Page:The Story of the Cheeryble Grants.djvu/22

2 look about it, was then opened. It was a long and interesting communication, and, to my gratification and astonishment, it proved to be written by the very lady enquired about. A copy of the book had reached her in Virginia, and moved her to write about her distinguished relatives and old times. I was thus enabled to supply the desired information; and the next letter I received from across the Atlantic told me that my letter and one from her old “lady’s maid” had reached the exile by the same post.

In the preface to “The Country and Church of the Cheeryble Brothers,” referring to the original of the engraved likeness of Daniel Grant, the younger “Cheeryble,” I said it had been “unfortunately lost sight of,” and that it would “be a happy circumstance if this reference to it should result in bringing it to light.” The lady above referred to — Mrs. William Ashton — stated, in her first letter, that this portrait of Daniel was in her possession, and that, after her decease, it would pass to her son, who bears the name of his great-grand-uncle, “Daniel Grant.” Mrs. Ashton has since passed away.

