lawyer, is not able to leave the locality in which he lives in search of the consolation of travel; he must remain among his patients or clients. He may have household arrangements which cannot, without utter discomfiture, be altered; and if, being the father of an only daughter, he has no near female relative of mature years to undertake the management of his domestic affairs, he is committed either to an upper servant, or to the plan of putting his child at the head of his house and confiding to her youth a charge which demands a thoughtful care scarcely to be expected in early years. Happy the man whose daughter in such an exigency shows herself equal to the task of filling her mother's place in his home and heart.
In the year 1784, Dr. Alderson, an eminent physician of Norwich, lost his wife, and was left with an only daughter, Amelia, aged fifteen. This young lady at once became her father's housekeeper as well as companion. She was gifted with so many advantages of person and mind that her childhood had attracted the attention of all who knew her. Fair and blooming, with a smiling face and beaming eyes, perfect health, great vivacity, a sweet voice, and frank charming manners, she seemed the very embodiment of the poet's ideal of joyous youth.
Great attention had been paid to her education, and very uncommon advantages of intellectual culture had been bestowed. A Flemish pastor, the
