settled in London. The heiress-ship came to nothing, for Mr. Carr died without a will, and his nephew came in for the property, which he soon squandered away.
It was in 1823 that Mr. S. C. Hall, then Parliamentary reporter in the House of Lords, made the acquaintance of the Fieldings. He was Irish by birth, for his father. Colonel Hall, had been stationed at Geneva Barracks, six miles from Waterford, when his third son, Samuel Carter, was born, just six months after the birth of Anna Maria Fielding.
Colonel Hall embarked in mining speculations, and opened thirteen copper mines in Ireland, the largest being on Ross Island, Killarney. Ore to the value of £100,000 was taken out of this mine. After giving employment to hundreds of men, women and children, the mine was flooded by the waters of the lake, complete ruin followed, and Mrs. Hall was left with twelve children to battle with the world. Her son, Samuel Carter, was most industrious and capable. His wooing of Miss Fielding was not long in the doing; the year after they met, the marriage took place.
"Beautiful, accomplished and good," says Mr. Hall, "was the wife that on the 20th September, 1825, God gave me to be my life's chief est blessing and most perfect boon."
From a portrait by Maclise we get a good idea of what Mrs. Hall was as a young woman. Long
