ry of
table-linen.

I was annoyed that my turn for reading was so much disapproved of, and
thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for
knowledge if it were wrong to acquire it. Among our books I found
Chapone's "Letters to Young Women," and resolved to follow the course of
history there recommended, the more so as we had most of the works she
mentions. One, however, which my cousin lent me was in French, and here
the little I had learnt at school was useful, for with the help of a
dictionary I made out the sense. What annoyed me was my memory not being
good--I could remember neither names nor dates. Years afterwards I
studied a "Memoria Technica," then in fashion, without success; yet in
my youth I could play long pieces of music on the piano without the
book, and I never forget mathematical formulae. In looking over one of my
MSS., which I had not seen for forty years, I at once recognised the
formulae for computing the secular inequalities of the moon.

We had two small globes, and my mother allowed me to learn the use of
them from Mr. Reed, the village schoolmaster, who came to teach me for a
few weeks in the winter evenings. Besides the ordinary branches, Mr.
Reed taught Latin and navigation, but these were out of the question for
me. At the village school the boys often learnt Latin, but it was
thought sufficient for the girls to be able to read the Bible; very few
even learnt writing. I recollect, however, that some men were ignorant
of book-keeping; our baker, for instance had a wooden tally, in which
he made a notch for every loaf of bread, and of course we had the
corresponding tally. They were called nick-sticks.

My bedroom had a window to the south, and a small closet near had one to
the north. At these I spent many hours, studying the stars by the aid of
the celestial globe. Although I watched and admired the magnificent
displays of the Aurora, which frequently occurred, they seemed to be so
nearly allied to lightning that I was somewhat afraid of them. At an
earlier period of my life there was a comet, which I dreaded
exceedingly.

* * * * *

My father was Captain of the "Repulse," a fifty-gun ship, attached to
the Northern fleet commanded by the Earl of Northesk. The winter was
extremely stormy, the fleet was driven far north, and kept there by
adverse gales, till both officers and crew were on short rations. They
ran out of candles, and had to tear up the