54 RIVERSIDE LETTERS vn 



since I was six years old. The front garden 

 of the house in Pine Apple Place, Edgware 

 Road, where I was born, was separated 

 from the next-door garden by a light iron 

 railing ; this plant was in our neighbour's 

 garden against this railing, so that we had 

 the benefit of its beauty on our side as well ; 

 yet though we continually broke the tenth 

 commandment as to the flowers, I do not 

 remember that we ever broke the eighth ; 

 this was not so much owing to our moral 

 principles as to the awe with which we 

 regarded our neighbours. They w r ere un- 

 known to us except by name, all of them 

 "grown up," solemn and sedate, not to say 

 grim, in character ; the plants grew in direct 

 view of their parlour window, and it would 

 have been a risky thing to have put our 

 little arms through the railings after the 

 flowers. The first death, I ever recollect, 

 was that of the head of this family next 

 door. The funeral was an awful thing as 

 viewed by us through the slats of the 



