I have been taking a domestic walk with the three children and the pony to Owen's favourite cavern, Mary and Arthur taking it in turns to ride. Arthur was sorely puzzled between his fear and his curiosity. Owen and Mary, full of adventurous spirit, went with Mademoiselle to explore. Arthur stayed with me and the pony, but when I said I would go, he said, colouring, he would go, he _thought_. "But, mamma, do you think there are any wild dogs in the cavern?" Then we picked up various specimens of cobalt, &c., and we carried them in a basket, and we called at Mrs. Barber's, and we got some string, and we tied the basket to the pony with some trouble, and we got home very safe, and I finished the delights of the evening by reading _Paul and Virginia_ to Owen and Mary, with which they were much delighted and so was I. You would have given a good deal for a peep at Arthur this evening, making hay with all his little strength--such a beautiful colour, and such soft animation in his blue eyes. Among the letters of Mrs. Stanley is one that has more than a local or domestic interest. She was one of the spectators on the occasion of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway on that memorable 15th September, 1830, when the Duke of Wellington, who was then Prime Minister, came down to preside at the ceremony, and poor William Huskisson, who had been such a strenuous and eager supporter of the enterprise, met his death. After a vivid account of the scene and the incident that gave such a mournful interest to it, she describes a visit she made a year or two after to High Legh. She says:-- We are a party of twenty-six in the house. There are so many that one's presence or absence is perfectly immaterial and unremarked. There is one person who interests me very much--Mrs. Tom Blackburne, "the Vicaress" of Eccles, who received poor Mrs. Huskisson, and immortalised herself by her activity, sense, and conduct all through. She made one ashamed of the ease and idleness of one's own life, compared with hers. They have to deal with such a population--25,000 souls. She has been the ruling spirit evidently; and under her guidance, and the help of a sound head and heart her husband has become the very man for the place, with quickness and presence of mind for any sudden emergency: and she describes the people--all Manchester weavers--as grateful and sensitive, far beyond our agricultural experience. He is in general at home to parishioners from 8 till 12 and from 4 to 6 every day, and often fully occupied all the time; but during the four days Mrs. Huskisson was in the house, none of them entered the gates. She asked afterwards why it was, and one of them said, "Eh, we knowed what you were at, and so we did without."