CHANTRY HOUSE




CHAPTER I--A NURSERY PROSE



'And if it be the heart of man
Which our existence measures,
Far longer is our childhood's span
Than that of manly pleasures.

'For long each month and year is then,
Their thoughts and days extending,
But months and years pass swift with men
To time's last goal descending.'

ISAAC WILLIAMS.

The united force of the younger generation has been brought upon me
to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances
connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once
this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook,
but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when
the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of
what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and
thankfulness. Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in
the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and their place