{27b} Mr. Bray’s marriage made little difference in his habits this year. He was almost every night with his friends at cards or backgammon; in the summer evenings at bowls; frequently at the morning services on week days at the Middle Church. He had very little to do at this time in his profession. {28a} Mr. Lane, of East Horsley Park. {28b} Mr. Evelyn, afterwards Sir John, then M.P. for Helstone, had offered him an appointment at the Board of Green Cloth, which he at first, by the wish of his wife, declined to accept; but a few days afterwards, being better advised, he was glad to find that he could still have it. The following note was among the Memoranda which he left of his early life.—‘Nothing could be pleasanter than our situation at the Board of Green Cloth. The Principals were all members of the House of Commons. We sat in the same room, at the same green cloth table, with them, by whom we were treated rather as associates than as clerks.’ Mr. Bray was at first only an assistant, together with Mr. Selwyn, a barrister, afterwards in large practice; Mr. Blenman, also of the Bar, and Mr. Fanshawe, but they rose to be chief clerks. His usual attendance was from 11 to 3. He took a house in Holles Street, and settled there December 14th, but in the following year he moved to Great Russell Street. {29} This child died in July, {30a} After a Royal birth caudle was given to the Clerks of the Green Cloth and others in office at St. James’s. {30b} Of Bury Hill, now Mr. Barclay’s. {30c} Of the Rookery, now Mr. Fuller’s. His son, Thomas Robert Malthus, was the great writer on Population. His youngest daughter married Mr. Bray’s son Edward. {31} His son Edward, who married Miss Malthus, and left a large family. His other sons died in childhood. Mr. Bray had no collateral relations of his name after the death of his uncle and brothers within many generations. His ancestor, Sir Edward Bray, was the heir male of Edmund, Lord Bray, and succeeded to the family estates; but the title descended to Lord Bray’s daughters, and was in abeyance until obtained by the late Baroness Bray. Mr. Bray was one of the few descendants then living of Sir Thomas More, whose granddaughter, the daughter of Margaret Roper, married Sir Edward Bray. His two daughters, Mary and Catherine, were not married. {32a} He was now getting into the society of literary men. {32b} Afterwards Admiral Brodrick. {32c} He had entered into partnership with his friend Mr. Jenkins, whose chambers were in New Inn. {32d} The Guildford Races were then in May. {32e} Mr. Sturt was a barrister, and a relation of Mr. Bray’s. Mr. Budgen, Mr. Talbot, and Mr. Scawen, were trustees of the charity. {33a} A tour with Mr. Jenkins to Oxford, Bath, Gloucester, Salisbury, Blenheim, Fonthill, Longleat, Chepstow, &c. They hired a carriage and horses for the journey; and, in a rhyming letter to his wife, he writes:—