316 EARLY REMINISCENCES placed fern leaves round her head this morning and a bunch of Christmas roses and ferns on her chest. It was a sweet placid face when we left it, and we neither of us mean to disturb the recollection of that expression by looking at it again. Edward B.-G. is very calm and quiet, and Maggie is struggling to keep up, but the trial is great to her. Though I do not like leaving her, we have decided it is best for me to go to Exeter by the express to-morrow to get necessary things, and after consulting with my sisters, and orders are given, I am to return the next day. Edward does not quite like me to go at all, but I believe it will be best, and Mrs. Charles will take care of Maggie in the meantime. God bless you, my dear mother, and comfort you in this sorrow, which we know is a deep one to you. " Ever your loving daughter, Kate." I never once heard my mother speak an unkind word of anyone. She was wont to say when a disparaging remark was made of another: " Put it through three sieves. Is it true ? Is it necessary to say it ? Is it kind ? " At the same time my mother was strong and emphatic in her likes and dislikes, but these were of principles, or modes of conduct, not of persons. She might express her repugnance to certain groups of individuals, of parties, but never of individuals making up such groups. My father thought that Charles I was rightly treated when executed. It was a favourite topic with him. Any expression of this opinion made the colour rise in her cheeks, but she did not speak in opposition. She retired to her room and read over the Service for the Martyrdom of the King. To this day I think that his execution was a political necessity, lest he should remain a nucleus for rebellion. Yet it proved to be a mistake. Relegation to Sark or Lundy would have been a better course. She had her trials. One of these was the yearning to live quietly and peaceably at Lew, and the horror she had of the sea, where she almost died of sea-sickness each time she crossed.1 Yet my father's passion was for travel. Only after 1852 did my 1 This took a peculiar form. There was no vomiting, but a gasping for breath, so that she had to be kept night and day on deck, and her throat moistened with vinegar.
