[We are also indebted to S. WMSON, F. CROSSLEY, E. H., R. S. S., and J.
SS. for similar replies. See Burns' _Works_, edit. 1800, vol. iv. p.
399., and edit. Glasgow, 1843, vol. i. p. 113.]
_Children by one Mother_ (Vol. v., p. 126.).--In reply to the Query, "If
there be any well-authenticated instance of a woman having had more than
twenty-five children," I can furnish you with what I firmly believe to be
such an instance. The narrator was a relative of my late wife, a man of the
very highest character in the City of London for many years, and formerly
clerk to the London Bridge (Old) Water Works, a mark by which he may
possibly be recognised by some of your readers. I have heard him relate,
that once, as he was travelling into Essex, he met with a very respectable
woman, apparently a farmer's wife, who during the journey several times
expressed an anxious desire to reach home, which induced my informant at
length to inquire the cause of so great an anxiety. Her reply was, "Indeed,
Sir, if you knew, you would not wonder at it." When, upon his jocularly
saying, "Surely she could have no cause for so much desire to reach home,"
she said farther, that "The number of her children was the cause, for that
she had _thirty_ children, it having pleased God to give to her and her
husband fifteen boys; and because they were much dissatisfied at having no
girl, in order to punish their murmuring and discontent, He was pleased
farther to send them fifteen girls."