Of her Joseph John Gurney said at her death in 1836 that she was 'superior in point of talent to any other of my father's eleven children.' It is with the eleventh child, however, that we have mainly to do, for this son, Joseph John Gurney, alone appears in Borrow's pages.

The picture of these eleven Quaker children growing up to their various destinies under the roof of Earlham Hall is an attractive one.

Men and women of all creeds accepted the catholic Quaker's hospitality.

Mrs.Opie and a long list of worthies of the past come before us, and when Mr.Gurney, in 1802, took his six unmarried daughters to the Lakes Old Crome accompanied them as drawing-master.

There is, however, one picture in the story of unforgettable charm, the episode of the courtship of Elizabeth Gurney by Joseph Fry, and this I must quote from Mr.Augustus Hare's pleasant book: Mr.Fry had no intention of exposing himself to the possibility of a refusal.