Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/380

 304 NOTES BY THE WAY.

with him there, after the funeral, and take up my abode with them, making it my home for life. I could not leave Edinburgh then, and though my son has come specially several times to take me back with him, I cannot make up my mind to leave here. He has respected my weakness a weakness which I cannot surmount secured me a pleasant domicile in my old neighbourhood, and writes me so lovingly, very, very often, sometimes twice and thrice a week, with ample remittances for my worldly wants, and I am grateful to him.

I have inflicted a longer letter upon you than I intended

All Charley's friends are dear to me, and mine.

I bid you farewell, with loving wishes for your happiness here and hereafter.

Ever your sincere friend,

MABY EMMA EBSWORTH.

His sister's Emilie, writing to her brother at the New Year, 1882, says :

remembrance " The family ties are sadly broken now. Father, mother, and ten of the home children ; now only four of us, and all parted. . . .Memory brings back the pleasant pictures of old breakfasts and suppers when we children scarcely cared to eat, so absorbed were we in dear father's songs or readings. How we used to laugh at the well-known jests ! how thrill with horror when hearing of the Plague or the Fire of London ! I remember the bright eyes of ' Man Bob,' the baby archness of little Jem, the sweet laugh of little Willie, and my pale- faced Joe, who used to call for Emilie in all his troubles, and in whose childish drawings and anecdotes I felt almost a mother's interest. Oh, how I loved them all ! " His wife survived him thirteen years, dying at Walworth on the 13th of October, 1881, and was buried at Norwood.

Ebsworth was much interested in the question asked by M. A. in Notes and Queries, March 14th, 1908, as to whether he was a descendant of the Ebsworths of Gloucestershire. To this Colonel Parry replied on the 18th of April that a " Cirencester will of 1673 shows that a William Ebsworth was living there at that time ; and another Cirencester will of 1725 mentions Sarah Ebsworth." Ebsworth wrote to me the following day : " Now it is a great gain, the information gathered from Lieut.-Col. Parry about Sarah Ebsworth of 1725, for almost certainly she is the very ' Sarah Ebs- withTh^irn wort h ' who was the ancestress, i.e., afterwards Sarah Hill, nee family. * Ebsworth, who is the connecting link of our Ebsworth-cum-Hill families. It is an important clue." The family of Hills connected with the Ebsworths are the Hills of New Bond Street, the well- known musical instrument makers, their speciality being that of our old friend Pepys noted in his diary of the 17th of February, 1660 : " In ye morning came Mr. Hill, ye instrument maker, and I consulted with him about ye altering my lute and my viall."

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