His epitaph says--"His life was blameless. His death was the first sorrow
he ever occasioned his parents, but it was deep and lasting." On the 29th
of April his father wrote--"Time and the necessary exertions of life will
restore me;" but four months later the note is changed.--
"I never suspected how children weave themselves about the heart. My
son had that quality which is longest remembered by those who remain
behind--a deep and earnest affection and respect for his parents. God
save you from similar distress!"
And again:--
"I did not know I had cared so much for anybody; but the habit of
providing for human beings, and watching over them for so many years,
generates a fund of affection, of the magnitude of which I was not
aware"
Sixteen years later, when he lay dying and half-conscious, the cry
"Douglas, Douglas!" was constantly on his lips.
The prebendal stall at Bristol carried with it the incumbency of Halberton,
near Tiverton; and Sydney Smith exchanged the living of Foston for that of
Combe Florey in Somerset, which could be held conjointly with Halberton. On
the 14th of July 1829 he wrote from the "Sacred Valley of Flowers," as he
loved to call it:--
"I am extremely pleased with Combe Florey, and pronounce it to be a
very pretty place in a very beautiful country. The house I shall make
decently convenient.
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