Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/77

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RETURN TO INDIA
69

spot. On her tombstone is the inscription that 'surrounded by everything that could make life dear to her, she was enabled to resign all that she might be found with Christ.' Close by is buried Spencer Perceval the Prime Minister, who was killed in 1812.

The tidings of death reach her husband in Bombay. On the voyage out he had written several letters to the children as well as to the mother; these are full of playful and cheery descriptions of places and people, suitable to the entertainment of the young; he had seen Athens and the isles of Greece on his way to Egypt; he wishes he could but take a peep at the domestic hearth which had been set up in Southwick Street. But now he writes to the motherless family in terms the most pathetic, yet the most judicious, showing a perfect knowledge regarding the disposition of each one of them. He reverts to the manuscript book which was begun at Azamgarh, fills up the blank leaves with additional entries, and specially marks those entries which had been suggested by his late wife. Then he sends this book for the instruction of the children, so that they may know 'the passages on religious subjects, to which the parents had in their joint lifetime most attended.'

He has to control from a distance the education of his young family, who are placed under the care of his sister Esther. His private letters, still extant, written month after month in the midst of arduous work, abound with thoughtful suggestions. He addresses many letters to the children themselves,