’We only came down from our rooms to go to church, and directly the beautiful service was over we went upstairs again.  I need not tell you what we then felt, and now do feel.  It is a very dreadful loss to us all; but we have been taught by that dear mother, who has been now taken from us, that it is not fit to grieve for those who die in the Lord, “for they rest from their labours.”  She is now, we may safely trust, a blessed saint in Heaven, far removed from all cares and anxieties; and, instead of spending our time in useless tears and wicked repinings, we should rather learn to imitate her example and virtues, that, when we die, we may sleep in Him as our hope is this our sister doth, and may be finally united with her in Heaven.  Yesterday was a day of great trial to us all:  I felt when I was standing by the grave as if I must have burst.

’Dear Papa bears up beautifully, and is a pattern of submission to us all.  We are much more happy than you could suppose, for, thank God, we are certain she is happy, far happier than she could be on earth.  She said once, “I wonder I wish to leave my dearest John and the children, and this sweet place, but yet I do wish it” so lively was her faith and trust in the merits of her Saviour.’

A deep and permanent impression was left upon the boy’s mind, as will be seen by his frequent references to what he had then witnessed; but for the present he was thought to be less depressed than the others, and recovered his natural tone of spirits sooner than his brother and sisters.  The whole family spent their mournful Christmas at Thorverton Rectory, with Dr. and Mrs. Coleridge and their daughter Fanny, their chief comforters and fellow-sufferers; and then returned to London.  The Judge’s eldest daughter, Joanna, who had always been entirely one with the rest, had to take her place at the head of the household.  In her own words, ’It was trying for a lad of fifteen and a half, but he was very good, and allowed me to take the command in a way that few boys would nave done.’

’It has struck me as remarkable that friends and relations have again and again spoken of different incidents as ‘turning-points’ in Coley’s life.  If he had literally turned at them all, his would have been a most revolving career; but I believe the fact to have been that he never turned at all, for his face was always set the right way, but that each of these was a point of impulse setting him more vigorously on his way, and stirring up his faithful will.  Such moments were those of admission to religious ordinances, to him no dead letters but true receptions of grace; and he likewise found incitements in sorrows, in failures, in reproofs.  Everything sank deeply, and his mind was already assuming the introspective character that it had throughout the period of growth and formation.  One of his Eton companions, four years younger, has since spoken of the remarkable impression of inwardness Patteson made on him even at this time, saying that whenever he was taken by surprise he seemed to be only ruminating till he spoke or was spoken to, and then there was an instant return to the outer world and ready attention to whatever was in hand.