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CHAPTER XVI.

Family Affairs.

DR. PARR lost one of his children at Norwich. Of his two other children, Catharine died of a consumption at Teignmouth, in the winter of 1805, It was too clear during the summer that she was sinking under pulmonary consumption, and the following letter of condolence, after her death, is too descriptive of her indisposition at that period. Various were the experiments tried to relieve her, and a thousand projects were entertained. It was in the progress to put one of these in execution, viz. sailing, that she stayed at Shrewsbury, and came under the observation of Dr. Butler:

MY DEAR SIR,

From the Rev. Dr. Butler, to the Rev. Dr. Parr. Shrewsbury, Dec. 10th, 1805. I learnt yesterday from the public papers the calamitous event which has taken place in your family, and, though to a great and capacious mind like your own, it would be in vain for me to offer topics of consolation, allow me at least to express how much myself, my wife, and all your friends at Shrewsbury, participate in your affliction. I may now confess to you that the perfect pleasure we should otherwise have experienced in your company last summer, was clouded by the prospect of

an event which any eyes but those of fond parents, eager to hope even against hope, must have foreseen; I read them but too clearly in the looks of Dr. Dugard, what he confirmed to me the next day, and, indeed, I saw myself that the intellect was too quick, and the mind too active for the feeble frame in which it dwelt. Of this be assured, my dear Sir, that we shall often revert to the amiable and interesting subject of our regret, whom even a short acquaintance sufficed greatly to endear to us. I shall be in Warwickshire in a short time, and shall take an early opportunity of personally inquiring for yourself, Mrs. Parr, Mrs. Wynne, and my little Mary's rival. Mrs. Butler charges me to say, that she unites in every sentiment of genuine concern, and of unfeigned respect for yourself and your family, with, dear Sir, your obliged and affectionate servant,

S. BUTLER.

Of Parr's feelings under this affliction, his own letters will speak in the truest and strongest terms.

From Dr. Parr, to Mrs. Wynne.

DEAR SARAH,

Teignmouth, Nov. 21st. After many provoking disappointments and obstacles, I got from Bristol to Bath, and from Bath to Exeter, on Tuesday morning between one and two. I slept four hours, and reached Teignmouth on Wednesday, at half an hour after two. I am most happy in having come so rapidly. My determination was to take my dear Catharine back to Hatton, by slow stages, if she could bear the journey, but she cannot. Mr. Cartwright assures me she will die on the road; she is carried up and down stairs-she cannot read a book-she has no appetite, no sleep, no mitigation of pain by day or night. Death, my dear Sarah, is the only deliverance now to be wished for from insuperable anguish. Mr. Cartwright will assist me in making arrangements to carry the breathless corpse from Teignmouth to Hatton. I shall return and attend the funeral, so must you. Now, I will send particulars in a day or two, if I am able. You must exert yourself to see part of them executed. Think if you can of four unmarried persons to support the pall; the rest I will manage. The grave must be so contrived as to let her lie between

your mother and myself. Your letters came to day. They were glad to see me so much sooner than they expected. I am dying a thousand deaths.

Tell Mr. Marshall, if he and the parishoners approve, the bell should be tolled all day, with one side muffled as on the day of Lord Nelson's funeral. My heart aches-I will write again soon, be prepared for the worst. My love to the children. God bless you. I am, your affectionate and afflicted father,

The next day he wrote as follows:

DEAR SARAH,

My beloved child is dying.

S. PARR.

Friday, 2 o'clock, Nov. 22.

She died easily.

Ten minutes before five-She is no more. I shall stay a day or two to manage matters, and then we come home. The body will be brought in a hearse. Your mother and I will come in a mourning coach behind the hearse. The body to lie in the library. Think of pall-bearers. She shall be buried as Catherine the daughter of Samuel Parr. Yes, yes. We shall be with you on Monday, or Sunday sen'night. God bless you, my only child, my Sarah. Your affectionate and afflicted father, S. PARR.

Catherine was buried at Hatton; Dr. and Mrs. Parr followed the body from Teignmouth into Warwickshire in funeral procession, and this trait serves to exemplify both his paternal fondness and his love of ceremony. When Mrs. Parr, some years afterwards, died in Devonshire, he exacted the same attention from Mrs. Wynne, who was then in the last stage of consumption. She followed her mother's corpse in the same manner; nor could she fail to contemplate, during the long and sad procession, the near approach of her own fate, and thus to drink some of the bitterest dregs of sorrow.-Not quite the bitterest, though of these she partook to

loathing, and from which, the grave was to her a resting place, as it is a refuge to all those who suffer from the incurable disorders of the wounded heart.

I have said that Parr's character was strongly exemplified in the funerals of his family, and this is strictly true. For in them he displayed not only his fondness for his children, but his love of pomp and ceremony, and his attention to minute circumstances. On these occasions expense was never spared. The illness of Catherine was very burdensome to him, yet he did not repine, or study economy, and even borrowed money to supply the expense. Far remote, indeed, was the anguish that preyed on his soul, during her sickness, from any sordid calculations. He was doatingly fond of her. And so undiminished was her cheerfulness, and so brilliant were the faculties of this charming female, during her too manifest, but protracted consumption, that we were all, perhaps, led on by an unjustifiable hope of recovering her, never to be realized.

The loss of his daughter Catherine, though it became an affliction mellowed by time in the latter years of Dr. Parr, was always sanctified to him by religious hope, and the expressions which I shall now quote, written on the anniversary of her decease, by her mother, will be re-echoed from the bosom of every Christian parent who has lost a worthy child. Extract of a letter from Mrs. Parr to Dr. Parr:

Nov. 22, 1806, Southampton. But, alas! what can relieve a sorely-wounded heart, God alone and we can only reach him by the grave. You will

receive this on the day which bereaved us of our greatest worldly comfort. She is now rejoicing in the presence of her God, for the pure in heart shall see his face. Oh! how my heart rises with gratitude to the Throne of Mercy, for his blessings to her, and for ordaining me the parent of such a child. But I will not revive your sorrows, and my mind is in such a state, that I cannot think or write on any other subject, so adieu.

I shall insert only the following letter of condolence from the Bishop of Cloyne. There is a character of Catherine Parr in the Gentleman's Magazine.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Cloyne, Dec. 7, 1805.

Since Mrs. Wynne's letter to me, which conveyed a most melancholy account of her sister's health, I have not dared to trouble your family with letters of inquiry, but I did not cease to cast many anxious wishes towards Hatton, and augured every thing that was bad from your long silence. Severe, however, as the calamity is, there is some little room for comfort in the reflection of her being removed from all further suffering, and in the consciousness how much, what she did suffer, was alleviated by your paternal and exemplary kindness. Numbers in the late bloody victory of Trafalgar have been, like you, deprived of their children; and of children strong in health, and likely, unless cut off by this sudden stroke, to have added for many years to the comforts of their parents; but how few have, like you, been warned to expect the evil long before, to sooth the last hours of the afflicted by affectionate cares, and to pay every mark of respect and kindness to their remains. Perhaps, at present, this circumstance may have added to your griefs; but, in time, the remembrance of it will tend to diminish them. Man has done his part when he has spared no expence or attention to avoid the evil, and when he has at last submitted to it in patience.

I got safe here in August, after a fatiguing journey with a heavy coach, and a sea voyage still more fatiguing, being stowed in a crowded packet, with an unfavourable wind; and