76 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



that some young squirrels ran np his back and legs, while 

 their mother barked at them in an agony from the tree. 

 He always found birds' nests even up to the last years of 

 his life, and we, as children, considered that he had a special 

 genius in this direction. In his quiet prowls he came across 

 the less common birds, but I fancy he used to conceal it 

 from me as a little boy, because he observed the agony of 

 mind which I endured at not having seen the siskin or 

 goldfinch, or some other of the less common birds. He 

 used to tell us how, when he was creeping noiselessly along 

 in the " Big- Woods," he came upon a fox asleep in the day- 

 time, which was so much astonished that it took a good 

 stare at him before it ran off. A Spitz dog which accom- 

 panied him showed no sign of excitement at the fox, and 

 he used to end the story by wondering how the dog could 

 have been so faint-hearted. 



Another favourite place was " Orchis Bank," above the 

 quiet Cudham valley, where fly- and musk-orchis grew 

 among the junipers, and Cephalanthera and Xeottia under 

 the beech boughs ; the little wood " Hangrove," just above 

 this, he was also fond of, and here I remember his collect- 

 ing grasses, when he took a fancy to make out the names 

 of all the common kinds. He was fond of quoting the say- 

 ing of one of his little boys, who, having found a grass that 

 his father had not seen before, had it laid by his own plate 

 during dinner, remarking, " I are an extraordinary grass- 

 finder ! " 



My father much enjoyed wandering idly in the garden 

 with my mother or some of his children, or making one of 

 a party, sitting on a bench on the lawn ; he generally sat, 

 however, on the grass, and I remember him often lying 

 under one of the big lime-trees, with his head on the green 

 mound at its foot. In dry summer weather, when we often 

 sat out, the fly-wheel of the well was commonly heard spin- 

 ning round, and so the sound became associated with those 

 pleasant days. He used to like to watch us playing at lawn- 

 tennis, and often knocked up a stray ball for us with the 

 curved handle of his stick. 



Though he took no personal share in the management 

 of the garden, he had great delight in the beauty of flowers 

 for instance, in the mass of Azaleas which generally stood 

 in the drawing-room. I think he sometimes fused together 

 his admiration of the structure of a flower and of its intrinsic 

 beauty ; for instance, in the case of the big pendulous pink 



