Ml. 5.] CHILDHOOD. 11 



the barking of a little dog which fronted me : whence possibly 

 my subsequent want of affection for the species. 



This school being found too near home, I was sent to one on 

 Forest Hill. Again the fairs on Peckham Eye and Camberwell 

 Green are the objects which cling most to my recollection. We 

 were, I think, treated kindly, though our fare was at times 

 somewhat hard. On Saturdays, the servants being much occu- 

 pied, the ordinary dinner was replaced by a more simple meal 

 of bread and cheese, the bread being not unfrequently speckled 

 green. Our playground was a field on the top of a hill of bare 

 London clay. I then had a small garden in which I dug what 

 I was pleased to consider a well, London clay being water- 

 tight. I had the satisfaction of frequently having it full of 

 water. How little I thought then how much I should sub- 

 sequently be connected with the structure and geological history 

 of that formation. When the field was too wet we were allotted 

 200 to 300 yards of the public road which ran in front of the 

 house for our playground, and occasionally levied small black- 

 mail on the few passers-by. 



In the meantime our family had removed from Lavender 

 Hill to " The Eetreat," South Lambeth. It was a three- storey ed 

 house surrounded by a parapet wall. A favourite amusement 

 was to walk all round the wall followed by the most fearless 

 of my sisters, but the amusement not being considered safe, it 

 was stopped. I was now sent to a day-school adjoining, where 

 I fear my book studies progressed no more rapidly than before. 

 Nature had more attractions for me. With my sisters we used 

 to walk along the Wandsworth Koad as far as Lavender Hill, 

 and I well remember the interest with which I noticed two 

 springs which then existed on that road. One was on Eush 

 Hill, where it broke out from beneath a bed of gravel lying 

 on the London clay. The other was at a lower level, and at 

 the base of the gravel covering Battersea Fields. How well 

 I remember wondering where the water came from : it was a 

 mystery. These springs have long since disappeared from sight, 

 for the road is no longer the quiet country road it was then, 

 with only an occasional vehicle passing, but had been, when I 

 last saw it, transformed into the resemblance of the Whitechapel 

 Eoad, paved and street-like. 



