At the time of the fire at Percy-hall, a painted glass window in the
passage--we should say the gallery--leading to the study had been
destroyed.--Old Martha, whose life Caroline had saved, had a son, who
possessed some talents as a painter, and who had learnt the art of painting
on glass. He had been early in his life assisted by the Percy family,
and, desirous to offer some small testimony of his gratitude, he begged
permission to paint a new window for the gallery.--He chose for his subject
the fire, and the moment when Caroline was assisting his decrepit mother
down the dangerous staircase.--The painting was finished unknown to
Caroline, and put up on her birthday, when she had just attained her
eighteenth year. This was the only circumstance worth recording which the
biographer can find noted in the family annals at this period. In this
dearth of events, may we take the liberty of introducing, according to
the fashion of modern biography, a few private letters? They are written
by persons of whom the reader as yet knows nothing--Mr. Percy's second
and third sons, Alfred and Erasmus. Alfred was a barrister; Erasmus a
physician: they were both at this time in London, just commencing their
professional career. Their characters--but let their characters speak
for themselves in their letters, else neither their letters nor their
characters can be worth attention.


ALFRED PERCY TO HIS FATHER.

"MY DEAR FATHER,

"Thank you for the books--I have been reading hard lately, for I have
still, alas! leisure enough to read. I cannot expect to be employed, or to