My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

8 MY LIFEAs a result of this series of misfortunes the childrenwho reached their majority had little or nothing tostart with in earning their own living, except a veryordinary education, and a more or less efficient training.The eldest son, William, was first articled to a firm ofsurveyors at Kington, Herefordshire, probably duringthe time we resided at Usk. He then spent a yearor two in the office of an architect at Hertford, andfinally a year in London with a large builder namedMartin then engaged in the erection of King's College,in order to became familiar with the practical detailsHe may be said, therefore, to have hadof building.a really good professional education. At first he gotinto general land-surveying work, which was at thattime rather abundant, owing to the surveys andvaluations required for carrying out the Commutationof Tithes Act of 1836, and also for the enclosures ofcommons which were then very frequent. During thetime I was with him we were largely engaged in thiskind of work in various parts of England and Wales,as will be seen later on ; but the payment for suchwork was by no means liberal, and owing to thefrequent periods of idleness between one job andanother, it was about as much as my brother coulddo to earn our living and travelling expenses.About the time I went to live with my brother(1837) ^y sister Fanny entered a French school atLille to learn the language and to teach English, andI think she was a year there. On her return shestarted the school at Hoddesdon, but after my father'sdeath in 1843, she obtained a position as a teacherin Columbia College, Georgia, U.S.A., then justestablished under the Bishop of Georgia; and sheonly returned after my brother William's death in1846, when the surviving members of the family in