134 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



entertained this excellent old squire, that Sayes 

 Court, the property for which I had pleaded, 

 was handed over to the London County 

 Council. 



Coming to live near to his estate, I heard 

 many an anecdote which gave me a greater 

 insight into his character. For some reason 

 or other he was always at war with his 

 vicar. If the sermon was not to the squire's 

 taste, he would publish an antidote in the form 

 of a pamphlet. "I hate petty tyranny," he 

 would say to a friend of mine. " If the people 

 must have a tyrant, 77/ be their tyrant." And 

 he saw to it with a searching legal eye that 

 when he built a new schoolroom no parson 

 should ever be allowed to sit on the committee ! 



Once, so I am told, a labourer was reported 

 to him as having stolen a faggot bundle that 

 fell from the estate's wood-wagon. Im- 

 mediately the old squire went to the labourer's 

 cottage and told the wife that he was extremely 

 sorry that there had been this fuss over a mere 

 bundle of faggots, and that he apologised for 

 any animadversions made on her husband's 

 character by his servants. The amazed woman 

 was then presented with a sovereign. But 

 before the squire left, he, shrewdly divining 



