His father was as pleased as a father could be; but fate seemed determined that Zachary Macaulay should not be indulged in any great share of personal happiness.

The next morning the noise of a spinning-jenny, at work in a cottage, startled his horse as he was riding past.

He was thrown, and both arms were broken; and he spent in a sick-room the remainder of the only holiday worth the name which, (as far as can be traced in the family records,) he ever took during his married life.

Owing to this accident the young couple were detained at Rothley into the winter; and the child was baptised in the private chapel which formed part of the house, on the 26th November 1800, by the names of Thomas Babington;--the Rev.Aulay Macaulay, and Mr.and Mrs.
Babington, acting as sponsors.
The two years which followed were passed in a house in Birchin Lane, where the Sierra Leone Company had its office.

The only place where the child could be taken for exercise, and what might be called air, was Drapers' Gardens, which (already under sentence to be covered with bricks and mortar at an early date) lies behind Throgmorton Street, and within a hundred yards of the Stock Exchange.