own expression, as a more agreeable Montpelier. With a temper
which in the intercourse of society was proof against being
ruffled by any possible treatment of any conceivable subject, to
the end of his life he showed faint signs of irritation if anyone
ventured in his presence to hint that Sierra Leone was unhealthy.

On his return to England he was appointed Secretary to the
Company, and was married at Bristol on the 26th of August, 1799.
A most close union it was, and, (though in latter years he
became fearfully absorbed in the leading object of his existence,
and ceased in a measure to be the companion that he had been,)
his love for his wife, and deep trust and confidence in her,
never failed. They took a small house in Lambeth for the first
twelve months. When Mrs. Macaulay was near her confinement, Mrs.
Babington, who belonged to the school of matrons who hold that
the advantage of country air outweighs that of London doctors,
invited her sister-in-law to Rothley Temple; and there, in a room
panelled from ceiling to floor, like every corner of the ancient
mansion, with oak almost black from age,--looking eastward across
the park and southward through an ivy-shaded window into a little
garden,--Lord Macaulay was born. It was on the 25th of October
1800, the day of St. Crispin, the anniversary of Agincourt, (as
he liked to say,) that he opened his eyes on a world which he was
destined so thoroughly to learn and so intensely to enjoy. His
father was as pleased as a father could be; but fate seemed
determined that Zachary Macaulay should not be indulged in any
great share of personal happiness. The next morning the noise of
a spinning-jenny, at work in a cottage, startled his horse as he
was riding past. He was thrown, and both arms were broken; and he
spent in a sick-room the remainder of the only holiday worth the