting amidst her large family, occupied with
her needle and domestic occupations, but always assisting, by
her grea