Eventually under their young brother's auspices the two sisters both married, Jane became the wife of Major Rennell, and Henrietta married Mr. Harris, chief of the Council of Dacca. William Makepeace Thackeray in Calcutta also married about this time. His wife was Amelia Richmond Webb, a daughter of Colonel Richmond Webb, who commanded a company at the battle of Culloden, and lies buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey.* Colonel Webb was a kinsman of the General Webb who appears in "Esmond.” A letter from Colonel Webb to his son still exists, and is characteristic enough to be inserted here: "MY DEAR RICHMOND,-I have received a letter this day, by which I perceive that there is no likelyhood of getting you to the East Indies (in the fair and genteel prospect I would send you) this next year. . . . In the meantime, you have time enough; you may keep at your college, and as I shall be in London I will procure a master to instruct you in arithmetic, that you may not go abroad ignorant of what every man must know, and every mechanic does know. You shall be taught under my eye, and will not have it to learn among little boys when you go abroad, but be immediately able to enter on merchant's accounts. As to the Church, it does not seem to be your choice, and therefore I'll not name it. "If the two new pair of shoes and two new pair pumps are not made, forbid them, and only bespeak one pair of each; which will serve you to wear in college. Pray, are your new clothes made? Write me word by return of post. . . . "I do not doubt of your readiness to acquiesce in whatever I propose, that you will make a figure in whatever way of life fortune shall put you in. I am convinced that you will conduct * His name is recorded on a tablet on the cloister wall. The inscription on the gravestone below has been worn away by the steps of the congregations passing into the Abbey, but the tablet has been restored quite lately by one of the family of the Moores: it records Colonel Webb's virtues in the language of the day, and tells of the death of his wife Sarah Webb, who could not long survive her loss. yourself with honour and good, and keep clear of vice and idleness, these rocks which so many youths split upon; and for my part, if Heaven spares my life, I will do my utmost to protect, encourage, and support you in anything that's praiseworthy. "Be honest and good, you have a good stock of learning which I hope you won't neglect. Make yourself master of your pen and your sword, and you will be enabled to serve your king, country, yourself and friends, and there's nothing that you, who are born a gentleman and educated like one, may not pretend to. ... "I must now busy myself with putting all your sisters out, and Mama and you and I spend the winter in London.—Adieu, my dear boy. R. WEBB." The younger Richmond subsequently entered the army and was killed in the American War. Apparently the poor Webb sisters were all "put out,” as their father says, and shipped off to India. Three of them married there. Amelia met Mr. Thackeray at Calcutta, at the age of seventeen. Another, Augusta, became Mrs. Evans; a third, Sarah, married Mr. Peter Moore. On the unmarried daughter, Charlotte, some sad tragedy seems to have fallen; although her start in life was happy. After the Thackerays' departure for England she made her home with Mrs. Moore. One of this lively lady's letters describing her sister's adventures has been preserved, and reads like a page out of "Evelina" or "Cecilia." From MRS. MOORE in Calcutta to MRS. THACKERAY "The day following Dr. Williams being discarded as a lover came Mr. Wodsworth, who had teased us with his company almost incessantly for some time before. He took Mr. Moore aside and declared a most violent love for Charlotte, entreating that P. M. should give him his interest. Mr. Moore replied with great coolness that she was at her own disposal, and that he did not mean to interfere. Mr. Wodsworth then came to me and told me that Mr. Moore had something to say to me. I accordingly went out, and was a little astonished at Wodsworth's as |