56 NATURAL HISTORY OF NUNBURNHOLME. 



But to come somewhat nearer home, to shew, as I have already men- 

 tioned, how desirably situated the Rectory of Nunburnholme was and is 

 for me, and how that in the words of Sir Walter Scott, in the preface 

 to "Mannion," speaking of his then residence at Ashestiel, "according to 

 the heartfelt phrase of Scripture, we 'dwelt among our own people/ and 

 as the distance from the metropolis was only thirty miles, we were not out 

 of reach of our friends." 



My grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Morris, lived at York, ! and 

 some of my oldest and most pleasant remembrances are associated with 

 the ancient city, which is only some sixteen miles from me on one side, 

 with a railway all the way from our station a mile and a quarter off. In 

 another direction I am only some two dozen miles from Burlington Quay, 

 with a railway for half the distance, where reside my mother, brother, 

 and two sisters. In another, fifteen from Hutton, near Malton, where 

 lies my principal landed property — not so large as I could wish. In yet 

 another, thirty-six miles, by railway all the way, from Ripon, in the 

 West Riding, where I have a married sister living, (as was another in 

 the opposite direction, at Hull, but since removed,) in which division of the 

 county an uncle, Commander Amherst Morris, R.N., formerly lived at 

 Baildon, near Bingley. So again, first cousins, and first cousins once 

 removed, near Thirsk and Bedale, in the North Riding. And, lastly, 

 about thirteen miles from Beverley, the county town of the East Riding, 

 with a railway for the first four miles, where lie the remains, in the 

 Minster churchyard, of my father, the late Rear Admiral Henry Gage 

 Morris, R. N. 



I happened to attend the last sessions but one at Beverley, and took 

 the opportunity of walking down to visit my poor father's grave. There 

 was already a person, a stranger to me in the churchyard, and to my 

 somewhat surprise he was standing on my father's tomb. I went there 

 myself, but made no remark: after a while he said, "Ah sir, this was 

 a most remarkable funeral!" I did not enlighten him as to who I was, 

 and asked for an explanation, though I knew beforehand what be would 

 say. "Sir," he said, "the gentleman who lies here was borne to the 

 grave by his own six sons!" I then said, "I know it — I was one of them, 

 the eldest." Forgive, good reader, the tributary memorial. 



But now to proceed to the matter in hand. It is, I believe, generally 

 considered to be the fact, and is indeed no doubt the fact, that the 

 ownership of any land extends downwards as far as the centre of the earth. 

 That is to say, that you have a right to dig and to delve as you please 

 to that depth, in search of buried treasures or the Philosopher's Stone. 

 By parity of reasoning I conceive that you have a right to all that is 

 above you, as far as you can go to claim it, or can reach by the help 



