saying she hoped I 'would give up my foolish manner of life and studies, and make a respectable and useful wife to her brother'" This strange presumption, though it was freely forgiven, yet created a coldness and reserve ever after.
It was a singular fact in the history of Mary Fairfax that she was born at her Uncle Somerville^s house, and Mrs. Fairfax being extremely ill, she was taken by her aunt, who had an infant at the time, and nursed by her, and was ever regarded as a daughter of the house before she formed the marriage which made her so.
The Rev. Dr. Somerville, speaking of his son's marriage, says, "Miss Fairfax had been born and nursed at my house, her father being abroad at the time on public service. She afterwards often resided in my family, was occasionally my scholar, and was looked upon by me and my wife as if she had been one of our own children. I can truly say, that next to them she was the object of our most tender regard. Her ardent thirst for knowledge, her assiduous application to study, and her eminent proficiency in science and the fine arts, have procured her a celebrity rarely obtained by any of her sex. But she never displays any pretensions to superiority, while the affability of her temper and the gentleness of her manner afford constant sources of gratification to her friends."
The marriage proved in all respects happy. Dr. Somerville entered with zeal into all his wife's
