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land, where I have a house upon the edge of the cliff which was 

 once a Coastguard station, and before that, as I understand, a 

 famous resort of smugglers, who used to hide their unlawful 

 treasures in the neighbouring wells. 



As with the best will in the world I cannot follow the details of a 

 farm fifteen miles away, my journal for the next fortnight or so must 

 be somewhat scant. Here my farming is confined to trying to make 

 the grass grow upon an acre and a half of land alongside of the 

 house, which I wish to turn into a 'pightle' or paddock. Having 

 cleaned this soil, I sent a man and horses over from Ditch- 

 ingham on March 23, to sow it with oats and small seed and 

 to dress it with artificial manure. As a matter of fact I find 

 that I should not have attempted these operations for another 

 month, as in this exposed situation the bitter winds of spring, 

 rushing across the ocean, cut and perish the young grasses if they 

 appear too soon. The result is that the expense of the permanent 

 grass seed is, I fear, for the most part wasted. On that side of the 

 pightle which is more or less protected by the house both 

 grass and oats have come up well, helped, no doubt, by the fact 

 that this was garden ground ; but further away they are scanty, 

 and will, I think, have to be re-sown. What are not scanty, 

 although every bit of the land has been forked over, are thistles 

 and young poppies. 



On the day after we came here I heard the result of our election. 

 My fears were more than justified, for Mr. Holmes, whose pre- 

 decessor had a majority of 800, was defeated by a majority of over 

 1,300, and this by a gentleman quite strange to the county. Under 

 all the circumstances, if an angel had appeared as the Unionist 

 candidate for South Norfolk, I do not think that he would have 

 been returned, but it must be admitted that the amount of the 

 adverse vote is absolutely overwhelming. I understand that this 

 vast total is attributed to no small extent to the action of the 

 publicans, who consider that they have some grievance about their 

 assessments, and therefore wreaked it on Mr. Holmes, the Chair- 

 man of the Assessment Committee. Of course, if there is anything 



