I hope, she says, that my father will grant the request I have made to him in my last will, to let you pass the remainder of your days at my Dairy-house, as it used to be called, where once I promised myself to be happy in you.  Your discretion, prudence, and economy, my dear, good woman, proceeds she, will male your presiding over the concerns of that house as beneficial to them as it can be convenient to you.  For your sake, my dear Mrs. Norton, I hope they will make you this offer.  And if they do, I hope you will accept it for theirs.

She remembers herself to her foster-brother in a very kind manner; and charges her, for his sake, that she will not take too much to heart what has befallen her.

She concludes as follows: 

Remember me, in the last place, to all my kind well-wishers of your acquaintance; and to those I used to call My Poor.  They will be God’s poor, if they trust in Him.  I have taken such care, that I hope they will not be losers by my death.  Bid them, therefore, rejoice; and do you also, my reverend comforter and sustainer, (as well in my darker as in my fairer days,) likewise rejoice, that I am so soon delivered from the evils that were before me; and that I am now, when this comes to your hands, as I humbly trust, exulting in the mercies of a gracious God, who has conducted an end to all my temptations and distresses; and who, I most humbly trust, will, in his own good time, give us a joyful meeting in the regions of eternal blessedness.

LETTER XXX

Colonel Morden [in continuation.] Thursday night, Sept. 14.

We are just returned from the solemnization of the last mournful rite.  My cousin James and his sister, Mr. and Mrs. Hervey, and their daughter, a young lady whose affection for my departed cousin shall ever bind me to her, my cousins John and Antony Harlowe, myself, and some other more distant relations of the names of Fuller and Allinson, (who, to testify their respect to the memory of the dear deceased, had put themselves in mourning,) self-invited, attended it.

The father and mother would have joined in these last honours, had they been able; but they were both very much indisposed; and continue to be so.

The inconsolable mother told Mrs. Norton, that the two mothers of the sweetest child in the world ought not, on this occasion, to be separated.  She therefore desired her to stay with her.

The whole solemnity was performed with great decency and order.  The distance from Harlowe-place to the church is about half a mile.  All the way the corpse was attended by great numbers of people of all conditions.

It was nine when it entered the church; every corner of which was crowded.  Such a profound, such a silent respect did I never see paid at the funeral of princes.  An attentive sadness overspread the face of all.